The Pain of Comparison – Peace and Freedom is a Choice – Purity 1251

 

The Pain of Comparison – Peace and Freedom is a Choice
– Purity 1251

Purity 1251 01/18/2024 Purity 1251 Podcast

Purity 1251 on YouTube:

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a large pile of logs covered in
snow in the foreground of a quaint winter forest scene comes to us from yours truly
as I chose to look to the right and capture what I saw while out walking down
Waite Rd during my visit to my countryside home in Easton yesterday afternoon. 

Well, it’s Thursday, and while I traditionally share
pathway photos on Thursdays to visually represent the path of Christian
discipleship and to encourage my friends to walk with me as I walk with God, I
shared this scene as a reminder of the peace that we should be stopping to
enjoy while we make our way through this life.  
The cold, the silence, and the stillness were there to enjoy, and even
though my unleashed canine pal, Harley, was scampering down the road in front
of me, I paused to appreciate the beauty of what I normally would walk on
by. 

I have to admit that my attitude toward the freezing
temperatures and snow in winter isn’t a positive one for the most part but in
moments like this one I can find peace when I stop resisting its presence and
just accept what the Lord has done and recognize that even in the cold, I can
find peace and joy over the life that He has given me.  

Yes, dealing with the snow and cold can be a
struggle but it’s a struggle we can live with. It’s a struggle that we can get
past and thrive in and even if you are not into winter sports it’s something
you can appreciate and enjoy.  But you
have to choose to let go of your bitterness and resistance toward the
conditions, look for the good, and thank God that He is there even in the
bitter cold.  Just because it’s bitter
cold doesn’t we need to be bitter.  The
warmth of our breath testifies that we are still alive, and God has given us
the wisdom to endure even the harshest of conditions to live.  

Yesterday, I was sad to hear the testimony of a
friend in recovery who let the bitterness of comparison drive him to drink. He testified
that he recently was visited by an old friend who had relocated to the south
and whose living situation was almost the polar opposite of his.  His friend was more or less a stay-at-home dad
who also worked part-time in a cash industry. His friend’s wife was a full-time
nurse and provided for her family financially.  
Although he was happy for his friend and his family and enjoyed their
time visiting together, after his friend left, he became bitter and discontented
with his life because of the sharp contrast between them.  By comparison, his friend’s life seemed
relatively carefree, and he didn’t have to deal with the winter in upstate NY
and this made my friend angry. My friend is the sole provider for his family and
has previously griped over the situation that he voluntarily entered into. My
friend lives in upstate NY and winter happens here, another voluntary choice. And
ironically before his relocated southern friend’s visit, he was happy. 

But my friends in recovery, has a tendency to
complain and to dwell on the negative, and all the enemy needed was something
to point out to convince my friend that what he had previously enjoyed wasn’t
so good after all. 

I’ll blame some of this on the enemy because I know
how He loves to condemn us and to tempt us into sin but my friend’s ultimately
responsible for his relapse and his ungrateful and bitter attitude toward the
life that God has blessed him with.  My
friend is 0 days sober and is hurting and whether he has victory over his
addiction today will be his choice.  If
he looks at the world with bitterness, he will stay locked in the vicious cycle
that promises pleasure but only results in pain.  But if he chooses to take the encouragement
we gave him last night and reminds himself that he actually has a good life and
a family that he is happy with – if he practices gratitude – and thanks the Lord
for what he has, he could understand that the booze doesn’t help him or make
him happy and he could choose to say no if temptation calls.

Unfortunately, his tale of woe wasn’t the only one I
have heard recently and other friends have had similar setbacks in their recoveries
– myself included – Sunday sweet binge is only 4 days behind me, but in order
to get past our failures we have to choose to learn our mistakes and see that
relapses are never worth it and that freedom is only one decision and one day
away.

