Is It Faith or Is It Safe?

I have a confession to make. I am by nature a very cautious person. As a child I am the one who would take the least amount of risk and I tried my best to do the right thing. In a lot of ways, I’m still that girl. Now some one might be saying what’s wrong with that? The answer would be nothing as long as your definition of safe is not greater than your faith in God. One of the founding principles of my belief is that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. The irony of that is in order to truly apply this principle to my life I have to constantly battle against my nature. Because there is nothing in the natural that is safe about hoping and believing in something you can not see, or that you have no evidence it will work.

When I look back over some of the choices I have made in say the last three – five years, I can see how some of them have been based not on my faith in what God can do but how safe those decisions were for me. How do you know when you are operating out of safe verse faith? If your answer to any of these questions more often than not are yes then may be you have a safe walk verses a faith walk.
- When you are willing to help only to degree it doesn’t cause you any emotional discomfort and will not alter the cocoon you are living in.
- When you have calculated the risk and you have decided that the degree you are willing to help is limited to what you can define as safe through your natural eye.
- When you won’t seek God for further instruction for fear he will ask more of you then you are comfortable with giving.
- When you have done just enough to keep up the appearance of being a person of faith to the world but in your heart you knew you were not doing enough to be a person who truly walks out his or her faith.

Every one’s safe place is different. For me safe has become I will help you as long as I don’t have to take any emotional risk. You see I have been hurt by a couple of folks in the past and although you can not see the scars on the outside there are still some places I believe that are very tender on the inside. To be honest, for all I know those once tender place may have healed, but I will not let any one close enough to touch those places to find out.

This has been a very interesting year for me. Through Christ I have come to this realization I have been loved by more people than I have been hurt when I walk in faith. When I have operated in faith rather than playing it safe in the natural I have had more successes than I have failures. Through faith rather than safe I have been blessed in ways I could not comprehend with my natural eye. That my definition of safe in the natural did not always safe guard me from emotional challenges, disappointments or sadness. I confess I still have some hurdles but at least now I can see by faith the finish line and it’s a lot closer than what it use to be.

Have a blessed.
YMA

Positive Thought For The Week

Have You Ever?

Have you ever had a moment of I know it's going to get better but dag nabit if doesn't suck for right now.

You ask yourself the questions:
1) How did I get here?
2) Why me?
3) When will this be over?
4) What can I do to get out of this?

Well, I don't have a magic formula that will transport you through time to end of this challenge. I can't offer you a 5 step solution that will suddenly make every thing better. But I can tell you this despite what it looks like, you are not alone. You are not the first person who has been here and you won't be the last. Just try your best in the midst of every thing to grasp what ever the life lesson you are suppose to learn through this and know and believe it has got to get better.
It may seem like forever right now but every day you hang in there you are one step closer to it being yesterday.

Make it a blessed.
YMA

Getting Ready

Question:

Have you ever been in a situation where God told you something and NOTHING points to what he is telling you? Have you ever been at a place in which everything looks like the opposite of what you've heard? How do you handle that?

Response
First Read: Hebrews 11

I heard Bishop TD Jakes preach once that every thing you have ever received from God in the natural you have to first receive it in your spirit. Usually when I have heard something that I could not see, it has had to do with my finances. There have been some crises that have come that He has needed me to be calm about so that I could hear His instructions for how to avoid the pitfalls.

I have learned over time that He doesn't reveal stuff to us to scare us but to prepare us. A lot of times when I hear things I began to do little things that I believe are preparing me for the what ever it is. If it is a warning about finances, some times I will try to pay off some bills, put a little money aside. Hold off on getting involved financially with something I normally would.

If it has been professionally, I start thinking in terms of if I had that job what would I do to get ready for it. I would sit down and think and write down some things that I would do to make my self more marketable when and if that opportunity ever comes around.

I guess over time you can say I have developed the attitude of, I don't know when it's coming but when it does come I want to be prepared. I had to stop focusing so hard on the when, because the when was making me crazy. The Lord did not always reveal to me a time line. Most times He would show me it is coming and that was it. I’m sure you can relate to how frustrating that can be. We want the date, the time and the second. I was, and even now, sometimes still like the little kid on the long car ride who keep asking “are we their yet?” Some times I have had to do physical things to keep focusing on getting ready. Like writing down what I have heard and seen. Sometimes it is mental and spiritual things I needed to do to get prepared. I found for me I have to get my self aligned with what ever is coming and the more prepared I am the more He reveals to me as to what is next.

I remember one idea I shared with a friend about redefining how we approach affordable housing. I truly believe it would have never come to me if did not step out on faith and purchase a second home. I couldn’t see how I was going to do it but as I began to be obedient and just trust that this is my time, more stuff became clearer and clearer to me and the more things fell into place. Some of it didn’t happen over night. Some of it took days and some things took years but it happened. It's almost like He's saying if you can believe me for this and get prepared then I give you more stuff to get prepared for.

Helping or Hindering

Generally people do not want to see their children to suffer. Like any good parent if you see your child heading in the wrong direction you try to head them off and if you can’t you do what you can to get help them out of the bad situation. It is human nature to want to protect your young. Sometimes, not getting that just because that person will always be your child it does not mean that God wants you to encourage them to always continue to display childish behavior. The truth is the real problem is not so much that God has a problem with us being children. He has issues with us being disobedient children. Some parents are still breast-feeding 20, 30 even 40+ adults. Before you get cocky and say this does not apply to me. I don’t have kids. This type of behavior is not restricted to the parent and child relationship. There are some folks who do this with, sisters, brothers, parents, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands. You name it they are breast feeding them.

I believe God expects us to be supportive of those we love. However, He doesn’t expect you to take His place in their lives. A lot times the folks in your life can not grow up and find out how great God is because you keep bailing them out. You have to ask your self are you a help or a hindrance?

Some the greatest lessons I learned came from not being bailed out and me having to take responsibility for my actions. It’s funny how clearly I can see this when it comes to me but not always see this so clearly when it comes to others. One example is I had a relative I just kept lending money too. Then when I would need my money back they would avoid me until the next time they needed more. They rarely gave me back what I had leant. When they did give it back, it was always in installments. Then I would turn around and they would be buying new things for their house or going on vacation and I did not have money to go where I wanted to go. I was angry, frustrated, unhappy, and broke and I started to despise this person. I asked God why, and He revealed it was because He was not in it.

Here is the lesson I learned. Every time I prayed and ask God to help this person, it was like using His name in vain. I called Him, but then I wouldn’t let Him do His job. Every time I bailed this person out, I was only hurting them and myself. I kept praying on them and asking God why they were so disobedient when He showed me it was because I had sponsored their disobedience. They were only part of the problem. I was the other half. That person may have robbed me, but I gave them gun and the bullets and all the while I was doing it in Jesus name. All though my intentions were noble the results did more harm than good. I was not being a help I was being a hindrance.

Remember this if God meant for adults to survive solely off the tit, he wouldn’t have given us teeth.

Make it a blessed.

Y.Askew