Victory In Advance

~ God's got the jump on what your enemies are trying to do. Consult him. Listen to him. Do what he says and you'll have the jump on them too. ~

Succeeding Despite Ridicule: A Testimony Of Faith And Persistence

When my first writing (which was a poem) was selected for publication decades ago, a close and much older family member retorted, "Don't think you're better than others!"

That hurt and affected me negatively for years but I kept on writing and studying about writing and publishing. That and other slights and rejections starting in early childhood crushed my spirit in many ways. 

Though that mean comment often replayed in my mind, it eventually faded into the distance. Though it had done damage, one day I found myself to be successful, in satisfaction and fulfillment, in pursuing my writing goals.

Nothing comes to perpetual dreamers who only rest and fold their hands. Successful people do the things that others don't like to do and that others ridicule them for. They invest time and consistent effort in visions that burn within and they never give up.  

Compassionate people do not oppress others in their tender growth. They endeavor to build up those who are trying, especially children and teenagers whose lives can be destroyed through consistent insults. It is difficult for some to rise above non-support and oppression.  

Though others laughed at me and brushed off my efforts throughout the years, ridiculing me and saying in derogatory ways that I liked to play with papers, I kept playing with those papers. I kept writing and editing and filing and re-filing those draft manuscripts. 

Through the years, my files bulged and I dragged them to everywhere that I moved. I had unrelenting faith in what I was doing and an ever-burning love of the craft of writing and publishing.

Today, I am the only one in my family or in my previous circle of associations, that I know of, who has published books. While I've found creativity in my ancestry, I've not yet found anyone who published a periodical or a book.

Despite the rejection and derision that I have endured, I loved writing and other creative abilities that I'm blessed to have. I'm SO grateful that what God put in me could not be killed. I've done nothing but improve and progress over the years, adding more skills and talents along the way. 

It was hard to rise above the dejection that dogged me but God brought me through even when I did not know him and was not open to him. It was He who blessed me with my creative talents and He protected them, as He has protected me in many ways. 

I have published 7 themed journals, 1 prayer prompt journal, 1 children's book, 1 business book and am about to publish my 11th book, which will be my 2nd Christian book. 

Glory be to God The Father, God The Son and God The Holy Spirit! I now rely upon them entirely for my acceptance, validation and support. So Grateful! So Thankful! So Blessed!

My encouragement to you is to hold on to what you believe about the good thing that you are doing. You must choose to believe that some where, some way, some how you will accomplish what your spirit is burning to do. 

Our Father has given you all that you need to succeed. It is inside and members of The Godhead will help you to use the tools which you have been given. You are special! You are loved! They care about you! Press on! Keep going! Don't stop!

Poetry: I Met God In The Morning by Ralph Spalding Cushman

I met God in the morning when the day was at its best.

And his presence came like sunrise like a glory in my breast.

All day long his presence lingered all day long he stayed with me,

And we sailed with perfect calmness o'er a very troubled sea.

Other ships were blown and battered.

Other ships were sore distressed,

But the winds that seemed to drive them

Brought to me a peace and rest.

Then I thought of other mornings with a keen remorse of mind

When I too had loosed the moorings with the presence left behind.

Now I think I know the secret learned from many a troubled way.

You must meet him in the morning if you want him through the day.

by Ralph Spalding Cushman

The Flesh Tried To Crash My Fast!

I decided to fast from coffee, cakes and cookies that day for spiritual advancement. You know that fasting is a way to connect more deeply with God and we can fast from anything.

I had mackerel that day for dinner. When I finished eating I apologetically thought, Oh wow! I need to eat some cookies to counteract that fish breath! 

When the thought came, I was mentally full steam ahead to the cookies. I felt it was needed and that excused me from slightly breaking my fast. Sometimes, all it takes is a positive reminder, a reminder that the flesh will never give.

The Holy Spirit said, Not so fast. Floss and brush you teeth, sister, and get to your spiritual advancement!

The flesh always wants a way out of rightness and discipline and is there to trip us up and cheat us. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:41) God's Holy Spirit is a powerhouse and guides us to success! 

