Re emerging to Work with Gratitude Purity 822

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org, or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning! Today's photo of a view of the beach at Rapid Bay from the inside of a cave comes to us from Dave Bond Photography, who reports that this location is one of his favorite places to drive to in South Australia. And even though there is quite a bit of cave rock obstructing our view, we can see enough to understand why. Well, it's Monday again, and as we emerge from the safe confines of the weekend, or re-emerge, and, uh, to the bright lights of the world of the working, I am encouraging everyone to face the day with an attitude of gratitude. Because even though my staycation is over, and reflecting on my life of work this morning, I realize how blessed I have been to be able to work over the years to provide for myself and my family to bring me to where I am today. Uh, so even though I suppose I could be facing the day with a sourpuss because my time off has expired, simply reflecting upon the twists and turns of all the different jobs I have had has caught— uh, has me counting my blessings today instead. As much as I recognize the truth that God is sovereign and is in control I also recognize that because he gives us free will, much of our lives are the result of our choices, and that obviously includes where we find ourselves on today— on our life's career path. While our eternal destiny depends on our covenant relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, I believe our professional lives are a combination of our efforts and God's providence. We can choose to quit, we can choose to never apply in the first place, we can choose to be diligent, be a diligent worker, or we can choose to be less than that and reap the benefits or consequences of our performance. So there is a— is lots we bring to our career path. However, for us to believe we are somehow self-made men or women is to display the height of ignorance. Pride or self-deception. God made us. God chooses when we would be born and where we would begin our lives. God gave us our able bodies that allow us to work. God gave us our brains to think and store intelligence. God also gave us our temperament, those inborn talents and personality or attitudinal predispositions that make us unique. Uniquely who we are. And God may have made— may have also made us— may have— well, let's see. And God may have— uh, he, he may have made us all in his image, but he didn't make us equal or in the same— or, or the same in all these different areas, all of which play a huge part in what type of career we have now. Wow. Um, also, because I know that God shapes the history of the world according to his overall purposes, his will be done, I have to believe that there are also no quote-unquote lucky breaks. Uh, remember, God put you where you were and made you who you are, so you getting the job you have today may not be a miracle. But we would be foolish to think that God's providence didn't play some part in where you are today. However, because of our free will to act foolishly and miss the mark, uh, we can't assume that where we are today is God's perfect will for us either. We may have been tempted or deceived by some aspect of our career path that led us to do what we do now. We may have been tested and we may have not chosen wisely. For instance, 1 Timothy 6:9-10 tells us, but people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and some people craving money have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. Pursuing riches is just one way we can have possibly wandered from God's plan for us and may have resulted in many sorrows. In my path, I resisted working for the phone company. In my youth, I didn't want to follow in my mother's footsteps, and I applied for all kinds of positions without any success. I had a heart to help people, um, and became a residential counselor for the psychiatrically disabled. I did that for 2 years, and that is where I met my ex. And no, she didn't live there. Shots fired. Um, but I loved my ex and wanted a family, and, and the low income I made as a counselor, uh, would have meant a life of financial struggles. And so remembering my middle-class existence, decided to— I decided to go corporate. Uh, and the last 25 years of work for the phone company was a result of my desire to have a family. And of course, as many know, that had mixed results. After 19 years of marriage, my marriage ended in divorce, but my kids stayed with me. They are 20-somethings and struggling with the decision of what to do with their lives professionally, and we live together in a small little house down by the river. My life was tumultuous at times through those 25 years at my job that was full of changes itself, but I have no regrets. My job provided the means to house my family, raise my kids, and have quite a number of wonderful years, even though it didn't work out like I had hoped when I started way back when. I don't regret my career because it was instrumental in bringing me to where I am today. And while I would never think of it as God's perfect will for me, When I go to work today, I will give it my best effort to do a good job. Our choices are sometimes regrettable, but the good news is that God gave us free will, and if we find ourselves in a place we don't want to be, we can change it. So if you are dragging into Monday hating your life, pray and allow God to direct your step— your next steps. He may call you to endure, or he may encourage you to go boldly where you never thought to go. When we are in Christ, we are never without hope and without the help of the Lord. So we follow his path, and wherever we go, we do our best to represent him by doing the best job we can and by helping and supporting the other people we encounter along the way. So let's go to work. Let's do the best job we can today to represent the God who made us and to share his love. And let's keep walking and talking with him, uh, to follow where he would have us go. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Philippians 2:13, and it says, for God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Today's verse encourages us that God is working in us to do what— to want to do, and to give us the power to accomplish what what pleases him. Hey, God is with us. If you put your faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit indwells you. The Holy Spirit will convict us and encourage us to stop doing the things that displease God and will encourage us to do the things that please him. In discerning the spirits, we need to know that the Holy Spirit is not a condemning voice. Those would be the spiritual forces of darkness. Romans 8:1 tells us, there, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. It might be some condemnation if you're walking in the flesh from the enemy. So the Holy Spirit in us would encourage us to change from our worldly ways to follow God's ways, but he wouldn't beat us up about it. God wants us, wants us to to freely choose to be with him. And likewise, he, he— and likewise, he wants us to choose for ourselves his path for living. God doesn't— does not have a nagging or condemning voice. He invites us to trust him and live according to his ways with love. We might consider it a tough love at times because of the mess we have made that we have to climb out of, but But while God will lead you into a path that doesn't compromise on holiness and righteousness, he will never beat you up— he will never beat you into submission. God knows what's best for us, and he will encourage us to take a path that may include some suffering, but it will be for our overall good. The good news is that, like today's verse tells us, he not only Uh, gives us the desire and the encouragement to do what pleases him. He also gives us the power to accomplish it. Uh, the power isn't usually some miraculous sign or wonder. God's power in us comes from trusting in him and asking for his strength and guidance. His intuitions will lead us to, in, to good things we wouldn't have thought of. His strength will cause us to endure and overcome things we never thought were possible. So don't doubt it. God is working in you. He has given you the desire and provides the power to do what pleases him. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Clinton Arnold's Powers of Darkness. And today we kick off the, the beginning of Chapter 15, which is entitled The Powers and Society. And Clinton Arnold's opening section here is all about interpreting the new interpretations of how the powers are interpreted recently. You know, like the— like we think of the powers, the principalities and powers of structures in society, maybe more than demonic entities. And so he discusses that in today's resource, which you can find at the end of today's blog post on mtforchrist.org. As always, I encourage people to check out our, our, our teachings on Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ that are available on the podcast and on our YouTube channel. Um, I just got the class list for the Freedom in Christ course that I'm gonna start next Tuesday. Oh my goodness, it's coming. Um, and so I'll be praying for the participants. And, um, you know, they're from all over the United States and, uh, one person from the United Kingdom apparently. So we'll see if that works out. Um, just because you sign up for a class doesn't mean you gotta show up. You know, just because you have a job doesn't mean you're necessarily going to show up to go today. Um, but I have faith that, uh, some of these people will show up, and, uh, I'll be faithful to do a good job with my, uh, Freedom in Christ course, uh, as the Lord will lead me in a week from now, basically. Um, and that's all we can do as Christians, um, is, is try to represent the Lord with our character and our performance by doing a good job and by being kind to others and walking into the good works that God has prepared for us beforehand. So that's what we encourage because that's what the Lord encourages to do. You know, he gives us, as today's verse said, he encourages us to do what pleases him and he gives us the power to accomplish it. So when we know we're not alone, we got the help of the Lord, we can, we can do good things. And, you know, not for nothing, sometimes we don't take the best path in life. And the good news is that God, you know, gives us the free will so we can change our position. We don't have to stay where we are if, if, you know, we have to go. But we should, we should listen to the Lord and try to be wise when we make decisions so we don't have to do as much backtracking. As we do sometimes. But, um, you know, if that's where the Lord led you, we can, we can, we can probably learn something from the experience we're in, even if it is unpleasant. Um, so we do our best and we follow the Lord to, to what he guides us to. One way he guides us is with his word, the Holy Bible. And that's why we encourage Bible study. And yesterday we shared a Bible study with the Sincatis on the The Mount of Olives, and, um, you know, it's— it was a study that sort of took us all over the Mount of Olives and all over the place theologically. So if you want to check that out, go to M.t. Clark Christ 24/7 Podcast and look at yesterday's episode, or go to the YouTube channel to watch us, um, on video, uh, basically discuss it. Um, yeah, it's Monday and, uh, we have to work, but that's a good thing. God's given us the ability to work. There are, believe it or not, there's actually some people who would like to work but can't because they're disabled or, you know, sick or whatever, or they just are unemployed. So we should count our blessings today that we have a job that we can go to that'll provide for our families, and we should face it for what it is and do the best job we can with it and have the best attitude we can. Have it today. Regardless of the hardships that we might face, we should never lose our hope and never forget who we are in Christ so we can, you know, go into this world with hope and joy and peace to share with others and to, you know, make it through. You know, there's times in my life I worked 2, 3 jobs, and you make it through, you know. You do what you have to do for your family or for yourself and you have to live with the consequences of your decisions. And you keep going until you find a way out or until you get used to it. There was a lot of struggle in my 25-year career with Verizon. I literally hated it in the beginning. And yikes, you know, talk about being a slave to the grind. When you hate where you are, it's not good. I didn't hate it in the very beginning. I hated it after the first change, but I was in no— I was not where I was today. I was overcome by alcoholism and selfishness and all kinds of things. Yikes. And, you know, now luckily the Lord's delivered me from all of that, And, um, I face the day with a new hope every day because I face it by, by getting up, praying, reading the Bible, and, uh, reflecting on how good God is and what he's done in my life. And, you know, I, I set my intention to try to seek his, to seek his will and to do what pleases him every day. Um, it puts, puts a nice perspective on the day when you start off, uh, knowing what God has done for you and, and what he would have us do. So I encourage you to do the same. If it means you have to get up early, trust me, it's worth it. You can go to bed early. You know, we're children of light, not darkness. So get up in the dark and see the light instead of, you know, staying up and see the dark. No, that's just one practical piece of advice. But let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord Lord, we thank you for the beginning of another season of work. Uh, as we leave our vacation behind, we, we just pray, Lord, that you, uh, uh, help us in our, in our work life today. Lord, help us to, uh, you know, have the, uh, to face our challenges with joy and peace and to, uh, remember the things we need to know and how to do our jobs and, uh, to do them effectively and to, uh, to best represent you as well, Lord. Um, let us encourage those people who don't know you. Um, let us, uh, share, uh, the hope that's in us, um, by remembering who we are in Christ and, um, and, and taking on the challenge with enthusiasm, uh, rather than with, uh, drudgery, uh, Lord. So we, we pray that today for us, and we pray for all our friends who are listening. Lord, we thank you so much for anyone who would listen to this podcast, and, uh, we pray for you to bless them, uh, by coming alongside their prayer requests and by working in them, uh, more and more, um, to lead them into your will and to guide them into the path that you would have them walk. Uh, they may have chosen poorly like me, and, uh, they might need some help. Um, they might be faced with a situation that's not going to end, um, the situation that's going to be enduring suffering Um, Lord, so what do we do? We, we get peace from you. Um, so Lord, we just pray for whatever the situations are out there today, um, that you would come into them and help us. Lord, we pray for you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things we need to see, and, uh, and guide our path into the things you would have us do. That's all we ask, Lord, because we love you, we praise you, we thank you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.