Confession: I've Been Letting the "Thorns" Take Over

Hello everyone,

I have a confession.  The past several weeks I've been in thorny soil.  And, for whatever reason, I chose to stay there for awhile.

Some things didn't go as planned.
Other things went way off plan.
Things I needed to keep working broke down;
Tasks and work deadlines came in like an avalanche.

And I just let myself get all unhappy.
In addition, I chose to stay unhappy for nearly two whole weeks.

Why do I still do this - when I know better?
Why do many of us do this -- when we know better?

I was still praying. I was still in the Word. But I suppose I forgot that I should give all my worries to God. I didn't give him all the worries.

Instead of giving him the worries, I sort of just acted like the worries weren't really worries. Instead, they were just regular thorns in regular life. The type everyone deals with everyday. The kinds of worries and problems that would likely get better on their own, or would improve with passage of time.

Then, in an interesting turn of events, on Wednesday morning of this week, one of my own videos popped up for me. And there I was, talking to myself about my own problem.

Sigh.

I took the quick, daily spiritual assessment for myself; and I realized that I wasn't dealing with all my thorny problems in the right way.

Instead of taking my worries to God; I assumed things would get better on their own.
Instead of trusting Him; I just figured, "this was just the way things are going to be."

That is not the way He wants us to go through life, however. He wants us to take all our worries to Him, because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).  He wants us to bring those anxieties to Him, so that He can guide us and lead us out of our focus on thorns; and into the harvest of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, and self-control.

As we move into this Thanksgiving week, I challenge us all to identify all the little and big thorns we are allowing to scratch on us. Let's take those to the Lord and ask Him the following:

"Lord, please take away these thorns, or Lord, please help me to deal with these thorns in a better way, and with a better attitude, an attitude that is pleasing to you (and more pleasing to those around me too!)"

Below is a link to the former blog and video from this summer that turned up on my page; and it was literally me reminding myself of what I was doing wrong. The holidays are upon us and its a good time of the year, along with all the busy-ness, to take a quick daily spiritual assessment. What kind of soil are we allowing ourselves to be in each day?

Video with transcript--> http://www.gospellifelearning.com/2017/07/teaching-10-quick-daily-spiritual.html


Link to author's books on Amazon -->  go Here