The Ultimate Lifter Upper

For the past few days I have had many blog topics come to me but I couldn’t blog them due to technical difficulties with my blog engine.  I don’t believe in copying and pasting my blogs for a later date.  I like for them to be fresh with very little editing (I’m sure you  all have noticed that from time to time 😉 ) When a thought comes and turns into a picture I write a blog for that “moment.”

Anyway, some of my blog topics I didn’t write about the past 10 days:

• Why do some get to go to heaven and the rest of us have to experience the pain from his or her departure from earth?
• Heaven; both man’s view and the biblical view.
• What I would like my funeral to be like whether it be next week or in another 50 years.
• The fact we should live our life in anticipation of eternal life and not death (i.e. there is no eternity without death).
• I would like to know who started the “great assumption” that life is supposed to be fair.

(All of these blog topic-thoughts are by-products of the sudden death of my friend Skip as well as the sudden death of a good friend of mine’s Mom.)

So what is this particular blog about?

It’s about the 10th verse from the 4th chapter of the book of James, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

If you want to know the key to handling all of the crap life may throw at you, it is found in the words of James 4:10.

Or if you want to know the key to handling the blessings God throws your way, it too is found in the words of James 4:10.

Humbling myself before the Lord is the act of surrendering and letting God know-I know-I am not God, and He is.  The by-product of this simple act is being lifted up and filled with the strength to handle the curve balls of life and/or the ability to humbly acknowledge the creator of the blessings of life.

Whatever the case, the more we humble ourselves to the Lord the less control our life circumstances will have over our attitude and outlook upon life.  Let me repeat…the more we humble ourselves to the Lord the less control our life circumstances will have over our attitude and outlook upon life. People, places, things, past experiences, resentments, jealousies, abuse, pain, guilt, shame, addiction, failures, losses, ego, successes…none of this has dominion over God’s power unless, of course we allow it to.

To simplify this even more:

• When bad things happen we need to get on our knees and say “help me Lord.”
• When good things happen we need to get on our knees and say “thank you Lord.”
• AND before anything happens we need to get on our knees and say “lift me up and lead me Lord.”

Whether you hit your knees or not is not as important as humbly submitting yourself to the One who has all power.  The creator of heaven and earth (Psalm 121:2).

On the flip side of this coin is the devil…ever patient and always trying to convince us God is behind the bad stuff that happens in our life and we are behind the good stuff that happens in our life.

…if you have a Bible I encourage you to read the entire chapter of James 4…and get lifted up.

P.E.A.C.E.

jay@eaglelaunch.com