It seems that in order to be part of a group that is worth it's weight or of a noble cause, you have to go through some rite of passage to prove that you can be the person that they will accept. However, if God makes you somebody, then why should I stand on my head to prove to people who I am? I am still struggling to find my identity and am unsure where I belong. I realize that I am still not who God meant for me to be. I am not supposed to be somebody I'm not. I am not my whole self yet. I am still in progress. But I do know this: We are to live from the heart. You can't expect to have any Life in God, if You can't be true to the person He made you to be. I see so many fakers out there. I wish to start a campaign in which we all seek God for our true selves. We can't just go through the motions of legalism. Today it seems like many Christian people are going through religious duties and acts and the church is dying in the meantime. People who really make the biggest difference for God's kingdom are those who do it with zeal. Sadly, most people don't find God's true heart. I pray and trust that I will not be one of them. I still need healing in my life from unresolved hurts, yes, but hope for a better life doesn't come by obligations or a list of principles that need to be followed. It comes through being an example of Jesus Christ's compassion to a person in such a way that it change's a person's heart and gives them real strength to really live the life Jesus came to have us live and find purpose and meaning. Hurting people need hope and healing before given a list of steps and rules of what they have to do to pick themselves up by their bootstraps. Grace comes before truth. I have gotten "advice" from people for over 20 years and I have taken the steps, following the advice, taking actions to improve my life and I managed to dig myself out of poverty through sweat and tears. I had to do this alone with very little support. I have also grown spiritually as well, and grown closer to God, but backslid from time to time. It is only by God's grace that I have come the long way that I did. I followed rules and principles and I managed to get free from a co-dependant relationship in 2002 for instance. I was then able to find a husband and get married.
Still I now find myself very empty and heavy hearted on a daily basis, yet I have not been able to cry hardly for years. This is from years of suppressing my true heart and not living in the full love and intimacy of God. I am now weary and worn with the life I worked so hard for now in peril, all the while, my true heart is starting to come to life as it realizes more and more every day that something is not right. Unlike 15-20 years ago when I was in college and starting out, I cannot just take futile steps without there being something really worth doing them for or true hope that they will indeed yield a better future. Jesus was able to have the strength go to the cross for instance, because of the glory set before him.
What I am trying to explain here is not just to exhort you all to treat me better, but to live from your hearts instead of denying the holy desires within you and your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ (Other people misplace them, but that's a different matter). Don't give downtrodden people a formula or a prescription of what they have to do to make their life work for without loving them in a way that makes them feel valuable and giving them strength and hope. It doesn't work! We all need to obey God now matter what. We need to follow his commands. But we cannot be like the Pharisees and tell people what to do, and then abandon them to go at it alone, especially when they are feeling vulnerable lest they fail. We need to help people to feel like they are important and that God has a plan for them and an important purpose for them. We need to help and encourage people to feel like the people God made them to be so that they can flourish instead of expecting them to follow advice that may or may not work without giving them hope and love and affirming them as the valuable people they are first.
When one gives advice without support, affirmation or lifting the person up, it means that they do not accept the person. Plain and simple. If you were already accepted, you would be welcomed and invited over to their house for dinner to hear you speak instead, for one only feels the need to give you advice without support if you are not acceptable(not meeting their standards). And when you are not acceptable, you don't belong, period! No one should fight to be accepted or loved unconditionally (the love isn't unconditional if you have to earn it anyway). People should not have to perform or look a certain way in order to be welcome in a group. The church puts the cart before the horse, and will only help people with what they need help with if they meet certain criteria first. No! Jesus meets us where we are at! You should not have to prove yourself to be welcomed into the fold. Enough!
Still I now find myself very empty and heavy hearted on a daily basis, yet I have not been able to cry hardly for years. This is from years of suppressing my true heart and not living in the full love and intimacy of God. I am now weary and worn with the life I worked so hard for now in peril, all the while, my true heart is starting to come to life as it realizes more and more every day that something is not right. Unlike 15-20 years ago when I was in college and starting out, I cannot just take futile steps without there being something really worth doing them for or true hope that they will indeed yield a better future. Jesus was able to have the strength go to the cross for instance, because of the glory set before him.
What I am trying to explain here is not just to exhort you all to treat me better, but to live from your hearts instead of denying the holy desires within you and your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ (Other people misplace them, but that's a different matter). Don't give downtrodden people a formula or a prescription of what they have to do to make their life work for without loving them in a way that makes them feel valuable and giving them strength and hope. It doesn't work! We all need to obey God now matter what. We need to follow his commands. But we cannot be like the Pharisees and tell people what to do, and then abandon them to go at it alone, especially when they are feeling vulnerable lest they fail. We need to help people to feel like they are important and that God has a plan for them and an important purpose for them. We need to help and encourage people to feel like the people God made them to be so that they can flourish instead of expecting them to follow advice that may or may not work without giving them hope and love and affirming them as the valuable people they are first.
When one gives advice without support, affirmation or lifting the person up, it means that they do not accept the person. Plain and simple. If you were already accepted, you would be welcomed and invited over to their house for dinner to hear you speak instead, for one only feels the need to give you advice without support if you are not acceptable(not meeting their standards). And when you are not acceptable, you don't belong, period! No one should fight to be accepted or loved unconditionally (the love isn't unconditional if you have to earn it anyway). People should not have to perform or look a certain way in order to be welcome in a group. The church puts the cart before the horse, and will only help people with what they need help with if they meet certain criteria first. No! Jesus meets us where we are at! You should not have to prove yourself to be welcomed into the fold. Enough!
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