December 30, 2014

Standing At A Cross Road

photography by Christopher Gill copyright protected
This is what the Lord says: 'stand at the cross road and look,  ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls'.  But you said,  'we will not walk in it'. Jer 6:16
We have been speaking about exercising our trust in healthy ways and our trust being in the Lord, among other related subjects.  Trust is not able to be exercised unless there is an opportunity presented.  Feelings arise, emotions stimulate and give us a propensity to act.  There will be a defining moment where we give into a direction and become committed to the motion.  

Think about when we come to a cross road and not knowing for sure which way to go.  What would happen if we had not been taught regarding yielding and right of way?  This is from March 2010:

                                                             
Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)?    Romans 6:16 AMP

Yielding


The first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to whatever it may be. If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because somewhere in the past I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because at some point in my life I yielded myself to Him.

If a child gives in to selfishness, he will find it to be the most enslaving tyranny on earth. There is no power within the human soul itself that is capable of breaking the bondage of the nature created by yielding. For example, yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust, and although you may hate yourself for having yielded, you become enslaved to that thing. (Remember what lust is— "I must have it now," whether it is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind.) No release or escape from it will ever come from any human power, but only through the power of redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating power in your life, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. ". . . He has anointed Me . . . to proclaim liberty to the captives . . ." ( Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1 ).

When you yield to something, you will soon realize the tremendous control it has over you. Even though you say, "Oh, I can give up that habit whenever I like," you will know you can’t. You will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you willingly yielded to it. It is easy to sing, "He will break every fetter," while at the same time living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. But yielding to Jesus will break every kind of slavery in any person’s life. by Oswald Chambers

I do not know of a more unsettling predicament  than being tested in a situation intended to show that things are not what they appear.  If once we had to protect ourselves from people that misused their power or neglected to love and protect us when we were vulnerable to their dominance, it is quiet precarious if we, ourselves are the only dynamic which has changed to exercise our trust muscle.  But this  I know:  God loves us and wants what is best for us. 

Knowing that caused me to try really hard to understand why, when I was doing nothing wrong but protecting and respecting myself were all these bad situations happening. What he loving showed me was that although I had survived bad situations I had tried to handle them in my own strength and understanding. I was in danger and treated unloving at times; however, He had rescued and delivered me from that so that I could live a better life. If I had continued to lives as though I were not free, I would never have received my freedom. I would have been free, yet lived as a prisoner to those that I had been liberated from.

I pray that we all live in the liberty that Christ has given us. And follow His guidance into everlasting peace.

With love,
Candace


© Candace Huffmaster 2014, All Copy Rights Reserved
Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc°

December 23, 2014

Confidence In Failure Takes No Effort



Have you ever thought about how Adam and Eve knew God and had a loving relationship with Him yet chose to believe something strange? What about the disciples? They walked with Jesus, yet they all turned away?  Jesus expected that from strangers, but to his closest friends he asked "will you leave me too?".

Do you think Jesus did not know the answer? Was He making a point of reference? Or was he feeling sorry for himself.....(please do not pick that one ;)

We have been discussing our trust muscles - today's topic is adding onto those thoughts. Every day, in relationships, we see marriages break apart because one person decides someone they barely know is able to give them what the current relationship has not. It is not different with friendships, work communities, churches, neighbors, hobbies........the list goes on and on.  The problem is not out there, it is inside each one of us.  It is the knowledge of good and evil; the separation from what is reality; what is really going on in and around us.

Our independent culture has many quips people follow, here are a few:

It does not matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.
There is no truth only reality.
If you want to be respected show people you can live without them.
Why should I miss trust my feeling when I have worked so hard to get in touch with them?

We no longer believe in a truth outside of our self, our belief is in our feelings and our feelings are self generated out from our wants.  God knows we have a dilemma, so He lovingly gave us His truth.  He tells us not to trust in man: men, women, rich, poor, powerful, philosophical, young or old.  In Jeremiah 17:7 He give us this bit of wise counsel:

Blessed is the man whose trust is in the Lord, and whose trust is the Lord.