The Holy Spirit is a person, the third person of the Triune/Trinity of God. He has a personality and God sends him to comfort and guide us. The Spirit of God takes up residence in our bodies, His temple, when we accept Jesus as Our Savior. Being filled with The Spirit, however, is a more advanced position that many Christians do not experience but whom anyone can if he/she desires. God does not withhold his goodness from us.

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Happy Wednesday: The Lord And Success

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. (Psalm 3:5-6)

Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. (Psalm 37:5)

Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established. (Proverbs 16:3)

These scriptures tell us that success is from the Lord. What kind of success? The success that also stores up riches in Heaven. There is a type of success that we can generate through the flesh, through carnal thinking, through the way of the world. 

Sharing all of our plans with God first, however, puts us in a position to experience spiritual growth along with the success experience. To begin any journey with a spiritual mind is life and peace. Trusting God with our plans, desires and goals insures that we will not only advance but will be richly blessed when Jesus comes back. Most importantly, God The Father will be glorified along the way.

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Image Credit: LoveThisPic.com

Bishop Dale C. Bronner On Wise Planning And Common Sense

Bishop Dale C. Bronner, based in Atlanta at Word of Faith Family Worship Cathedral (WOFFamily), is such an effective speaker, preacher and teacher. I receive much encouragement and knowledge through his messages.

Listen to his message on wise planning, common sense and keeping abreast of the facts. Learn about adaptability and the willingness to be flexible. I thank Jesus Christ and Bishop Bronner for this message from God!

His points are:

♦ Seek God first.

♦ Learn from mistakes.

♦ Seek to understand before giving input.

♦ Imagine the consequences before making a move.

♦ Exercise good judgement to live respectfully and peaceably in society.

♦ Respect by looking back.

♦ Remember why I started building my enterprise, plan, project, dream.

♦ Remember those who may have sacrificed for me.

♦ Remember any heroes I may have.

♦ Remember God.

♦ Remember who I am.

♦ Remember what never changes, principles, communication, etc.

Make It Happen With The Help Of God

 

Don't just dream about it. Make it happen, with the help of the Lord. Receive God's ways of thinking. He's sharing them with you. 

You can't just spend the rest of your life wishing it could happen. Learn to see things God's way. He's showing you how.

Don't just keep thinking about it. You're either serious or you're not. Do what God is telling you to do.

You can't continue to just wonder about it. Accept the knowledge that God is constantly imparting unto you.

Don't just hope that it will come to pass. God is a do something God. You have to step out and do it. You know what to do. Faith and courage are being built up in you by Our Lord. You have been asking for it and he is faithful. God has been giving to you the building blocks of faith and courage. 

You can't continue to spend your life dreaming about it, wishing about it, thinking about it and wondering if it will ever happen. You have to take the risks necessary for God to bring to pass your most cherished dreams.

Some of God's most faithful servants from the Bible went out, went forward, moved on, sometimes not knowing how the gap between where they were and where they were going would be bridged.

They had ideas about how they needed to do it but they ultimately had to make their uncertain way, with God always before them. They had to go forward when things were not perfect or when there was opposition, when no one believed or supported them, when God did not tell them all of the facts.

They had to take steps, often with blind faith, to arrive where they wanted to be, where they should be and to where God promised them they could be. If they had kept waiting for things to be perfect or for situations to be the way that they thought they should be, they would never have went forward and obtained what God had already provided.   

Don't just dream about it. Make it happen, with the help of the Lord.

Believing What We Pray For

In order to see the realization of our fondest personal prayers, we have to first believe what we pray for. We don't have to believe that we can do it through our own planning and orchestration but we do have to believe that we CAN receive them from God.

We also have to believe that we can be faithful in managing them after we receive them. This is one way to believe that our prayers will happen, that we'll be getting a favorable answer from God. 

The problem is that we pray for things that we're not committed to, that we're afraid of and that we don't even believe that we can really do. We pray pipe dreams, fanciful hopes or plans that would come to naught if we were given them. This is one reason that in our hearts we secretly say, "I don't believe my prayers will come true." Why don't we truly believe what we are praying?

