When God's Against Us - Part II

I thought I'd follow up on another post about this subject. I remember a journal entry I have about couple of months ago, in the essence that God does not intentionally afflict. We have been conditioned to think that as soon as a crisis come in our lives God must be against us. I would like to dispute that thought today. I don't want my other post on this to be misunderstood; as if God is out to get us. My intent on that post is to show what we need to do when things go wrong in our lives. We need to go and talk to the Lord; find out what's going on. Is He really against us? Or is He actually seeing the path we're heading and is trying to get our attention before we are completely lost? Or maybe in truth He sees our struggle and is trying to reach out to us to help us? Whatever the reason, we need to find out first from Him what's going on, before we come to the conclusion that He's against us and is "punishing" us. I want us to see that today; that God is good and He does not willingly afflict.

There is only one reason I can find that He will intentionally be against you, and that is if you intentionally rebel against Him. When He has talked to you and let you know His desire but you are defiant against Him and hate Him and want absolutely nothing to do with Him anyway - and is going around hurting people; then watch out. Us going around hating and hurting people are one of His pet peeves. He will not let that go. He is just and He is merciful so He will avenge those that you hurt. But even then, even how horrid you might be, (think of king Manasseh in the Old Testament), if you repent and turn from your wickedness, He will abundantly pardon. And yes, He is slow to anger too and of a great mercy; so when you think the other person should've been "punished" already and seems to be getting away with murder, be patient. The Lord could be working on him and is waiting for him to turn around.

That being said, let's move on to our study.

So today, I want to go the famous sufferer of all in the history of mankind, (besides Jesus Christ), Job himself. We all know Job. He didn't know why he was suffering and he wanted to know what he had done wrong. Here were his complaints:

33:9 I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me.

33:10 Behold, He findeth occasions against me, he counteth me for His enemy.

33:11 He putteth my feet in the stocks, He marketh all my paths.

34:5 For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment.

Some of you might feel like Job. You feel like God is against you. And you might even think you've done nothing wrong; that you are actually doing everything right. Well, read on.

Here is Elihu's understanding of God: (Elihu is the fourth person in the room after all the other three friends of Job had gone accusing him of sin in his life - the reason of his sufferings. Elihu was actually there - the youngest out of all four of them. It turns out he understood God more that they all did.)

34:10 Therefore hearken unto me, ye men of understanding: far be it from God, that He should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that He should commit iniquity.

34:11 For the work of a man shall He render unto him and cause every man to find according to his ways.

34:12 Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment.

34:13 Who hath given Him a charge over the earth? Or who hath disposed the whole world?

34:17 Shall even he that hateth right govern? And wilt thou condemn Him that is most just?

34:19 How much less to Him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? For they all are the work of His hands.

And here is Job's conclusion about God, after he had seen Him:

42:2 I know that Thou canst do everything and that no thought can be withholden from Thee.

42:3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.

42:5 I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee.

42:6 Wherefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.

You know, ever since we came to the knowledge of the book of Job, we all like to come to the same conclusion that Job did: God afflicts. How come we never, so few of us anyway, come to the same conclusion that Elihu did? God does not afflict. He doesn't go around afflicting people as if He delights in afflicting them. How come we forget that it's the devil that afflicted Job? Not God.

And then we also think right away, "I have all these problems, ugh, I feel like Job, God is allowing the devil to afflict me. It must be. What else is the reason?" As if we are an extra-ordinary person like Job was, and God is singling us out. Or the other extreme I've heard, "Well, I am a sinner and a horrible person, God is right to be afflicting me. I must bear it like Job."

No offense, but this is rather arrogant don't you think? As if we're better than Job? We are going to take "these troubles" as God's punishments against us and we will bear this up as patiently as Job did?

Well, Job wasn’t really patient about it actually. Job complained. You see how he was saying, "I am righteous…I didn't do anything wrong…Why does He treat me like I'm His enemy? What did I do wrong?" In essence, I don't deserve this at all!

That's not being patient is it? That sounds like someone complaining to me. (And rightly so, Job was righteous. He was right. He did nothing wrong.)

