Try Me and Know My Thoughts

Psalm 139

Temptation will always be out there. The devil cannot MAKE you do anything.  God gives you the exit door.  It is up to you to choose the exit door. 

God will take care of you and anything that you lose, He will replace with something better. 

I am confident that God loves me and has a plan for my life.  He is going to do something in me that is going to be amazing. 

I got a call from The X on Friday, while I was working in the yard.  I know I shouldn't have answered.  But...I did.  sigh.  He wanted to let me know he paid the $20 bills owed for our kids when they visited the Minute Clinic...months ago.  I thanked him and offered to reimburse him when he comes for his stuff.  He told me he would appreciate that.  wow...okay.  AND?  Then he told me that he wanted to know that he isn't moving in with that woman or anything like that.  I told him that I don't care.  It is his life and he can do whatever he wants to do...he no longer needs to feel like he has to sugar coat anything or hide anything to spare my feelings because I don't care.  He said, again, that he did not move out to Kansas with the intention of divorcing me.  Me thinks thou dost protest too much.  I have heard that out of him so much I am wondering just who he is trying to convince.  He doesn't need to convince me of anything.  He made his choice and that is that.

Genesis 28:15  And behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you may go, and I will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done all of which I have told you.

Have I been a good Christian throughout all of my life?  No.  I have faced temptation and I have not always chosen the exit door.  I listened to too many other people throughout my life.  I have listened to the voices that told me that I should do what made me happy/made me feel good/gave me instant gratification.

While God does not want us to be unhappy, sometimes our happiness is on the other side of the right choice.  It may not always be instant gratification.  "Instant" may have long lasting negative repercussions. 

I have also learned, the hard way, to not listen to others.  I cannot let what others think is right for me to do be the road map for me.  I have to make sure I listen to what God tells me to do.  I need to also trust that when I ask for forgiveness for my wrong choices that I am forgiven.  God is so much more forgiving than humans. 

I have also learned that just because I have gone through something that I see someone else going through, I can share MY experience but I should not insist that what 'worked' for me or my lessons learned are what they need to follow.  I can share it with them but the best thing for that person to do it pray for guidance from God.  He will guide them...all I can do is be there for moral support.

I have lost relationships throughout this and it hurt but God had to remove them from my life in order for me to lean on Him and not listen to THEM.  God is working in my life.  He does not take things from your life that He will not replace with something better.  And that excites me. Whether what he replaces what I lost with that lost thing after it has been repaired to work even better or replaces it with something totally new. 

I have been getting reminders and encouragement from all sides lately. 

And today, I am rejoicing in my life.  God is good.  All the time.