Renewed Inspiration

Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?

—

God, as played by Morgan Freeman, in Evan Almighty (2007)

Wow. So true. Every time I pray for strength I’m put into situations where I have to be strong, and when I fail I blame God for not being there.

(Source: iwilltrustinyou)

WATCH. TOO FUNNY.

abrokenheartalwaysneedsremending:

Francis Chan - Living Eternally

One rap-song title we’re pretty sure we won’t see anytime soon: Ephesians 4:29 (“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”)

Read more: http://entertainment.time.com/2012/05/25/exodus-231-the-bible-verse-inspiring-rap-lyrics-and-a-rap-feud/#ixzz1wFwU9wfe

-TIME Magazine online

lol. A part of me feels so amused when people take life so seriously to the point of bullets.

“As long as we stay angry, we keep our pain.” - Joyce Meyer

There are a lot of things that (whether you like it or not, or whether you conciously know it or not) teach us negative behaviour. No, most of us won’t get up and get a gun and shoot someone because they bad-mouthed us or betrayed us. But then we learn this culture of getting back at people and hurting them like they hurt us; we learn that it’s okay. Like, “you’re not going to be a “(expletive)” and let them say this about you??”. A mere youtube comment, from someone you haven’t even seen (and could be a three-headed troll for all you know) can cause people to write loongg paragraphs of only insults back.

Alternatively, we learn that it’s okay to keep grudges or records of wrongdoings. Yet the worst thing you can do to yourself, is continue to hold anger towards someone who doesn’t even know about it, or worse, someone you have already told. Why would you let another person have a hold on you?

I’m not saying I don’t get the urge to get back at people or let them know what I really think, but recently this verse entered my head: “Be angry, but do not let your anger cause you to sin.” (Ephesians 4:26)

It showed me that even the Bible is saying yes, have your emotions (wow, I can be angry?? oh yess) but don’t let them drive you to commit sin. And sin isn’t limited to only actions, it can be thoughts, as well. So even when I see, say, people acting hypocritical I can’t think bad things about them behind their backs. Or when my mother gets on my absolute nerves I can’t swear in my head. Or when I know I’m still friends with a person, I can’t dwell on the way he treated me a few years ago. It’s hard but it’s not impossible. Of course, it’s better not to get angry at all, at least with minor things. Recently - and it’s startled me - I’ve developed this nature of seeing the good in people. Even people like Tyler the Creator (do some research, you’ll see why it’s shocking). And it helps a LOT. Christians have a tendency to dwell on the bad side of people from afar, when they can’t even do anything to change that person’s behaviour. Yet it doesn’t really help, if God wants us to be loving people. And understand that it’s not the same as accepting the person’s bad behaviour. It’s kind of like sifting through grain, only the good stuff is what’s left on top.

It’s also very important to realize that we can get angry/worked up for the wrong reasons.

And, honestly, God has initiated this change within me to stop caring and worrying so much about things to do with life on earth in general. Like getting amazing jobs and experience and being this person that people admire, connecting with all the right people, falling in love, losing things I own, not getting to do the things I want when I want them, not fitting in, not getting to do exciting things during my holidays, the list goes on and on. These are things I see people placing so much importance on and every single time it communicates to me an obsession with  things that will pass away. It looks different when you’re watching from the outside, because you see how funny or crazy people look. So when the situation presents itself, it’s easier to remember that you know what, this doesn’t have to have as much of a hold on me as it does right now.

I’m reminded, myself, every time I lose something because I can often be careless or forgetful with my stuff (I can lose things in my own room). And it’s so annoying because it happens so much. Recently, new clothes that I bought but haven’t worn got messed up after my mother washed them…I still need to get over it. I just hid the clothes because I didn’t want to get angry over them. But I realized that more possessions just means more worries, and I’m really not going to go shopping as much now.

I used to worry about everything. I still worry about a lot of things. And God has used all of them to teach me things He wants me to learn for good. Like living by faith and trusting in what He’s going to do, because I can’t see what December or my next summer, for example, is going to be like. I can’t see them, so I can’t worry about them now.

It’s calming, and so liberating. My patience has definitely grown, which I keep asking God for. And it’s not a matter of, “I’ll worry about it later,” but rather, “I need to take time with this. Worrying so much about things that only serve to make me better (or make me feel better) is not a good look. This is not as important as I make it out to be.”

The pressure of this world causes me to worry so much. When you don’t worry “enough” you’re lazy and not ambitious. Oh these standards!