But we read the book of Job and come away with the conclusion that we mustn't complain when we're afflicted. And the real sad part: that God afflicts. Or at least lets the devil afflict us. Which at the end of the day ends up to be the same thing: God afflicts us. We forget about the devil altogether and we end up believing God is afflicting us or punishing us, for sure. Yep, there's the devil rejoicing away that the people of God who supposedly love Him and believe in His goodness are now thinking evil of Him.

What? We say we're not thinking evil of God when we conclude He's the one punishing us and afflicting us?

Sure we do. That is thinking evil of God. We are accusing Him of doing something He hasn't done. That's the problem, we completely forget what Elihu told Job:

"Touching the Almighty, we cannot find Him out: He is excellent in power and in judgment and in plenty of justice: He will not afflict." {Job 37:23} 

We all assume right away God is afflicting us and is punishing us when things go wrong. This thought is so ingrained in us.

(We even like to think that about others who are suffering. "Hm, I wonder what he or she done?")

That is wrong! We must be very sure it is God before we go concluding He is the one afflicting.

Here's another thing Elihu said:

"Behold, God is mighty and despiseth not any: He is mighty in strength and wisdom." {Job 36:5}

He just doesn't go around delighting in afflicting people - even if they've done something wrong. He is very merciful. "He despiseth not any…" He gives us a word to correct us first, to make us repent and to turn away from what we're doing wrong. He just doesn't drop the bomb on us. He sends us His word. He prompts us in our spirits to turn away from wickedness.

He sent Jonah to the land of Nineveh to encourage them to turn away from wickedness, because they didn't know that what they were doing were wrong; before He sent judgment against them. Lot went to his children and told them what's going on and that God is about to burn the place. The angels of the Lord told him to do it. He urged them to come away with him. But all they did was laugh at him. The children of Israel sent messengers first to the land of Benjamin and asked for the elders of the land to turn the wicked men who committed whoredom. They were only going to punish the wicked men alone. They didn't go and slay everyone without warning. Why then, would God "punish us" and "afflict us" without warning us first? Especially if we are His children who confess to love Him? Are we better than God?

We can ask and say, "Lord God, why am I going through this? What did I do that's wrong or merit this afflictions?" Rather than say, "God, why are You letting these sorrows and troubles happen to me in my life?" You could be very well be wrong. The scripture states, "He makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends the rain on the just and on the unjust." {Matthew 5:45} He treats everyone alike according to his or her works and is very merciful.

It could be the reason you are sick is you don't take care of yourself. Or the reason your car died when you're running late for work is because you haven't taken care of your car. Or your children are rebellious and unruly because you've indulged them and given in to everything and never corrected them. (Or the opposite extreme, you were too hard on them and did not show mercy). Is that God's fault? Why blame God? Maybe we need to look at ourselves first before we point fingers on God.

Man since Job's time, has learned to blame God instead of learning what Job did; ask for an answer. So what if he found out he was wrong and had to repent; God showed up didn't He? So what if God didn't "exactly" give him the answer he was looking for? Why should that stop us? God showed up - that was Job's answer. He saw how right Elihu was - God is holy, God is righteous, God is perfect, God will never fail in His judgment.

So ask. Don't just accept your afflictions. Or you’ll never see God.

Just seeing God was Job's answer. That's why God didn't have to explain to Job why. Furthermore, God gave him a discourse on how He does things in nature. All showing His greatness and how truly wonderful He is.

Now, don't get me wrong; don't think God doesn't send correction and send afflictions to correct us. He does. But don't take it lying down when it doesn’t make any sense. And don't come to conclusion either and quickly say, It's God. But if you know exactly why, for example He's been warning you about a sin, then comes the affliction? Well then, you know what’s going on.  He wants us to repent and make it right with Him. There’s no sense in making it harder for us by running away and hardening our hearts to Him. The sooner we repent and make it right with the Lord, the sooner He will make it well for us. And He will bless us because He is a very good God and delights in blessing His people who obey Him.

We have to be careful of our thoughts regarding God. We must always ascribe righteousness to God. He is holy and good. It is not His pleasure to see us suffer every turn we go. He came to die for us so we can have life abundantly and give us peace.

The Lord would send His prophets to warn the children of Israel from doing wickedly - to preach to them to repent, again and again, before He sends correction. And when they cried out to Him He is very merciful to them and saves them.

