Hate Your Life?

Do you feel like your life is broken?  If so, there is HOPE! You can fight back and refuse to give up.  Even if you cannot see how your life can improve—there is so much to live for.  Here is a sweet song by a young unknown artist that will encourage you called, “When Life Gets Broken.”

When we leave God out of our choice making, sooner or later—God will allow us to have our own unique wake-up call. Suddenly, we wake up to the fact we hate our life and where we are.

Have you been trying to cram a square peg that YOU chose into some round hole that God never intended?

If you are here, please insist on spending time alone in prayer, introspection, reflection, and to contemplate the dramatic changes that are necessary to get your life on the right path.

Will God Help Me?

Yes! God loves you.  God wants to help you—but you have to ask for His help! When you ask for His help, be passionate about it.  Don’t waver.  Refuse live life in the shadows.   Absolutely refuse to live in mediocrity on the fence-line.  If you want God in your life you need to make a decision and be passionate about it—and not care who knows that you have decided to follow God!!!  We need to be all in or all out! Click on the blue hyperlink to hear these passionate men sing,“Abba Father”.    You’ve got to listen to the entire song to hear their passion.  It will grip your heart and make you want to say, “Yes, Abba Father take me higher—I want to know you God like these men do.”  This is the type of passion I am talking about.  And when they say “take me higher”  “take me home”….it means take my mind up to a new place in God.  Our “home” the one we were created for, is a special safe place.

Set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above [the heavenly things], not on things that are on the earth [which have only temporal value]. ³ For you died [to this world], and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God.  Colossians 3:2-3 (AMP)

There is an old hymn entitled, “In The Garden” that speaks of this special place–but if you have never had this supernatural experience, what I am saying will sound foreign to you—but as humans, we all long for it.  It is what God intended when he made the Garden of Eden—to communicate with us.

Verse #1
I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

Verse #2
He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me,
Within my heart is ringing.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

C. Austin Miles (1868–1946)

If you ask and desire to receive God’s plan for your life—-your life will never be the same again!  But you’ve got to want to catch the fire for God.  You must want a brand new life.

In the paragraph above, when I said, “If you want God in your life you need to make a decision and be passionate about it.”  This statement is not just my opinion–it is God’s opinion as noted in Revelations 3:15-22:

“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot.

I wish you were cold or hot.¹⁶ So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot,

I will spit you out of My mouth.¹⁷ For you say,

‘I am rich, and have stored up goods, and have need of nothing,’yet do not realize that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments, that you may be dressed, that the shame of your nakedness may not appear, and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

¹⁹ “Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent.²⁰ Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.

²¹ “To him who overcomes will I grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.²² He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

We can learn from studying the Bible “who” God helps and “why” he does or does NOT bless people. Psalm 68:5-6 (AMP) describes how God cared for his people when they were roaming around in the desert.  This short scripture below tells us of God’s character.  It says God is:

“A father of the fatherless and a judge and protector of the widows, Is God in His holy habitation.
God makes a home for the lonely;
He leads the prisoners into prosperity,
Only the stubborn and rebellious dwell in a parched land.

Psalm 68:5-6 (AMP)

The Right Direction?

The Bible plainly says,

There is a way that seems right to a man,

but its end is the way of death.

Proverbs 14:12 MEV

Amazingly, that exact scripture is written twice in the Bible. Again in Proverbs 16 it says,

There is a way that seems right to a man,

but its end is the way of death.

Proverbs 16:25 (MEV)

So we commit ourselves to prayer…

“…And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will protect your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7

Even if you feel you do not “fit” in your current job, family, or other strained relationships, you do belong somewhere!  My post, Unanswered Prayer, addresses the confusing dilemma of unanswered prayers.

As mentioned in my last posts, “Save Me From My Misery – Part I”,  and Save Me From My Misery – Part II, if you have prayed the prayer of salvation, but your life is still downright miserable, there are several reasons for this outcome. In my last post we discussed reason 3, Satanic Deception. Today we will discuss reason 4.

4. Get Rid of Stinking Thinking

Motivational Speaker, Zig Ziglar, once said, “You need a checkup from the neck up to get rid of stinking thinking!”  Meaning we must examine our thought-life. 

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”  Romans 12:2

Our thoughts are the gateway to all decisions we make in life.  Therefore, if we think negatively—about things we do not want to happen—bad events seem to boomerang into our lives.

The Old Testament book of Job tells the story of a righteous man named Job who had seven sons and three daughters. Job 1:3 (AMP) says:

“He also possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke (pairs) of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very great number of servants, so that this man was the greatest [and wealthiest and most respected] of all the men of the east (northern Arabia).”

He suffered the loss of all 10 children, this massive amount of livestock, and most of his servants—everything important to him except his wife and 4 servants inone day!  How horrible!    Next,  after this terrible loss, Satan made him very ill, “with painful sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head”.  From reading the story, it is evident at this point his life was hell on earth.

We know God allowed this calamity to happen, however, Job’s words below tell us something else—he had worried about something like this happening to him.   

After seven days of intense grief Job curses the day of his birth (was sorry he was ever born) and says,

“For the thing which I greatly feared has happened to me, and that which I dreaded has come to me.  I am not at peace; I have no quiet, I cannot rest, and turmoil has come.”  Job 3:25-26 (MEV)

Negativity is the opposite of faith.  Faith believes that God is good and expects something wonderful to happen.  Negativity is anchored in unbelief and lack of trust in God.

This is how Eve was deceived in the Garden of Eden.  After Satan whispered lies into her ear, unbelief crept into her heart.  She doubted the goodness of God.  She believed Satan’s lie that God was withholding delightful knowledge from her—so she was deceived and chose to sin.

Any Sin In Your Life?

Francis Frangipane is a minister who wrote a very intense book entitled, Holiness, Truth, and the Presence of God.  In Chapter 10, he states:

“The Bible warns us that sin is deceitful.”

“But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”  Hebrews 3:13 NAS

Below are several paragraphs from Chapter 10:

“If, prior to sinning, one could display his thoughts upon a screen, the entire sequence of rationalizations and compromises—the decline into deception—would be very apparent. But the process of deception is not apparent.  The enemy’s lie enters our minds in whispers, not shouts; it walks in darkness, not light.

Thus, we must vigilantly take “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). If we would discern the voice of iniquity we must recognize its lie when it says, “your sin is not so bad.”  For sin engulfs the mind in a cloud of alibis and cover-ups as it seeks to keep itself alive.  It twists and distorts the truth, and without plans for repentance it calmly reassures us, “God understands, He’ll never judge me.”

Should an embarrassing sin nearly be exposed through circumstances, etc., we thank God that our secret problem remained hidden.  As likely as not, however, it was not God who kept the sin hidden; it was the devil.  The attitude of heaven toward sin is plain.  We are commanded, “Confess your sins to one another” (James 5:16); our attitude must be to renounce “the things hidden because of shame” (2 Cor. 4:2) Confession and exposure bring sin to light.  They break the power of deception.

Are You Sin’s Slave?

“You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?”   Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”  John 8:32-34

The scriptures warn of those who, “did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10) Salvation is not a religious rite; it is the experience of being saved from that which would otherwise destroy us.  Indeed, Jesus came to “save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).  The “freedom” that comes from knowing the truth is freedom from sin and its consequences (John 8:31-34.)

For those who do not love the truth, God allows a “deluding influence” to come upon them, “that they might believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness” (2 Thess. 2:10-12).  Each area of your life where truth is not ruling has for its substitute an “activity of error.”

If you are a slave of sexual lust, your thought-life and subsequent behavior will be filled with secrecy and condemnation, which is an activity of error in your life. You may look wholesome outwardly but your mind is clouded by a deluding influence in the area of your sin.  If you are slave of fear, your thoughts and deeds are in a constant state of vigilance against calamity.  That vigilance is an activity of error.  If you are a salve to your appetite, your many trips to the pantry, as well as the lies you tell others about your “metabolism” are a delusion.