Many Christians promote that we should ask God for big things, impossible things, things that are beyond what we can do on our own. Yes, we should, but we still have to believe in our own prayers. We have to believe in what we are asking for to improve our lives. We have to believe in the prayers that we pray on our behalf.

How is it possible to receive what we unconsciously don't believe? It is not possible because we would miss all of the signs and open doors that would lead to obtaining the favorable answers that we desire. The challenges that we would see would be obstacles to us instead of opportunities. Because of that, we would blindly pass them by.

In fact, we already see many challenges as insurmountable obstacles or we would not be asking God for help. What exactly are we asking for though? How can we start our journeys to believing what we pray for?  

There's something between the prayers and the receiving of the answer to the prayers that we ask. It is us. We have to work with God and it's up to each one of us to work out what our place is in the fulfillment of the desires.

When we understand that, we can then work with God and receive favorable answers to our fondest supplications. What if we can't see our part in it? What if we just wait for God to do it, like we've been doing?

If we can't understand what our place or part is in believing in our prayers, then maybe we should not be praying for those things or praying in that way. Maybe that is why deep down in our hearts we don't believe what we are asking. 

Maybe our prayers need to be adjusted or re-designed. Maybe the focus of our fondest hopes needs to be altered. Is it possible that we even need to replace a long-standing prayer for another, more accurate one?

If we ask our Father God to help us to develop accurate prayers, he will do it. We don't want to keep spending time and energy on prayers that are never going to happen because we don't believe them. We don't want to spend a lifetime praying inauthentic prayers.

We want to pray prayers that move things, that change things, that bring things to pass. We want to pray prayers that are faith-filled, accurate and effective. Words come first and powerful, faith-filled words bring things into being. These scriptures make it plain:

Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue.

Hebrews 11:3 Things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

Our prayers are our tongues, our words and the things which are not seen, the invisible things. The things that we are praying for, on our behalf, are the things which are seen, that can be brought into being by our unseen prayer words, if they are accurate. 

The world does not respect or honor God, but the world understands many truths that we ignore. We can learn from the truths that those who do not love God nor his Son are telling us everyday. The knowledge all belongs to God. They don't care to realize it but their knowledge belongs to God. We can take it, along with the Scriptures, and work with God to pray prayers that we can believe in.

I don't know if Dr. Margie Warrell worships God or not but she says this in her article Your Words Create Your Reality:

The words you speak hold power. Power to create new possibilities or to close them down. We unconsciously sabotage our success. Whatever direction your words lead, your mind, body and environment will follow. It’s therefore extremely important to be intentional about the words you use.

We can make our prayers, our words, the fruit of our tongues authentic so that we can believe them and work with God in bringing them to pass.

From Disappointment And Confusion To Triumph

In Psalm 44:1-26, we see that God's people endured disappointment and confusion just like we do, but they triumphed in God.

It's so important to read The Word everyday and not only start each day with prayer, but to talk to God throughout the day. Through these practices, we build strength to hold on and continue to believe through similar circumstances like what they endured. We should always stay close to God because nothing here in this earth is sure.

What we consider to be God's special blessings to us can turn at any time. What's here today can be changed or gone tomorrow. Does that mean it did not come from God? No.

I don't know about you, but I'm always thanking God for all good things. However, things change. God changes things at his will and he allows things to change. God is god of all and most of the time we are not able to understand why he allows or does certain things.

As David shared in the Psalms, one day we're on top and the next it seems like the whole world is against us. God allows things that are incomprehensible and mostly he doesn't tell us why. As we grow in him, we can sometimes discern a track that he has us on and that helps us to perceive that all is well.

Our job and best mental and emotional attitude is to cling to him, whether we are up or down, prosperous or lacking, successful or struggling. Whatever the circumstance, our faith is not to be placed in those day-to-day shiftings.

It is difficult sometimes, when we're struggling in various ways, but our hope and faith is to be in God himself. We can also ask him for relief at any point. David did that many times while professing his faith and devotion to Our Father.

No matter what he was suffering, mental or emotional anguish or physical attack, he took his disappointment and confusion to his God. In the end, he triumphed because he never gave up on Our Heavenly Father. He stayed with God.