"But though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. To crush under His feet all the prisoners of the earth, to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not." {Lamentations 3:32-36}

We, who are humans and faulty, know how to show mercy and patience to our children, how much more God who is very loving and tender-hearted? He will not afflict willingly. We are created in His image; which means He has feelings too like we do. If we don't like being accused of wrongdoing, neither does He. We should first find out from Him what's going on before we accuse Him of being against us. 

"But let him that glorieth glory in this: that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the LORD who exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the LORD." {Jeremiah 9:24}

Come Boldly

I'm hearing about these thoughts lately from some people: Who are we to demand from God? And tell Him what we want and expect Him to do as we asked? He knows better than we do. We should just leave it in His hands.

Well, that's almost like saying, Why pray? He'll take care of it. He knows what we need.

But the Lord Jesus said to ask. Didn't He say, "Ask and it shall be given unto you?" And another scripture, "You have not, because you asked not." And another by apostle Paul in Philippians 4:6, "Be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."

Sure, Paul doesn't want us worrying about our problems but he definitely saw the need for us to ask.

I get this thing that we shouldn't dictate how God should fix things. Sure. But nevertheless we should ask; we need to ask…He wants us to. And furthermore I'm not averse at all about demanding from God (for lack of words) or being forceful about our desire with what we want done! Yes! Absolutely! We can surely tell God what we want and even to the minutest details. We are not dictating how He should fix things; we are telling Him our desires. And why should that be wrong? If we are His Bride and He is our Bridegroom why should we tippy-toe around Him about what we desire? Let Him decide what will be done. That is His prerogative. Yes, He knows best, in everything. Definitely. But that doesn't mean we can't tell Him how we feel and what we would like to happen. Again, even to the littlest details.

If we are to read the book of Psalm, there are a lot of pretty bold prayers in there!

"O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure. Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies laugh among themselves. Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved." {Psalm 80:4-6}

"…how long wilt Thou be angry against the prayer of Thy people?"

Imagine? That's basically saying, "God, why are you angry at us? Why are you not hearing our prayers?"

And another, "You're giving us tears to drink in great measure..." I mean, talk about bold prayers! Telling God what He's doing wrong!

Shocking, isn't it? But it's really simple. When you are upset…when you are in the throes of despair, you  need to voice out how you feel! You can't beat around the bush about it. You want God to see what is wrong! You need Him. You're desperate, He must come! He is your God who cares and understands. And when you have a relationship with Him and you know where you stand with Him, you can definitely be bold with your prayers - as a child to his father who knows that he is loved.

Here's one from king David:

O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set Thee before them.

But Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.

O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give Thy strength unto Thy servant, and save the son of Thine handmaid.

Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because Thou, Lord, hast holpen me, and comforted me. {Psalm 86:14-17}

King David tells it like it is. "There are proud and violent people out there, Lord God, that's after my soul. I know that You are a God full of compassion, gracious and merciful. Have mercy upon me! Give me strength! Save me! Show me something good that those that hate me may see it and be ashamed! Because they will see that You have helped me and comforted me."

I mean, talk about confidence; one who knows God and knows he is loved by Him. David wasn't ashamed to ask that his enemies will be ashamed of themselves, wasn't he? I mean, that's what he wants. And you know what, we can't hide anything from God. Even if we don't ask it, He knows the intent of our hearts. So, we might as well tell Him like it is.

Here's one from Asaph:

O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme Thy name for ever? Why withdrawest Thou Thy hand, even Thy right hand? Pluck it out of Thy bosom. {Psalm 74:10-12}

"Why withdraw-est Thou Thy hand, even Thy right hand? Pluck it out of Thy bosom."

"Pluck it out of Thy bosom."

See, that prayer? It's basically saying, "God help! It's not time to be relaxing! I need You to come and help!"

Here's a famous one, that Jesus Christ Himself prayed, while hanging at the cross:

My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Why art Thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not; and in the night season and am not silent." {Psalm 22:1-2}

You get what I mean. I mean, be confident, be bold, tell God how you feel.

These are prayers said from people that knew God - had a relationship with God. They were the people of God. They talked about Him, seen His powers, and felt His glory. They knew who He was. They made these bold prayers and weren't afraid of it.

How much more then, should we be bold today with ours, now that Jesus Christ has come to become our intercessor to God, and has died for our sins, and is our Bridegroom? How much more then should we tell Him exactly how we feel and how we would like it to happen?

