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Heb 5:7-9 - In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. 8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. NASU
They have this view of God that He is sitting up in Heaven watching every move that His creation is making down here on earth and when they commit a sin He deals out retribution or punishment upon them. If you really think about this view of suffering God would not be doing anything except punishing His creation because we all sin and fall short of His glory everyday. There are some who also judge your degree of suffering. If you have a little financial set back then your sin wasn't that great and God is trying to get you back on the straight and narrow. However, if you are suffering to a great degree or something has happened to one of your young children then your sin must have been a horrible one as can be seen in this next scripture text: John 9:1-3 - As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?" 3 Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents;…" HELLO! Did you read what Jesus said, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents;…" But you can see the disciples believed that this man's blindness was caused by someone's sins. What they wanted to know was this man being punished with blindness because of his sins or his parent's sins. Jesus answers their question with these words, "It was neither…" If you have ever read the book of Job then you realize this was the exact view that Job's friends all believed. Job was suffering because of some sin he had committed and if he would confess it then his sufferings would go away. Although, this is a popular view by many I believe it to be incorrect many times. It was not correct in Job's situation and it certainly isn't correct in our scripture text this morning.
Another scripture to help us understand this verse is found in Philippians 2:8 -Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. As a man Jesus was going to learn how to die on the cross. He was going to experience death as a man. He could never experience death as God because God can't die. God is life. We must always remember that Jesus was 100% man and 100% God, this is known as the "hypostatic union". One of the best things we can do when we are suffering in any way is ask ourselves this question: What can I learn from my sufferings? Do not allow yourself to get caught up into the negative cycle of asking yourself, "Why am I suffering?" How would you ever really know with 100% certainty if God didn't inform you? The purpose in my mind for suffering is to teach us some things we could never learn without them. I have spoken with many who have gone through some very severe trials. They would never wish them on anyone, but I have had them tell me that what they went through taught them some very valuable lessons that they could have never learned any other way. The best way to deal with sufferings of any kind in my mind is to ask yourself the question, "What can I learn from this situation?" The next time you find yourself in a suffering situation tell yourself over and over again "Let the learning begin." Think on These: We may not know what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future. A person who looks up to God will not look down on people. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word
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Deut. 1:30-33 - The LORD your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.' 32 "But for all this, you did not trust the LORD your God, 33 who goes before you on your way, to seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go. NASU
In the above text Moses is retelling the Israelites the story of the Exodus. He is telling them why they had to spend 40 years wandering around in the wilderness and it all boils down to one word.
Vs. 33 -…who goes before you on your way, to seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go. The Israelites had God leading them miraculously by day with a cloud and by night with a fire, but they would not TRUST Him. How many days and nights would you need to see this special appearing of a cloud and a fire before you might have some faith in God? Once your faith is broken there aren't any hospitals that you can visit to have your faith fixed.
When someone expects something from you this can be seen as a compliment because they trust you and are allowing you to be in this situation to build a trusting relationship. So go ahead and fulfill their expectations and build up your trust factor.
Everyday when we get into our vehicles and we turn the key or push the button our trust level is high that it will start. Why, because of past performance and the trust we have in the battery and other engine parts. Someone's past performance helps us to build trust in them and a poor performance will cause us not to trust them. You know people right now you can trust and people you can't trust because of their past performance. You probably have friends who are either always on time or consistently late. So if you need someone to be there for you you are not going to ask the person who is consistently late. The Israelites didn't trust God. His past performance suggested that they should have trusted Him. He sent the 10 plagues on the Egyptians of which not a one of the plagues hurt the Israelites. He led them out of Egypt. He parted the Red Sea. Lets be honest God had a great track record. The Israelites failed to allow God's miracles to build their trust. Don't allow this to happen to you. You can read God's word today and trust in the miracles that you read about in His Word. The greatest miracle that I trust in is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. I hope you trust in His resurrection as well.
When a person wants to be trusted they will do the best they can to earn that trust. Be The Best You Can Be and Earn All The Trust You Can. I don't know of anyone that wants to be considered untrustworthy. Think on These: Few delights can equal the presence of one whom we trust completely. A man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Eph. 5: 15-16 - "Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time,…" NASU
important that they learn how to control their time. He said they needed to be "making the most of your time,…" Successful people know they must control or make the most of their time. They cannot allow distractions to come into their lives because this will take them away from accomplishing their goals. There are a lot of great authors in the world about how to manage your time but I believe Steve Pavlina said it best when he asks a question and then answers it.
So let me ask you a question. How is your time management? If you haven't decided what to do then it isn't going anywhere. The first challenge for us to successfully manage our time is to decide what it is that we want to accomplish. You will notice that this will work for a person who is 7 to 97 years old.
Once you have decided what it is that you want to accomplish that is where your focus needs to be.
John 6:15 - So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. NASU Anytime I think of distractions I think of how the people want to make Jesus king. Now when you look at this it appears harmless and even helpful to the people, BUT this would have been the biggest distraction of all time if Jesus gave up on His goal to become an earthly king. Jesus' goal was not to become an earthly king. He was going to become the spiritual king and all He had to do was continue to live the sinless life and give His blood to atone for the sins of mankind, which He did.
Is a relationship going to come in and distract you from accomplishing your goals? There are a lot of athletes out there that could have been champions but they innocently got into a relationship that wrecked their careers. If you don't believe me ask any high school or college coach if they can name you one athlete who would not listen to them and ended their athletic careers to soon. What about the temptation of more money if you will do something else? What about a goal that appears more challenging? Could pride enter into your life and bring you down or could it be a physical injury that sidelines you? And we all know there have been way to many people become distracted with alcohol and drugs. There are a lot of other situations that could become distractions you just have to be ready to overcome them like any other opponent. Think On These: There are more trap doors to failure than there are short cuts to success. The average man doesn't usually increase his average. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word You can now go to my new website and read other Pump Ups. www.SeragosPumpUps.com I received the email below my from Weebly, who is the host of my website. Thanks for sharing my Pump Ups with others. My prayer is they continue to help people in this fallen world. Your website report for seragospumpups.comCongrats Gary, It's been a great first 30 days for your website! Here are the details: Your Site Stats Your site has received over 435 pageviews! |
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