Encouragement, Forgiveness, and Patience Causes God's Kingdom to be Blessed

Colossi ans 3:12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;
13: bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you.
14: Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
15: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.
16: Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thanksgiving in your hearts to God.
17: whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

I have noticed over the past summer and spring as I reviewed several of my previous blogs, that several of them have been about dealing with struggles and problems I have been going through. When I first started writing on this blog, I was focused on encouraging others and thanking God for the many blessings he has given to our church and how the church was growing and people were loving each other. As I shifted and began turning my eyes and ears towards my struggles, I noticed God slowed down on the blessings and the good things that were happening here. Everything is still OK, it just slowed down. There are many scriptures in the Bible that talk about the importance of giving thanks to God. I have also stopped encouraging others and thanking others. I did not realize this until I spent several hours in prayer last evening and wondered why I am not as joyful as I had been in the beginning when everything was going good. I even got to the point where I began complaining about things not going as smoothly as I would like them to. God teaches us in His word that we need to be thankful in all things He is doing in our lives. Somewhere in the past few months, I gradually turned my eyes away from Jesus and began thinking of negative thoughts about how my life was going. I need to hold those thoughts and make them obedient to the thoughts of Christ.

I am also reminded of the story of the Israelites when they were wandering around in the wilderness, they were ungrateful and wining constantly and they ended up spending their whole lives as strangers dying in the wilderness, because they were not thankful and became disobedient to the direction of God. I am also reminded of the scripture in Romans about how sin grew worse and worse in the people until they didn't even care they were sinning and it all started with just one simple step of disobedience. They did not give thanks to God. It is just like the experience I have had with tithing. It doesn't make sense if you think with a worldly thought that giving your tithe will help you financially if you give 10% of your earnings to God, that you will be taken care of financially, but once you begin to trust Him in that area of your life and become a steward to what He has provided for you, it is amazing in the long run how things miraculously change and you are able to begin seeing your finances improve. It works that way also with praise and thanksgiving offerings that we give to God verses complaining and showing unforgiveness to others. If we would commit and submit to accomplishing things God's way, He will be faithful to fulfill what He has promised.

With this in mind, I will start by turning my eyes back to Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. I will keep in mind that when I am encouraging others and verbally telling others the things Christ is doing in our church and the lives of others, I will be giving the glory to Him. When I am complaining and doubting and being negative, I am giving the glory to the evil one. He would like nothing better than to destroy the work of Christ and tear down the temple that God has built, with His son Jesus Christ being the cornerstone.

I pray to Jesus that he would renew my heart by making me once again, become more compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and give me lots of patience to others that I may not be in agreement with. Help me to be forgiving to those who I may not agree with. Help me to learn how to love with the love of God as I share with others. I cannot show this love on my own strength. This kind of love for others is produced by the Holy Spirit. I think I have some of this kind of love in me now, but I would like to have the wisdom and knowledge I need to show it more to others. And help me to have a thankful heart for what He is doing. Help me to realize that whatever I do, it is for the cause of Christ. Help me to return to the joy of my first love. I am thankful to you Christ for answering my prayer last night, and I repent of the sin of not being thankful to you, but returning to my free will of doubting and complaining. I look to you for the strength I need to follow your ways and think your thoughts. Help me to do your will.