If we choose today to be free, we can be free.  God has given Christians power over sin, but
we must choose it, and we can. Moment to moment we can resist the devil, but if
we choose to submit to God and be the person He created us to be – pure, holy,
and righteous – we won’t have to contemplate whether or not to sin. If we
choose our identity in Christ, saying no to sin becomes a “no-brainer”. 

“What? Me drink, give into sexual immorality, or
binge on food to comfort myself?”

“That’s not who I am anymore. I am Christian and God
set me free and has given me the power to say no to those things and to live a simple,
good, pure, and righteous life – and I choose to do that today and every day
until the Lord calls me home because I don’t want anything to come between me
and my relationship with God. He loved me enough to die for my sins so I will
love Him enough to believe and follow what He says about me. 

If you put your faith in Jesus, you have a new life
but in order to enjoy the fruit of the Spirit – of love, joy, peace, etc.- you
have to choose to not look to the world to please you, you have to choose to
accept what your life is and see the good in it, and if something isn’t right
you have to choose to work to change it, and to do it all with an attitude of
gratitude because you know that this world is not all there is and the things
that are here today will be gone tomorrow but the Lord will be with you always
and the God who sends the snow also sends the sunshine and give you the power,
strength. And love to live in peace regardless of the circumstances or this
life.  

So choose to keep on walking and talking with God.
His path leads to peace, so thank Him for inviting you into a new life and
choose to follow Him to enjoy it.

——————————————————————————————–

Today’s
Bible verse come to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.

(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick
Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late
author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )

This
morning’s meditation verse come from the section on Communication, Gossip, and
Lying.

Psalm 19:14 (NKJV)
¹⁴  Let the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight,
O LORD, my
strength and my Redeemer.

Today’s
verse is the first of two passages of scripture that fall under the first point
of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Communication, Gossip, and
Lying.

1.     The psalmist has
given us a model prayer for good speech.

Today’s verse is an
excellent prayer to pray to keep us from speaking negatively over our lives.
Words matter and if we are complaining about what we have been given in life  and have chosen to gripe rather than to give
thanks for it, we show the Lord that we are not only ungrateful but are
disobedient to His word that tells us to “always rejoice” and to give thanks in
everything.  

Similarly, if we lie we
show the Lord that we don’t respect His command to not bear false witness and
that we have chosen to follow the “father of lies”, Satan, rather than the Truth,
the way, and the Life – Jesus Christ. 

This verse points out that
it is God who redeems us, and we should seek to please Him and God’s word
demonstrates over and over again that what we say matters and we should
represent Him by speaking truth rather than lies and giving thanks and
blessings rather than complaints and curses.  

So exercise your freedom
of speech but watch what you say and let’s reflect God’s truth and love with
our words rather than bitterness and hate.

——————————————————————–

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.

Today we continue sharing from “According to Your
Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament” By Stephen F. Olford – A
Collection of Devotional Journals: 1940-1941.

As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase Olford’s books for your own
private study and to support his work.  This resource is available online
for less than $10 at many sites.

MORNING READING: MATTHEW 11

“I am gentle and lowly in heart.” –
Matthew 11:29

Notice that it expressly says: “Lowly in heart.” God had
to say of His people Israel that they honored Him with their lips, but their
hearts were far from Him. God only recognizes what comes directly from the
heart. Hence, we hear Him, who was the Perfect Man before God saying, “I am …
lowly in heart.”

He Was Lowly in What He Became. For though the Son of God,
“He humbled Himself ” (Phil. 2:8). “He became poor” (2 Cor. 8:9). He became
man.

He Was Lowly in What He Said. “I do nothing of Myself ”
(John 8:28). “I am gentle and lowly” (Matt. 11:29). “The Son of Man has nowhere
to lay His head” (Matt. 8:20).

He Was Lowly in What He Did. He sat and ate with sinners,
identified Himself with all who were poor or diseased, and finally died a
shameful death.

 

Do that which is necessary, Lord,
to keep me lowly in heart.^[1]

—————————more
tomorrow————————

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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship