The following is something I actually wrote to myself while I was praying but I thought I would share it. ^_^
Bravery is getting up and doing what is right in spite of how you feel or what you think is right.
If we wait to feel or think differently about what is going on or what is happening we will never get up because once our feelings have changed it means we missed the fight.
And you are stronger than you think. Bravery acknowledging it by using your strength even if you don't believe it is there. That is what Faith is. Faith is bravery in God's love. Knowing that despite the current "sensation" of life he has not changed. And the God that has blessed you and smiled on you in the past is still beaming just as brightly. The only thing that has changed is that we have become complacent to the cloud over shadowing your mind.
But you must remember, grit your teeth and get up and fight the long hard fight. When you keep getting up eventually the situation might not change (visibly yet,) the sensations might not change, but you realize that for a while you have been numb. That the pain feels more like the memory of pain instead of a sharp immediate sensation. You come to realize that where you used to grow faint, though the weight has actually increased, you are not so bothered by it. You find you can lift more, walk longer, fight harder, take more blows. But to get to that place you have to keep getting up, keep taking the blows, and keep walking until you have been doing it for so long that you can't figure out exactly when it was that things changed inside you, but that they defiantly have because you are a different person; capable of so much more than you were before.
To get a new level and become something more, God asks to leave our comfort zone,] And Yes it is hard. But we are capable of doing it. You must do it or you will become the thing you hate. Complacency, the shallowness, materialisticness, selfishness are the symptoms of a condition called "Comfort Zone". Most of the world lives in the comfort zone. Some peoples comfort zones are actually horrendous. Addiction, violence, sensuality, poverty, bitterness etc, these are comfort zones that are bathes of corrosive acid eating away at the occupants hearts until some basically lose it entirely and lose their soul. when you look into a person's eyes and they are hallow this is what has happened. And in many the empty eyes is the only outward sign (and only those who can discern) of this unfortunate inner process.
Extreme I know, radical yes, but to quote Unusual Suspects, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he doesn't exist."
Convincing the world that the problem isn't that bad, and even worse that it unchangeable.
WHAT A LIE!!!
But that is all that the devil can do anymore. Is Deceive. Jesus broke his back on the cross and all he can do is slither around and convince the world that he still has that power that we still can become our own gods. He still truly believes this as he cannot fathom the mind and heart of God. But he is powerless!
Don't be deceived either for the threat and danger of the enemy is great indeed. But one MUST understand that what is actually going on is we humans have all the power and dominion in this earth. WITH OUR WORDS WE CAN CHANGE THE NATURE OF MATTER AROUND US!!! Because we are made in Gods Image! WE ARE BUT GOD'S OWN BREATH INHABITING ONCE LIFELESS DUST!!!
"1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made. 4 In him was life and the life was the light of men, and the darkness has not overcome it." "14 And the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the Only Son from the Father, full of Grace and Truth." (John chapter 1 - the entire chapter is good.)
These verses are incredible! Why? Because the profound truth of it is that everything that is in this universe, the electro-microscopic particles that make up sub-atomic particles is the Humming VOICE of God. The Word of God. Then "the word of God" The bible is the smallest glimpse into this hum, this energy, this pattern, design, truth, Light! But is is what we can handle and what he gave us. But you see we are God's breath. By his grace we exist. He need only hold his breath but a moment and all that exists will cease to be.
SO! You see we humans have all the power as the Devil is an angel fallen from glory and is not the made in the likeness of God and is not made of Gods breath.
What has happened, is happening, is that humans have accepted the deception and given themselves over as puppets of darkness. Allowed the Devil to hold the strings when in fact there ARE NO strings and evey movement we make of our own accord.
So if this is SO true and SO horrible, why have we let it happen? Why are so many people walking to hell with a hand basket in their arms?
One simple, brutal and underestimated reason, Comfort.
It is easier to accept the status quot, to not put up a fight, to go with the flow, to see ourselves as victims who can only get by in this horrible world until we cease striving.
Now Comfort seems innocent but it is not. It is a stand in for PEACE. Just as happiness is a substitution for Joy.
Comfort is the product of your environment. So we seek an environment to produce and maintain our comfort. This leads us from confrontation.
PEACE is not changed by the environment or circumstances.
Happiness changes from moment to moment and is finite. Joy (which can only be had in God) is not of this world therefore not dependent on circumstances. This is why the disciples rejoiced, even when they faced torture and death in prison.
"4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your reasonableness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition (constant, gentle coming to God), with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." Philippians 4 (NIV)
You see all that God has made, that is pure and Good, has a counterfeit that can be had in the Comfort Zone.
Comfort - Peace, Happiness - Joy, Lust - Love. Etc...
The devil is clever and has constructed systems (all put up by willing human hosts) that provide these counterfeits in ready supply; But it is just to keep us sedated, to keep us from questioning the lie. And We with OUR MOUTH voice the lie, others hear it and voice it too.
God's breath in us, which had the power to create all things, but that he gave us freely with FREE WILL, gives us the power to alter the world around us. Actually Alter it! What we speak is created. If we speak the lie then WE CREATE THE LIE. This is why we are held responsible for all of our actions, we do not realize what power we have.
BUT IF WE SPEAK THE TRUTH THEN WE CREATE THE TRUTH. And the truth is revealed to us in Gods Word. It is the rope lowered from above to bring us up out of this limited plane of an existence.
So as above in Philipians 4 we see that it is a promise, but a promise attached to a formula, a series of steps that must all be completed together (and only through the Grace of God which he gives us freely out of his love and we can access by simply tacting out of our trust in him) in order to bering about the promise which is peace (that surpasses understanding because it is not of the world that our mind was born in and limited to.) We see also that the verse requires us also to mediate on God's attributes to reformat our limited mind so that it can process and comprehend what GOd has for us. And then in the last part we are required to practice, to do in the physical world not just in theory or in our mind, knowing that it is true, or in our hearts feeling that it is true and real. We must DO it. "Faith without works in nothing."
So it comes back to Bravery. Bravery is what takes these heart-warming ideas and makes them more than a momentary emotional kick.
At times you will not feel like it or think that it is worth it but Bravery, Faith, is calling your muscles into action, moving your limbs, opening your mouth, getting up, walking away from a dangerous situation, walking to, physically going to a positive situation, one we need (church, quite time, or simply working hard or doing something that God put in us that is pure and we love.) We cannot do it in our minds or our hearts (though it begins there) we can only DO it with our body as an act of Faith. We must actually do it We will always have a different thing on our minds, day to day we will feel differently because our mind and body were born and raised into this earth. But we always have the choice to have our brain to send nerve pulses to different parts of our body and command it to go here or there, do this or don't do this.
"13When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed." (James 1:13-14 (NIV)
Temptation has this stigma that leads us to think of maliciousness sin and passion. But it is more simple and strait forward than that. It is not a sin to be tempted as it is merely a question, a request, or a suggestion to DO something that is not in the image of God, that is not of the attributes of his character. Simply enough. Not doing something is still an action. More often than not we say to ourselves "Well At least I do not do this or that." There is always some bad thing out there that we haven't done. But we have chose to NOT DO something that we should have. Inaction has just as much impact on the world as action does because in truth there is really no such thing as in action. We cannot not do something. {Example: If I tell you not think about an Apple you will first think about an apple then try and erase it from your mind. But if you say, picture an Orange. for that moment you weren't thinking about the apple. Unless you mind is just stuck on the apple -_0 but you see we are incapable of not doing something, we can only do something else. )
So On a day to day basis we are given choices in how to act. As we get to know God better we are given greater options than our usual choices. We realize that we are not so limited or chained down as we once thought as we can accept and tap into Gods Grace.
"13No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." (1 Cor 10:13)
God knows who we are and what is within the parameters of how he made you so he will only ask you to do something just out of the reach of what you believe to be your absolute limit. God is a good God he will not ask the world of us he will only ask for ALL of us. Which is to say: just beyond the limit of everything we can actually give to him at any given moment. This requires Us to Depend on God to make up the Difference. Often times we become disillusioned because we expect more of ourselves than God has actually asked. Sometimes we expect something of ourselves that is not actually congruent with our character but might seem right overall because it is right for people we know or observe. The only way to get past this is to, in our day to day relationship with God, ask him to reveal to us more and more who we actually are (not what the world has projected on us.) We must ask and listen for him to tell us just how far we are to go and ask and expect for the strength to reach just a little bit farther than we ever thought we could from situation to situation, as we grow with him.
Yes it is hard, Yes it is Dangerous, Yes the Enemy is Real, Yes it will be Painful at times. BUT It is worth it. Not just because we "have our reward in heaven" Really who want to wait that long?
No. Our walk with God, despite the trials and difficulties and hardship we endure, will allow us to transcend these things. The situation may or may not change but as we grow,( and yes it is a process, just as water smooths a stone (though God can and will often accelerate this process)) we will find that we are more and more free, stronger, stouter, and able to see farther than we used to from a lower standpoint before we started the climb. We will find that we will change inside, THEN change the situation around us not the other way around. Walking with God, enables him to make this transformation in us so that WE can, through him, transform the world around us.
"14Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 4
God is not asking us to do this all in one day, he is asking us to just acknowledge him in little moments during the day, to take as many opportunities as we can to learn more about him and spend time with others on this same path. To radically seek to let go more, and more of things that are harming us and replace those things more and more with Gods attributes. He is not asking us to do the impossible but to actually get up and DO the things that are just outside of our ability and expect him to be there with us.
God is Right there next to You. Be Brave! Be patient, endure and Expect to see God's awesomeness become more and more apparent in your life. ^_^
