Reflection Of The Past Year

The past year has been a crazy one. With the down economy and the negative job market, it has more and more people going over to the half glass empty side of the argument. Over the past few months, I have been looking at my bank account going down, my bills going up, illness and tension in the family, craziness at work, as well as other overall stresses of life.

At the end of the year, a lot of people and websites do the news of the year in a five minute segment or whatever. It's funny how many of them focus on war, disaster, death, destruction, and other such negativity. In fact, if you turn on the local news here in Saint Louis on any given day, at least one of the first three stories will be about how someone was murdered, or died in a house fire. That may just be a Saint Louis thing, I have no idea. 

With all this negativity around us all, it is easy for us to forget that there actually is good occurring in this world. For example, all those things that I mentioned in the first paragraph of this post, have overshadowed everything that I have been blessed with, and that I truly am blessed. If you have a second, scan over to the right of this page and look at the "About  Me" section. In the first sentence, I have mentioned three of the greatest blessings that I could have ever asked for. The first being my wife, and the second two being my two beautiful children, who all love me with their whole heart. On top of this, even in this economy, I do have a job, as does my wife. We have a house, and even though our bank account is dwindling, it is still there and we do have enough coming in to get by. We each have a car, they have a few problems now and then, but nothing that can't be easily fixed. 

I was thinking about all of this the other day, and it came to me. There are people out there that would kill for this kind of life, there are those who fight and die so others can have this kind of life. The things in my life that I have and take for granted are things that my neighbors long for. And what do I focus on when I go to prayer? "Lord, please give me more of this...." or "Lord, please grant me more of that..." 

It's easy to forget that God has blessed us. I invite you to take the next few minutes, hours, or whatever, to reflect on what you have instead of what you think you may need. Then go to God in a prayer of thanksgiving. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can leave some of your thanksgivings in the comments section of this post.

Lord, we thank you for the blessings that you have bestowed upon us, and ask for your continued grace in all of our lives. We further ask for your guidance in using your gifts given to us to bring the joy that only you can provide into the lives of others. Amen.

Battle

Hello blog. It's been a while.

It's Christmas time. Or the holiday season as some tend to call it. In my own reading across news sites and other internet sources, I've seen a great deal of people trying to change "Christmas" into "the holidays" or something to that effect. Whether it be forcing cities and towns from removing nativity scenes from city property, to even people forcing nativity scenes from private property. And that's just in this country. I read recently in Arab countries that attacks on Christians tend to intensify around Christmas. Not to mention North Korea promising violence in response to South Korea allowing Christmas trees to be put up along the border to where North Koreans can easily see them.

Whether you like it or not, or want to admit it or not, Satan is at work here. He uses people in whatever way possible to water down or completely eradicate the message of the birth of Christ, and the message that He has come in order that your sins may be forgiven.

As you may know, I listen to a lot of Christian radio. One of the more popular songs out there right now is Battle by Chris August. The song basically deals with this topic, but on a more personal level. The devil is after society as a whole. To win society over, he has to start with the individual person, meaning you. 

There's a battle between good and evil

And it's raging inside of me

There's a struggle - It's God and the devil

It's love against the enemy

It seems overwhelming that the devil may be attacking you. The thing is, you don't have to fight the battle alone. Not only is there a community of the faithful willing to help you, but God will come to your aid as well. In fact, if you ask God to help you, the outcome is already determined. 

Life's a fight of wrong and right 

That's tearing me apart

Oh but what the cross has done

Yeah the world will try to battle for my heart

But the war is already won

It may seem impossible to be able to fight against the devil and win. But God has done and will continue to do the impossible. Even the circumstances of the birth of Christ were impossible. That God would be born in human form to a virgin! That this baby would grow up to cure the blind and the deaf, make those who couldn't walk to get up and walk, and also cast demons out. The God who did all of this can extinguish the battle raging inside of you. The world is competing for your heart, but the war is already won, and Christ and those who choose to follow him, are the victors.