I love the definition of the Hebrew word Misbitaukh, which is where we translate the word trust.  It means: confidence, refuge as well as trust.  What I found amazing was the three aspects to this word:


  • act of confiding
  • object of  confidence
  • state of security, confidence
So when our trust is in the Lord - He, His faithfulness toward us is the very sustenance and binding of our trust, we take action, we ask for His help.  We direct all things to Him, the object of our trust and can live in a peaceful state of confident security that He is faithful and His love will never fail....NEVER.  

When I saw the video above, I thought about how much fear we carry around in our trust muscle.  If you want to review fear, trust and relationship dynamics either click the enclosed links throughout this or search topics from the website search areas.

May Christ be glorified as we exercise our trust muscles each day.

Kisses,
Candace 


© Candace Huffmaster 2014, All Copy Rights Reserved
Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc°

December 5, 2014

Trust Demanded Should Never Be

We are going to make it around to our previous topic, but first we have to make some fundamental connections to under gird everything.  We are starting out with our entry into the world and what is needed to become well balanced in relating to everything around us.

Even if you are a Christian now, you did not enter into the world a Christian.  But God who loved you and me created us anyway and loved us.  He began loving us by placing us in a woman's womb whereby all sorts of physiological, psychological and neurological processes began to take place. Mothers generally are not even aware of these things taking place; but God is.

We are in the hands of, or womb of God, until we break through the entry gate of this shocking world.  And it usually is welcomed by the infant with a boisterous scream.  Now a baby is in the hands of a human; what happens now?  Hopefully, this baby has an environment to to bond and build trust with a loving group of encouraging individuals, who are grounded in the Love of God.  But many times the infant is snatched from the hand of God and plunged into desperate conditions.  possibly materially adequate by a baby much like adults need relationship above nice things.

The ability of a child to fully develop in all area's depends on the balance between truth, trust and love.  If any one of these area's are underdeveloped survival mechanisms begin to over compensate for the deficiency.  These children grow into adults and these adults have their own children; and so on and so forth. Most of us are not aware of these things taking place; but God is.

God created us in their likeness and image; relational.  Apart from relationships we suffer, do not fully develop and die.  Within relationships we suffer, but have the opportunity to become a whole mature complex individual.  But that does not mean that God desires us to believe we are to remain in an unhealthy close proximity to unloving, distrusting, misleading relationships.

Before anyone starts thinking of anyone else; be sure to scrutinize your own mechanics in the relationship machine.  In order to completely understand we must  see things clearly; if we do not properly discern the root of our emotions we will accept blame that is not rightfully our own.  Bonding in relationships is damaged by lack of trust. Lack of trust comes after injuries from trusting people.  If however, the person who hurt you is not the person you are discerning if you should trust, THEN you may want to sit with wise counsel and see if you are being wise or distorting a situation.

If needs are not being met, if we are being neglected, criticized, hated or resented for existing among other inhumane actions, then our ability to trust and be vulnerable toward another is injured.  And our ability to bond is based on our ability to be vulnerable; which explains the damages created when this ability is treated carelessly.  It is unconscionable if we stop and think that this one thing "bonding" is the essence true life in the core of each individual.

If you have love and truth in a relationship, trust in a natural outpouring.  A healthy person does not demand trust, and a healthful relationship will not spring up and bear fruit with out all three. It will separate, wither and be no more.

Today, I pray that each of us will turn to our own ways and find at least one remorseful moment when we injured someones trust muscle.  May we fall in faith and ask that the person find health and wellness, even supernatural strength in that area. And that then we be forgiven by God for such an unconscionable act toward someone He loves so dearly.

Kisses,
Candace

© Candace Huffmaster 2014, All Copy Rights Reserved
Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc°