{"id":11498,"date":"2007-08-07T08:33:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-07T13:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/todayslegacy.wordpress.com\/2007\/08\/07\/keeping-the-battle-in-mind"},"modified":"2007-08-07T08:33:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-07T13:33:00","slug":"keeping-the-battle-in-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/2007\/08\/07\/keeping-the-battle-in-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping the Battle in Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mirror-us-ga1.gallery.hd.org\/_exhibits\/light\/_more2003\/_more05\/light-bulb-glowing-filament-light-blue-uncropped-3-AHD.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mirror-us-ga1.gallery.hd.org\/_exhibits\/light\/_more2003\/_more05\/light-bulb-glowing-filament-light-blue-uncropped-3-AHD.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>A lot has been going through my mind lately. Between moving and sorting through old things I have been reminded of from where God has brought me. With missing our field trip departure yesterday, God gave me extra time to serve Matt, even though he&#8217;s at Kid&#8217;s Camp. And last night, God gave me some time to release a lot <span class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_0\">of<\/span> the built up stress from this past Senior Year of College. God has brought a lot to my attention. There&#8217;s thoughts of what was &#8220;too much&#8221; this past year for the way He has created me. There&#8217;s been thoughts of thankfulness for the friends and family that have supported me in the distance of an overbooked schedule. And there has also been thoughts of who I am now, after this past year, and where God will take me. So, needless to say, there has been a lot going through my head lately.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style:italic;\">&#8220;Here I raise mine <span class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_1\">Ebenezer<\/span>, hither by Thy help I&#8217;m come.&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n<p>The familiar words of <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing<\/span> pop into my head this morning as I type words. The thought of raising an <span class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_2\">Ebenezer<\/span> is not a scrooge <span class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_3\">reference<\/span>, but instead is referring to an altar built unto the Lord. It&#8217;s neat <span class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_4\">because<\/span> this altar was traditionally built when God&#8217;s people would come to a new place or a new land. This altar stood as an <span class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_5\">acknowledgement<\/span> of how far God had brought His people. Similar thoughts have filled my mind as I pack away old journals and move old books.<\/p>\n<p>And the thought of my future is spurred from how far God has brought me in my past. And I wonder&#8230; and I hope&#8230; that when this short life in complete, I may be so blessed to hear the words from my Father, &#8220;well done, good and faithful servant.&#8221; But it has become all the more clear to me that while anyone can look upon <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_6\">another&#8217;s<\/span> life and sum up their interactions as &#8220;good&#8221; or &#8220;bad&#8221;, it is in the small details of one&#8217;s life that they create the overall &#8220;good&#8221; or &#8220;bad&#8221;. It makes me ponder what exactly a faithful walk truly is. I mean, I could only hope  (along with Matt) to have an much boldness as Paul to be able to say at the end of my ministry, &#8220;I have run the race, I have fought the good fight&#8221; or even to say for others to be imitators of me for I am such an imitator of Christ. No, Paul didn&#8217;t speak in arrogance, but in utter devotion and with such conviction of God&#8217;s power and ability that since He conquered the grave nothing would keep Him from holding Paul to Himself.  Not death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I was talking with Robin last night as we circled what used to be &#8220;my campus&#8221;. I released my desired &#8220;dune-<span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_7\">ness<\/span>&#8221; with schooling and Robin communicated her faithful friendship with few words and much listening. And the topic of growth in the Lord rose to our thoughts. <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">Why are we satisfied with so little of God?<\/span>  came my thoughts, <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_8\">outpoured<\/span> in  many more words. (Why say what you have to say in a sentence when you could explain it in a paragraph, right Matt?) <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">Perhaps we have been taught to be less satisfied,<\/span> came a train of thoughts. <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">Or maybe we have failed to see other examples and therefore failed to be an example ourselves.<\/span> Oh, but maybe the real battle lies not in examples or seen things, but in the battle between flesh and spirit. And then, have we let our flesh win?<\/p>\n<p>I read this morning&#8230; <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes. His wife said to him, &#8220;Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!&#8221; He [Job] replied, &#8220;You are talking like a foolish woman, Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?&#8221; -Job 2:7-10<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Sometimes I feel I let my flesh win. <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">This is too hard. I give up. I want my comfort, not my growth. <\/span>The sores seem too much to bear. <span style=\"font-style:italic;\">Why me?<\/span> And other selfish thoughts flood my mind.<\/p>\n<p>But dare I see, yet again, through the Holy Spirit&#8217;s eyes&#8230;?<br \/>Or do I fear that sores and loss may be good for me?<br \/>Pain? Be good?<br \/>And if I acknowledge pain as growth, have I placed a <span class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_9\">target<\/span> on my head?<br \/>But what makes me think that just because I hide away that God doesn&#8217;t see me all along?<br \/>And if I run from God&#8217;s standard surely it doesn&#8217;t make God&#8217;s standard any less of Truth.<\/p>\n<p>Much to think about this morning&#8230; much to think about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lot has been going through my mind lately. Between moving and sorting through old things I have been reminded of from where God has brought me. With missing our field trip departure yesterday, God gave me extra time to serve Matt, even though he&#8217;s at Kid&#8217;s Camp. And last night, God gave me some&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/2007\/08\/07\/keeping-the-battle-in-mind\/#more-11498\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","clear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayslegacy.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}