God allows this fallen state of mind because of our stubborn refusal to love the truth so as to be saved.  Each area of our lives that is controlled by sin is an aspect of our soul under deception.

We previously read that people “took pleasure in wickedness.” In almost all sin there is enough pleasure to make that sin attractive.  If sin were without pleasure, only the mentally deranged would commit it, for sin also contains death.  It is the pleasurable side of sin that deceives us.  For what is lust but the perversion of pleasure?  If we would experience true salvation, we must desire truth above pleasure, for it is our very lust for pleasure and comfort that deceives us.  Yet, truth is not the enemy of pleasure but of perversion.

Each time you repent of a sin, a lie that once controlled your life is broken.  But, if you take pleasure in wickedness, refusing God’s kindness which leads you to repentance, God eventually will give you over to the deception your rebellion has demanded.  This is why Jesus taught us to pray, “Do not lead us in to temptation, but deliver us from evil.” God does not tempt man with sin.  If we continually, stubbornly refuse to repent for a sin, God gives us over to that which we refuse to surrender.

Consequently, the more truthful one becomes with himself and God, the more he is delivered from the “deceitfulness of sin” allowing righteousness to come forth.” —Francis Frangipane, Holiness, Truth and the Presence of God

How to Reprogram Your Thoughts

Imagine this, St. Paul wrote the words below while he was in JAIL—imprisoned for his faith in Jesus Christ!

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with gratitude, make your requests known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will protect your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise, think on these things.

Do those things which you have both learned and received, and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:6-9 (MEV)

Paul also instructed:

“Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”  Corinthians 10:5 (MEV)

So, yes, WE must control the buffet of thoughts that we decide to devour.  Are we going to be positive or positively negative?  Declare, “I choose life.  I will speak words of life.  I will speak words that breathe life into my soul!”

How to Leave the Land of Misery

1.     Be Humble

• 1 Peter 5:6: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,”

• James 4: 6 – “Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

2.     Resist the Devil

• “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  James 4: 7 (MEV)

• “Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.”  1 Peter 5:9 (MEV)

3.     Repent – COME TO JESUS! – Click Here for Uplifting Song! 

• “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” James 4:8-10 (MEV)

4.     Give Your Problems to God, Ask for Wisdom and BELIEVE!

• “Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”  1 Peter 5:7 (MEV)

• “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally and without criticism, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without wavering. For he who wavers is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed with the wind. Let not that man think that he will receive anything from the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:5-8 (MEV)

5.     Be Watchful

• “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8 (MEV)

Your Opinion or God’s?

My father, John R. Chappell, III stated,

“The Bible is God’s infallible, reliable, living fountain of wisdom, revelation, truth and love. It reveals His way of thinking and doing and always leads to victory.  The failure to earnestly seek God’s opinion, His wisdom, and His will is the sin of pride rooted in strongholds of pride, control, rebellion, and unbelief.  Through the sin of pride, we depend on our sufficiency, our way, our wisdom versus God’s way.  Pride also includes our desire for recognition, and adulation for our accomplishments. On the other hand, when we exercise the virtue of humility, we acknowledge the talents and giftings of God [in our life], and we are grateful for such gifts, but recognize and confess our total dependence on Him, His sufficiency, His way, His plans—the grace, the empowerment of God.”

Are you willing to dedicate your life to the pursuit of God by spending many hours in His presence?  Are you willing to study His Word as if your very life depends upon it?  If so, your life WILL drastically improve and your misery will only be a memory!

God is faithful and will reveal his plan to you, but he may require you to wait for his answer while he is healing you and lifting off all the baggage you have been carrying from past failures, losses, heart-breaks and abuse you may have suffered in the past.

When life goes off course, it usually does not happen overnight.  As you seek God, your life circumstances may not immediately change; however, if you stay on God’s pathway a new joy and peace will enter your heart.  As you walk forward in faith with God day by day—your life WILL turn around for the better!

© Margaret R. Wilder, 2018

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