Sometimes you get consequences from your surroundings

Have you ever felt like you didn't deserve what you received?  As a Christian, we always feel like we don't deserve God's grace and mercy!  What about when you are just talking with a friend and you are now guilty by association?  Have you thought of Job?  Job was tried for his righteousness!  He was tested by his wife and friends.  His friends believed he reaped what he sowed.  

Another time when we see that a person reaped what he did sew was King David.  What happened is he lusted after a beautiful woman and got her pregnant.  God sent Nathan to King David to tell him that the baby will surely die.  King David fasted, prayed and laid prostrate before God.  Did that child deserve what he reaped?  Did King David get what he deserved?

There are times that you are in the middle of something that God did not call you to be!  When a person is arrested for a crime, sometimes there might be accomplises?  People who assist the criminal in doing the illegal act are called accomplises.  Then there are times that people are named as the criminal but was not an accomplises or even the one who performed the act all because of association. 

Make sure you are on purpose.  Make sure those around you help lift you up.  Make sure you have those people who will assist you in your goals.  You may also want to ask God for His guidance and direction.  What are you involved in that could bite you?  

Advice from failure?

Have you had an experience where the person giving you advice on how to succeed in a certain task has failed miserably?  What about when you have failed but chose not to remember all the circumstances surrounding it just so your self esteem is not damaged?  

When we fail at something, does not necessarily mean that we are not good at a particular task. Excuses will get in our way when we want them to. We choose how to respond to failure! As a child, did you not try to walk after your first falling over on your head?  What about when you wanted to ride a bike without training wheels? How about an "F" in school, they make you repeat the class!  Your first kiss, we all know you didn't quit after an epic failure like that!  As we age our mistakes involve more than just you.....sometimes it is a whole family, a business, a community, a country.  Remember that when we fail, it is to gain knowledge and hopefully, understanding to pass along.  Sometimes it is to learn a better way of handling situations. If when you fail, you chose not to enter into this mess again, then your failure has won.  When you choose to re-enter the nastyness of life, you have won because you can make a difference in the situation based on your new found understanding.  

Sometimes some of the best advice given can come from a prior failure?  This failure, if you learn it without the experience, would be called WISDOM.  When you learn it with the experience is called knowlegde.  You choose how you like to learn, from someone else's mistakes or from your own?  The great news is you get to choose!

Dreams of my childhood....

As we age there are little things that remind us of our childhood. It may be music, food, movies or videos, small phrases or stories being told over dinner.  Do you remember the dreams that would keep you awake as a child?  Can you recall the vivid nature and how clearly it was painted in your mind?  Sometimes these are the things that haunt us today.  It may continue to haunt you way into the future, unless you allow God to reveal it. It may be hard or difficult. It might even be easy!

I remember when my family of seven lived in a little 3 bedroom 2 bath home where I shared a room with my two older brothers.  This nightmare haunted my childhood. My dream was about roads all crumpled up then they would all be smoothed over. Almost like a piece of paper. Then when I would wake up, everything seemed to be very distant. Although I may have been in my mother's lap, I felt that I was on the other side of the couch. Even though I could touch my mother's face it as though she was across the room.

I would have this dream multiple times as a child and I can still see it vividly as if I just dreamt it.  Then in my devotions tonight God takes me across this verse, "Go out through the gates! Prepare the highway for my people to return! Smooth out the road; pull out the boulders; raise a flag for all the nations to see. (Isaiah 62:10 NLT)". This verse reminded me of my dream.

What dreams have you discarded as nightmares only to be reminded of your promise?  Remember your dreams from you childhood!