We are down to just a couple of weeks left until the hearing and it just seems like things are just getting heavier. It seems like the tempter and the flesh is working overtime in my life.
First off I will just let you in on a new diminsion added to our trial. It has been raining for days and yesterday morning we got up and got ready for church as normal, off to church we went, had a great dinner for our pastors wife for her birthday after the morning services we came home intending on taking the normal Sunday afternoon nap. Seth went downstairs to get a change of clothes and from the bottom of the steps I heard "UH OH! THE BASEMENT IS FLOODED!" Well, thinking, Ok, a little water can be cleaned up and as I ascended the stairs, I was shocked to see approx 3 inches of water covering the whole basement floor. I could not believe my eyes.
I do thank God that it has been a little warmer than normal, in the 50's so the water wasn't blistering cold. I began to look around and did not realize how many boxes I had stacked on the floor of the basement. It made me sick to my stomach.
After working hard through the evening, we were able to get the water out of the basement by sucking it up with a shop vac.
In this picture you can see the mud that came in with all the water. These pictures do it no justice.
These are some of the boxes that were filled with stuff that is now either drying out or had to be pitched.
Here are some of the tubs that were downstairs that have had to be brought up and gone through to make sure they did not gather water through any cracks on the bottom, I had two tubs that were cracked and things got wet inside the tubs.
More pictures of stuff that just had to be pitched, a lot of this stuff were things that I had saved from my children's school days or things that they had saved, reports they had written or special notes they had written to me or to others, you know those things that mothers save that really probably matter to no one else but to the mother.
These are boxes of our books thankfully a lot of the boxes were just put up on shelves but I had about three boxes on the floor of our ministry books. They are now all spread out drying out.
This picture shows how deep the water was on the wall, I do not know why I didn't get pictures while the floor was standing in water, I guess it was more important to get the water out of the basement than to take the time to take pics.
Now I posted all of these pictures to say this. I was reading in my devotions last night and this morning in James chapter 1 (which I was encouraged by a friend to do so) In James 1 it says,
Verse
2My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
3Knowing [this], that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
4But let patience have [her] perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
5If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all [men] liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
Now how can I count it all joy when falling into divers temptations?
You say how is this temptations? Have you ever been tempted to get upset with your situtation? or even angry? or short tempered? Well, that is the temptation, God says to count it all joy! I have not counted it all joy at times while going through these trials in my life. Then I read if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally. Have you ever just lost sight of everthing you have been taught and you loose sight of how you should react in situtations? or actually how to apply what you have learned to your life during a situation. God said if you lack wisdom during your divers temptations ask for wisdom. He said he would give it to you liberally.
Wisdom is The right use or exercise of knowledge, This is wisdom in act, effect, or practice
5. In Scripture theology, wisdom is true religion; godliness; piety; the knowledge and fear of God, and sincere and uniform obedience to his commands. This is the wisdom which is from above. Psa 90. Job 28.
It is the putting into practice that which you have learned. Putting feet to your knowledge, practicing what you preach if you will.
I have to say, I have used that verse for many different instances in my life, lack of wisdom in situations. (wisdom on a test, or wisdom on something I have read or even taught my students to claim that verse for their tests in school) but I have to say that I have never considered it for wrong attitudes in situtations. If you look at the context of the scripture he is telling us to ask for wisdom when we fall into divers temptations. When we are tempted to sin against him and we have seem to lost the smarts on how to do right, ask for wisdom, I honestly had never really considered the context of that verse. Ask him for the know how to practice what you preach.
It seems like when things begin to go wrong in our lives, when the trying of our faith is put to the test, the doubts come, the confusion comes, the wondering what is God doing in our lives? but God said if any of you lack wisdom during these times let him ask of God. When things get really rough then Satan or your flesh will tempt you to walk away from God and stop spending time with him, but God says ask me for wisdom to get through this and I will give it to you liberally.
The counting all joy thing is very hard for me at times but just like salvation, It takes faith just to trust the Lord and allow him to give the joy you need to sustain you vs 6But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering , remember he says in Nehemiah 8:10 ....for the JOY OF THE LORD IS your strength. You know it is all just stuff, and it is all going to burn up one day anyway, so why do we hold so tight to the things of this world? We need to be looking ahead to eternal stuff and not temperal stuff. We put so much stock in stuff bringing us joy and happiness, when stuff is not what brings real joy, leaning on the Lord and trusting him with your whole life, come what may and letting patience have its perfect work that is what brings true happiness and true joy.
God does not want us to be a double minded man, He wants us to be sure of him and to have faith in him and his ability to carry us through our storms.
6But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
8A double minded man [is] unstable in all his ways.
During the trails of life is when we can become a terribly double minded man if we are not careful and lean on him by faith, asking for wisdom and allowing the joy of the Lord to carry us through.
Letting go and letting God do what he wants in your life is hard at times, but he promises in that same chapter in verse 12Blessed [is] the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Isn't it worth letting go of a few things here in this life and letting God take control so that one day you will be able to cast that crown of life at the feet of Jesus and thank him for allowing you to have the wisdom to make it through the trials of life with the joy and the faith that we needed.
Thank you my friend for pointing me to James. God and his marvelous comfort showed me exactly what I needed these last few days.
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