Let Him decide what is best for us…definitely we will tell Him, "Lord do what is best in Your eyes, for You know the truth and the future and what will be good for me." But nevertheless we can boldly say, "But Lord Jesus, this is what I wish - what I desire - please if it's good with You, grant it; and let Your name be glorified in my life."

Be confident. Know that you are very much loved. There is nothing that He will not do for you that is good in His eyes.

"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." {Hebrews 4:16}

When God's Against Us

"The LORD hath chastened me sore: but He hath not given me over unto death." 
{Psalm 118:18}

How awful is it when God is the one against us? It's one thing if it's someone else that's against us; our friend, a co-worker, a loved-one, or even someone we can't stand. We can go to God and find Him and get His comfort and help. But when we feel it's Him that's against us? Well, how awful! It's like death! It can't get any worse!

And then, if we are known to be the one to proclaim His goodness and His mercies - and praise His name, how awful is it when one aggravation after another aggravation come against us from every corner?

Are we going to get angry with God like Job did and say, What have you against me? I didn't do anything wrong! Or are we going to give up on God and say, No more! This is it! I'm doing it my way and am not serving You anymore!

Far be it! Don't do that! But I would do what Job did and say with a humble heart, "Okay, Lord God, what have I done? Please show me. Why are all these terrible things happening to me in my life? Open my eyes. Please show me if there's anything I'm doing wrong or supposed to do? Please show me."

It could be, as His people, we have turned against the Lord and have sinned against Him. We could have been rebellious and haven't been listening to the Lord. If that is the case with us, we might as well swallow our pride and acknowledge God's righteousness. We can't keep fighting Him and insisting what we want. It's never going to work! We are never going to win. The sooner we acknowledge our rebellious tendencies before Him, the sooner we will find His mercies and grace! And He will ease up on those afflictions and trials. He will gladly show us how to return back to Him and please Him again. His desire is to help us, not make serving Him hard on us but easy. The Bible states His yoke is easy and His burden is light. If you've been feeling overwhelmed about serving the Lord, something's wrong. We need to talk to Him about it. He is not a tyrant. He is a loving and compassionate Master - we just need to talk to Him about it.

I know serving God can sometimes become overwhelming and miserable. And we often think it's normal…"This is how it's supposed to be." We have a secular job we go to everyday, then a household to run, then on top of it church services to attend and the demands of our pastors and ministers. At the end of the day we feel exhausted and resentful. Then we reproach ourselves for feeling this way. And we know we have to pray. But who feels like praying now?

Something has got to give and prayer can't be one of them. Give everything else up - cooking, cleaning, going to church; but never prayer! Without it you are going to be lost…You are going to sink! You are going to be a ship without a rudder or direction. You need prayer!

Talk to the Lord. I don't care where it is. In your car - away from everyone that can see you or hear you - and just talk. Tell the Lord exactly what's eating you up - your life - your housework - your husband - your children - your work - church! Whatever they are - talk to Him. Complain. Yes, complain! King David did. How do you think He got himself encouraged in the Lord? He "complained" to God his troubles. Look what king David said here:

"I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before Him; I showed before Him my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then Thou knew(est) my path…" {Psalm 142:1-3}

The Lord cannot help us if we do not tell Him what's bothering us. And yes, even church work! It could be that that wasn't even His idea for you. It might have been your own or you forgot to check with Him whether you should agree to that role your pastor or your minister asked you to take. Just because it was your "elder" or pastor or minister that asked you doesn't mean it's from God. We must check with Him at all times what He thinks. It is His work after all.

And maybe you're not even supposed to work a secular job. Maybe your heart is really to staying home and taking care of your children but you are pressured about money! Talk to the Lord about it. He could easily show you another way to bringing in income without you ever stepping foot outside your house! He has many resources - the Lord. Trust Him to bring them to you. Do not settle. Tell Him what you desire. But you must hang on and trust Him every step of the way. It might not happen overnight, but He will show you.

When God wants us, and wants our attention, He will get it. He knows how. And so, let's not harden our hearts against Him. Because at the very bottom of it is His love for us. He wants to save us and spare us from things we do not see ahead. He alone knows. We must trust Him.

And let us not get into "God-hating" - "tantrums" scenarios - which I'm sure we all fall prey to. Oh, God, why are you doing this?! God! Why do you hate me?! What have I done?! Why are things so wrong in my life?!

