Hi there,
So I just wanted to comfort you with something, for one thing that you need it, for another that it proves my struggle has not been in vain and for a third, that we have hope in it together. The thing I want to comfort you with is a question:
It is not wrong, because it is circular, neither does it need to be in the absence of anything else, we can simply accept it. If anything faith we trust Christ with our life for, is all the stronger, for that we have trusted in Him to define, what it is He is giving us. This is mercy, Christ chose us, He knew for what work would best justify us - we do not need to come to abundant life and keep it all to ourselves. Yes we have cliques and social circles and so forth, but Christ created all those things too; if we have trusted Christ with our abundance we have all these things in addition to Him - and He is Greater!
As a backslider this is important, because when we have backslidden, we know that we have not enjoyed Him as much as our faith has informed us we possibly could have. We don't need to restore the past, we don't need to nail down what it is exactly that we trust, or why - we just need an abundance of Jesus: weary and heavy burdened, He will give us rest. He won't throw in the towel, saying "why did you not have more faith" you may have faith that is wasted - that is not impossible - but the abundance of what the Lord offers does not change, certainly not simply because we do. Even if taking the long road is not the most optimum, aiming for abundance will still result in more...
It is something you can pray, actually: say "Lord, when you are ready, reveal to me the abundance of life in You, that You wanted me to have, in Your Name Amen". There is righteousness in this, you are not doing it under your own steam, you are trusting the Holy Spirit, to make of it something, both of you can celebrate. We simply have to get rid of the idea that we are our own judges - the scripture gives light to all who will come to it. Praise God! Eventually Joy will be our constant companion, our trials will not be foreign to us, rather we will relish in it, because we will see and know it is working power in the Holy Spirit out through it, in us.
Mull it over, you will see that it is true: we should have waited for Christ to define our abundance, long ago!
Now is the hope that we have in Christ Jesus.
So I just wanted to comfort you with something, for one thing that you need it, for another that it proves my struggle has not been in vain and for a third, that we have hope in it together. The thing I want to comfort you with is a question:
Interpreted another way, it is simply saying "there is a way to have an abundance", but more importantly I can justify the hope of it, with scripture:
This scripture points out that we have an abundance of whatever we want, if we will trust Christ for it; but more to the point, like the leper that returned to thank Christ for his Healing, we are able to ask for an abundance specifically of the life that we have in Jesus.Jesus said:
It is not wrong, because it is circular, neither does it need to be in the absence of anything else, we can simply accept it. If anything faith we trust Christ with our life for, is all the stronger, for that we have trusted in Him to define, what it is He is giving us. This is mercy, Christ chose us, He knew for what work would best justify us - we do not need to come to abundant life and keep it all to ourselves. Yes we have cliques and social circles and so forth, but Christ created all those things too; if we have trusted Christ with our abundance we have all these things in addition to Him - and He is Greater!
As a backslider this is important, because when we have backslidden, we know that we have not enjoyed Him as much as our faith has informed us we possibly could have. We don't need to restore the past, we don't need to nail down what it is exactly that we trust, or why - we just need an abundance of Jesus: weary and heavy burdened, He will give us rest. He won't throw in the towel, saying "why did you not have more faith" you may have faith that is wasted - that is not impossible - but the abundance of what the Lord offers does not change, certainly not simply because we do. Even if taking the long road is not the most optimum, aiming for abundance will still result in more...
It is something you can pray, actually: say "Lord, when you are ready, reveal to me the abundance of life in You, that You wanted me to have, in Your Name Amen". There is righteousness in this, you are not doing it under your own steam, you are trusting the Holy Spirit, to make of it something, both of you can celebrate. We simply have to get rid of the idea that we are our own judges - the scripture gives light to all who will come to it. Praise God! Eventually Joy will be our constant companion, our trials will not be foreign to us, rather we will relish in it, because we will see and know it is working power in the Holy Spirit out through it, in us.
Mull it over, you will see that it is true: we should have waited for Christ to define our abundance, long ago!
Now is the hope that we have in Christ Jesus.