Forget it - you're not ever going to get anywhere with that. I've been there - done that. I just end up worse and even more depressed.

The only way out is to come to Him and seriously ask His help. And with an open mind say, "Jesus, please show me what to do. Please, Savior if I have done anything displeasing before you, please forgive me and bring me back to you. Please help me."

Your life's mess may not unravel overnight; but I guarantee you it will. God has been trying to get your attention because He can see something in the future that you cannot see. He loves you. He loves us. And He wants what's best for us.

So next time when it feels like God seems against us, just talk to Him. He is trying to get your attention.

Be Still

Sometimes we go in a quandary trying to figure God out; how He can hear us and understand us. Sometimes we just need to be still and know that He is God and that He can do anything. A child doesn't wonder at all if his father or mother will understand him or hear him if he voices out his needs, he just voices them out. He doesn't worry how they're going to give him food or provide for him, he just knows they will. That's exactly how we should be. God made us and created us, we are His children. He knows too well how to understand us and how to take care of us; we just need to talk to Him and let Him know what we desire. 

Dealing With Anger

“He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly: and a man of wicked devices is hated.” {Proverbs 14:17}

“He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.” {Proverbs 14:29}

“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” {Proverbs 16:32}

Being patient is a real virtue – being long suffering and being slow to anger. It’s not easy to be slow to anger and to be long suffering – especially in our day in age where we have microwaves to quickly reheat our meals, drive-thru restaurants to get our food, and we drive 65-70 miles per hour to get to our destination. In addition, any knowledge or information we need can be retrieved by a quick press of our fingertips. Still, being slow to anger is a great thing to aspire for – a great virtue we are so lacking in our times.

First off, it will keep us from a lot of trouble, if we are less easily angry and have more patience. How often do you ever stay up late for not saying something drastic and mean? But when you do, because you got quickly annoyed, how many times have you wished you kept your mouth shut? Even to this day I still find myself cringing over some of the stuff I have said years ago. I actually sometimes find myself asking God to erase it from the other person’s memory and to comfort them. I pray too that He will take it away from me and not let them haunt me anymore. No, you never feel too bad about not saying anything at all; but you definitely feel worse when you do.

Secondly, we will save ourselves from hypertension and all kinds of illnesses if we suffer long and not entertain anger. Anger causes stress and depression. If we don’t forgive and let things go easily because we are angry, that will surely work into our health and kill us.

And lastly, anger causes sin. Being angry will cause us to think and say things that we shouldn’t and can create animosity against someone we are angry with. It will create bad feelings and can ruin friendships. There have been arguments and misunderstandings that have solely been created because one got easily angry.

And then, as a saint of God, where do we turn? How can we do righteous acts freely when we in our hearts hate our brother or sister? We cannot deceive the Lord.

What’s the solution?

We need to talk to the Lord about it. Ask Him for help. Get Him involved. Once you have Him involved you can rest assured that the next time you get angry or fail to do what is good and right, you know you are not alone. You don’t have to carry all that guilt all on your own. You can hand it to the Lord.

An interesting thing I’ve observed though with the Lord, once He is involved is I seem to find myself in a worse scenario than I have ever done before. It seems the Lord is showing me how bad my temper is and is making me aware of it even more so now than I ever thought of. It might seem like the opposite effect is happening – I’m finding myself angrier than I ever did before when it’s the very thing I did not want to do. It’s very simple really; the Lord is making me more aware of my anger issue – making me more sensitive. You just didn’t realize how often you get angry. But now you see it. And what’s more, you’re becoming more sensitive to it, so that even a little scenario seems big to you. Why? It’s simple – so you don’t want it to do it anymore. So you know exactly what specific issues in your anger to cry to the Lord for. (And this seems to about apply to any sin you struggle with, as soon as you bring them to the Lord.)

I find, it helps to talk to the Lord about every scenario I've encountered that day and seemed to fail at in my task for long suffering. I tell Him what I do not like about it and ask for His help. And I feel His comfort and assurances. Whenever we commit our works to the Lord our thoughts will be established. We will see in our minds what we have to do the next time we're starting to feel annoyed. I've found that I actually feel the Holy Spirit dealing with me to ease down and to let it go. I find Him comforting me and "fizzle out" the steam I am feeling at the moment. It definitely helps to ask for more of His Spirit to help us calm down and control our anger spirit and to let it go. Really, a lot of the things we deal with in this life is a spirit. And often we like to hold on to them without even realizing it. And the only thing to fight them and win over them is through more of the Spirit of God. So we should definitely not hesitate to ask for more of it from Him.

And then there's the Enemy who will like to discourage you and belittle you in your struggle. He will want to make us feel that we have failed the Lord and He surely is angry with us now and would not want us anymore. Why even bother with Him? He surely is angry, why come? No, He is not. How can He be angry when He is helping us and we are expecting His help? This is the same lie the devil has thrown to mankind from the very beginning of time. And many have been destroyed because they believed it. They walk away from God and no matter how many times God pleads to them, they choose to believe a lie instead. God cannot help us if we run away from Him. The only way He can help us is when we talk to Him about everything that bother us. There is nothing we can ever do to turn Him away from us except unbelief: unbelief in His love for us and an unbelief in His ability to help us. There is no sin that’s not nailed to His cross. Every single thing you can ever do against the Lord has been nailed to His cross. And there is nothing that can separate us from His love. {See Romans 8:33-39} Nothing. The only way to find more of His love is to come to Him more and talk to Him more – even how awful we feel inside. 

The only thing that will make Him angry is if we don’t talk to Him anymore – because we don’t believe Him enough to forgive us and to love us…because that hurts Him more than anything.

So we need to talk to Him; because He is our heavenly Father who loves us so very much. And He gave His life for us so we can be forgiven of all of our sins and freely turn to Him. Do not let the enemy rob you of your wonderful relationship you could have with the Lord. Believing in His love for us is so important. The more we turn to Him and bring our sins to Him, the better our relationship will be.

“Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” {Romans 8:37}

“Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.” {Proverbs 16:3}

“He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he.” {Proverbs 16:20}

How To Pay God Back

So the Lord's been good to you. He's answered your prayers, granted you your heart's desire, and has made your dream come true. Now what? You want to give Him something back. You want to show that you appreciate Him and you want to pay Him back. But how?

I've just been thinking about a friend of mine. About a year or so ago she's down in her luck, big time! She's married a horrible guy, very abusive, and had made her cry and frustrated her every single day of the year she was with him. It became so unbearable for her that she had no other choice but to leave him and divorce him. Not even a year later of leaving this guy the Lord sends her a complete opposite guy; very loving, very thoughtful and just made her happy. And this week they got married. They look so happy together. And the guy seems to just adore her.

And then I thought, so now what? How do you show the Lord you are thankful? What can you possibly give to Him in this life that He hasn't already have? Give your tithes? Send money to the missions? Go to church of course. Give your time to someone who needs it? How? Is this really what He wants? How can you pay someone who has given you your life back? Your dreams! Your soul back! Happiness, peace, joy! How?

None of the above. Sure, you could go ahead do all that stuff if you want. But I will tell you a better way: Talk to Him. Give yourself to Him; your thoughts, your heart, and your time. Your time is what He wants. Your thoughts. Your desires. That's what will make Him truly happy inside. He wants nothing beyond that. He doesn't want you to do any great feat for Him. He doesn't want you to pay Him back monetarily - He owns the whole world. What He wants is your time and your thoughts turned towards Him.

You might say, But that's so easy!

Exactly. It is easy.

But you might say, But I want to give Him something more; He's been so good to me!

Nope; don't give Him anything else. This is it. Talk to Him. That's what He wants. Acknowledge Him. Tell Him how much you appreciate all the things He's done for you. Involve Him in your thoughts, in your decision making, in your day to day activities, and in your desires. Every.Moment.Of.The.Day. That's what He wants. He wants you to make Him your friend, a very close intimate friend. He is hungry for this. Hungry! This  is the only thing you could possibly do that will make Him happy. Nothing more! Trust me on this!

(He wants me to write this post for this very reason. He wants me to tell people, this is how He wants to be paid back!)

I will show you an example. I'll pretend I'm this friend who just got married to a wonderful guy. First thing I would do on my wedding night is to bring my husband to sit with me and talk to the Lord with me. We will tell the Lord together how thankful we are for bringing us together. We will talk to Him for awhile. We will tell him how unhappy we were alone in our own lives before He puts us together. And then I will tell Him how unhappy I was in my previous marriage and how terrible it was. Go even into that miserable detail and remember how miserable I was. And then tell Him, how wonderful my life is now with my new husband. How changed everything is. How thankful I am that He has brought my husband to me, who loves me and cares so much for me. I will tell Him, God, You have made me so happy, I can't thank You enough. Thank You, with all my heart and soul. And then I will even sing Him a song. A song is what He loves when it comes from the depths of our hearts. I will sing Him a song that means to me at that moment. Something that expresses my feelings for Him. He loves a song. There's a whole book in the Bible just for it. It's called Psalms.

And then, I will make this talking to God a habit; with my husband and with my own self. When I wake up in the morning, I will acknowledge the Lord and say, Good Morning Lord Jesus! Today is going to be a great day because You're with me and I will bring You with me wherever I go. I will talk to You all the time. I love You so much! You mean so much to me! Thank you again for this new life You have given me. And then I will sing Him a song. A song that shows my feelings of love towards Him. I will also ask Him for His blessing, protection, and guidance, for myself and for my husband and for anyone else that I care and love in my life. I will mention them to Him by name. I will also ask Him for His mercy upon my ex-husband that God will change his heart and make him happier too like myself. I would also ask for the Lord's forgiveness for anything I have said, done, thought of, or entertained in my heart that were not pleasing before Him. I will also ask Him to fill me with His Holy Spirit; to change me and help me to be the child and friend He would like for me to be.

Throughout the day I will talk to Jesus. I will try to remember to pause in my mind during my job and my lunch hour or any time I think of Him and thank Him for being my friend; thank Him for dying for me at the cross and giving His life as sacrifice so I can be forgiven of my sins. I will thank Him again for making me happy. I will talk to Him whatever comes in my heart. If something annoying or upsetting or that worries me comes up, I will talk to Him about it. I will call on Him for help. And I will thank Him for saving me and helping me.

And finally, before I climb up to my bed or go to sleep at night, I will talk to Him again. Even for ten minutes, I will acknowledge Him. I will say to Him, Lord thank You for seeing me through another day. Thank you, for keeping me and protecting me and my husband and all those that I love. Thank you again for giving me a new life and making me happier this year than how I was last year. And then I will remember and mention to the Lord and thank Him for anything throughout the day that I'm thankful to Him about. Maybe things He has worked out for me or granted to me. Even for helping me to talk to Him and to remember Him. I will again ask Him to forgive me for anything I have said, done, thought of, desire in my heart that were not pleasing to Him. And to ask Him again if He would fill me more of His Holy Spirit and work in my heart to change me and make me the person He desires for me to be. I will then ask Him to protect me and my husband and my loved ones as we sleep during the night and keep us from any evil spirits or bad dreams. Then finally I would say, I love you, Jesus.

Throughout the night whenever I find myself awake, I would love Him in my thoughts, I would say, Thank You, Jesus for being here for me. Thank You, Jesus for loving me. Thank You, Jesus for keeping me. And whatever else that comes into my heart to thank Him with or even if it's something that troubles my mind at the moment or worries me, I will talk to Him about it even for that time I'm awake. Don't brood over anything on your own; brood it over with the Lord. Talk to Him about it and ask Him for help. He loves that. That's what He wants. You're not bothering Him or burdening Him at all. He is a Spirit remember? He doesn't ever get tired.

This is what He is looking for: us involving Him every moment of the day, in our hearts and in our souls - in our lives; bringing Him into our thoughts. There is no problem or worry too small for Him. Talk to Him about it. He wants to be involved.

Talk to God always. That is how you can pay God back. Your time. Yourself. Your attention to Him. It's nothing hard. Just make time to talk to Him and acknowledge Him in your life. Make it a habit. Give Him of yourself. Acknowledge Him everyday, every moment. Talk to Him all the time. No matter what it is, He wants to be involved. Acknowledging Him is the biggest respect you could ever give Him. Acknowledge Him every time you remember Him by talking to Him. That is what will make Him happy the most. That's how to pay God back for all He's done for us.

"In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." 

{Proverbs 3:6}

I will praise the name of God with a song; 

and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.

This also shall please the LORD better

than an ox or bullock that hath horn and hoofs.

{Psalm 69:30-31}