How To Accept Jesus Christ As Your Savior

Receiving God's Magnificent Blessings

Many of us were raised in the church, got baptized and/or saved but did not understand entirely what we were doing. In addition to that, adults pressed their personal ideas and hangups on us in an attempt to guide us in the name of Christianity. It caused most of us to reject the Christian life, especially during our teen-aged years when we wanted to be appreciated and accepted by our peers. 

In later years, when we began to seek God again, we learned about him for ourselves through personal Bible reading and consistent prayer. In the Bible, we found out things that we never knew were in there. We learned about the never-ending, unqualified love of God and how it can make a difference in our lives.

What Christ did for us began to personally touch us and we learned, and continue to learn today, how to relate to God. The great value  in growing in Christ is to not only read the Bible but to grow in learning how to practically apply what's in it to our everyday lives.

I'm grateful that through daily transformation and the ongoing renewing of our minds we learn how to receive the healing, deliverance and prosperity that God provides for us through his precious Son's sacrifice. The magnificent blessings for accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior are not only for the coming New Heaven and New Earth, but for our lives today. I thank God that we can learn to receive all that he offers.

How To Be Saved

Say with your mouth that you receive that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the only Savior. Believe in your heart that He is alive because God Our Father raised Him from the dead. Now you are saved. 

Romans 10:9–10 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Power Scriptures Added

I've added more Power Scriptures to that page. The link is in the navigation menu. They are scriptures that I have memorized and that give me power for living each day. The wonderful thing about memorizing scriptures is that they do spring up and quote themselves in our spirits at all of the most-needed and appropriate times. Start your memory program today. There are guidelines at the Power Scriptures page. Here is a recent post that can help: How To Memorize Scriptures.

We Can Do It!

God helps us to extend beyond our limitations.

I think all of us are in denial of our physical and other conditions and limitations sometimes, especially as we age. God can help us consolidate the practical truth with the can-do living that we love to cultivate. God also gives us a chance everyday to extend beyond our limitations. There is an important point that we must remember as we reach up to achieve and realize our hopes and dreams.

We must be careful with whom we share our aspirations and not cast our pearls before swine. We must be careful to not allow others to trample upon our precious plans and pursuits. We want to be encouraged by those who support us and believe that we can do what we determine to do, in Christ Jesus.

God expects us to extend ourselves in order to manifest his blessings.

God's Word tells us that The things which are impossible with men are possible with God (Luke 18:27) and All things are possible to him who believes (Mark 9:23). 

These and other similar scriptures refer to ALL THINGS, not a few things, not some things, not certain things in specific circumstances, not things for some people, but ALL THINGS. If we can believe, then a way will be shown unto us by God's Holy Spirit. We have our parts, however, that we must play and procedures that we must do to realize what God has already secured for us. God expects us to extend ourselves in one way or another to embrace and manifest his blessings.

I am learning to remind myself of the truth every day, that despite aging and regrets over so much time that has passed, I can do more than I've ever done. I confirm it. I declare it. I pray it everyday.

I thank my Heavenly Father for broadening my scope and widening my horizon, for giving me a seeing eye and a hearing ear, for helping me to stay on the straight and narrow path that leads to life, for helping me to not look to the right hand nor the left and for helping me to keep my eye single so that my whole body will be full of light.

Be encouraged through the truth of

Matthew 21:21 and 17:20.

I pray for you that your way will grow brighter every day!

 

Don't Accept What You Don't Want

We have to know within ourselves when we are going or not going in the right direction.

The Holy Spirit said to me one day, How can I give you what you want when you keep accepting what you don't want? You know how God is. When he speaks something profound to us, in one sentence we get years of revelation and learning. Only God can squeeze an extended time of learning into a few words. 

His question that day seems elementary, right? It seems to be a simplistic question, one that requires no answer and, indeed, didn't even need to be asked? Well, if that is the case, why do we do it? Accept what we don't want, that is, instead of waiting on God?

Well, some reasons are:

• we think we'll never get it,
• we think we'll miss out on a deal,
• we're afraid we are not doing God's will by waiting,
• we feel we'll be destitute (or more destitute) or lose a lot
  
• we want to do it now,
• we trusted God before and were disappointed,
  
• our spirit is willing but our flesh is weak, we're simply tired of waiting. 

I don't have an answer for all of these concerns, except to say that we have to know within ourselves when we are going or not going in the right direction at any given time. Sometimes, we have to advance into the territory of not doing God's will before we understand how he works. It is always a learning process but he is always there to help us along, whether it be onto a new path or over the same old path from which he tried to deliver us.

God wants to fill our cups with what will help us to be successful.

When we accept what we don't want to end up with, we become immersed in living a small fraction of the life that God planned for us. We think that we are living our best life and that all is good, so we no longer focus on God in that area. In this scenario, there is no place for God to give us what he had for us. The cup that he wants to fill to overflowing is not only partially filled by our own doings but what it is filled with is more than likely not good for us. It certainly is not the best for us.

Once we realize that something is wrong with this picture, we're way down the road and God has to lead us back to the crossroads. He is always willing, but this takes more effort, time and sometimes even money. By the time we do this several times, through a lack of patience, our lives are almost spent. We're almost to the end when it's time to leave here. Well how is that bad, you ask. I'm going to the Lord now, so it doesn't matter anymore.

What if to get you where you are living your best life yet God needs you to lose some things?

It does matter, however, if near the end of our lives we tarry and can't do much. In our declining years, it's sad to leave this world mulling over regrets about what we could have accomplished, the dreams we could have realized, the people we could have helped had we been patient and learned to do it God's way.

So what if doing it God's way seems to cause you to sink to a level where you did not ever think you'd be? What if you lose something? What if you give up something, a chance, an opportunity? What if you feel fear? Anxiety? Ambivalence? What if to get you where you are living your best life yet God needs you to lose these things, be in these places, experience these uncertainties?

A successful spirit births a successful life that reflects doing it God's way.

Experiencing them God's way with a favorable earthly as well as a blessed eternal outcome is better than experiencing them through doing things our own way with a failed and eternally-devoid outcome. You see, the things that we do God's way, in Jesus' name, last and have eternal significance. The things we do our way do not last and do not store up for us eternal riches in the spirit.   

It's very simple. When we persist in opening doors that God has obviously closed to us or we turn our backs on the doors that he has opened, we accept flawed ways of doing things and reject new ways in Christ Jesus.  God cannot give us what he wants us to have if we keep filling our lives with what we think we need or with the thinly-veiled decisions of failure that we've utilized before. God has our best interests at heart and his will is for us to succeed, first of all, in the spiritual way that gives lasting success. A successful spirit births a successful life that reflects doing it God's way. 

God has our best interests at heart and wants us to first succeed spiritually.

There's no space or place for God's best once we fill our needs in the same old ways that are not subject to God because their origin is in the flesh. God's ways can be initially painful, scary or unsettling, but the Christian life is a New Way, after all. That in itself is unnerving but our Father God is ever willing to help us to successes that we cannot contain, as we learn to do it his way and stop accepting what we don't want.

Isaiah 41:10

Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:13

For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, 'Fear not, I will help you.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

 

I Prayed And It's Getting Worse! Why?

Often, when we are believing God for big changes, and praying and standing on his promises, the opposite will seem to happen. When we think things should be getting better, some things may seem to get worse. Some areas in our lives may need to collapse, so that God can build upon a stronger foundation that which we desire.

This is not pertaining to the foundation of the life of a Christian, for that main foundation is already built upon the Rock of Jesus Christ. The foundations that I'm speaking about are the areas of our lives that are a hinderance to obtaining what we want. They are superflous things, people and circumstances that need to go, that usually were not introduced by God into our lives to remain in the first place.

Some definitions of superflous include unnecessary; uncalled-for; wasteful. The best definition, though, is obsolete, which means no longer produced or used; out of date. They may have been useful at the time, according to God's plan, but are no longer so. We don't realize that many advancements, relationships and situations that we encounter are not meant to continue along the road with us.

God rarely reveals to us that what is a blessing at one time will become dispensible at his appointed time. These invited-turned-uninvited blessings must be wrenched from our lives in ways that we don't expect, because we don't understand that we must let them go. While God is permanent, the circumstances that he allows or places in our lives are not always so.

How do we handle these potentially upsetting and distressing developments? We continue to stand on the original promise of God. While doing so, we also do what is best at any given time, facing the challenges that God places before us. We determine to continue to have faith in him, while doing our part to fearlessly manage our daily lives, fearing no thing.

We go with the flow and recommit to God daily, loving and praising him with every fiber in our being. The course may veer off along the path at times, but if we are sure of what God is doing in our lives, then the path is the same. It is time to move upwards and onwards to what we asked God for.

Definitions: dictionary.com , Google 
Image: pixabay.com

Where Is The Benefit In Feeling Beaten Down?

Sometimes we suffer and are sad because of circumstances that God allows upon our lives. Sometimes we don't feel that we can overcome the devastating feelings, which cause us to drag around listlessly doing our daily tasks. We know that we love God, and we still are able to make ourselves read the Bible and pray during these times, but we feel so beaten down by situations.

We know that God allows these things for our benefit, but where is the benefit in feeling beaten down? Well, we should remember that the beaten down feeling is not the goal of God. That feeling and the circumstance that brought it are being used to get our attention. There is something that he wants us to grasp that is above what the circumstance has caused us to feel. To have us look up to it, he had to spur us up. Like the pointy, sharp boot spurs that a cowboy presses into the sides of a horse to startle him with a little pain to get him moving, God spurs us to move our spirit and thoughts in a certain direction, away from and above the sorrow of what he has allowed.

So when we who are devoted to God enter into a period of trial and tribulation, we should not deny that we feel lost, hopeless and just plain tired. We want to benefit from the experience that God has chosen to use. We don't want to waste it, or have to take that lesson again, so we admit and accept how we are feeling. In the midst of it, we who trust God should then ask ourselves, What is it that would help me to feel better right now? For this exercise, the answer is not money, a vacation or anything outside of us. It is something within. It is thoughts or a way of thinking that will in turn control feelings. It is thoughts that go beyond what we could make up to feel better, because that is why we feel so depressed, because our own thoughts cannot handle it.

This is where being already built up in faith helps us tremendously. Reading the Bible and praying always, when things are going well and we feel great, builds up in us a strong storehouse of faith, hope and scripture references. So when we are suffering like this, if we can reach up and understand something that would make us feel better, a promise from God, a past answered prayer, a strong scripture passage that speaks especially to us, a revelation, a confirmation, that will be one of the things that God is trying to point us to, away from the actual crushing distress. This something that only we would know will pull us up inwardly (not by our own bootstraps which often break) to higher heights of strength, faith, victory and understanding of God. That is when we attain a new level in Christ, which was God's purpose all along.

Waiting On God? Or Just Indefinitely Waiting?

The path to success is not along a familiar route.

~S Holland~

 

If you are waiting on God, so that he can bring to you something familiar, so that your dreams will come true, you may be waiting 'till you die.

Your fondest dreams will not be brought about through a path you've already traveled, or else you'd already have them.

To have something you've never had, you've got to do something you've never done. God will show you what it is. He probably already has.

Don't keep waiting on the familiar, calling it waiting on God, and miss God.

 

Saved But Worried Or Afraid?

Every day of your life conceive of yourself as living in partnership and companionship with Jesus Christ. If He actually walked by your side, would you be worried or afraid? Well, then, say to yourself, "He is with me." Affirm aloud His promise, "I am with you always." Then change it to say, "He is with me now." Repeat the affirmation three times every day.

~ Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking condensed edition, Chapt. 8, How To Break The Worry Habit, pg. 36. ©1987 & 2008 Peale Center for Positive Thinking. All rights reserved. Guideposts Outreach. GuidepostsFoundation.org ~

 

What About The Bad Places In My Life?

Sometimes as Christians we worry about the things that we can't seem to get right. We are frustrated over bad things that continue to crop up in our thoughts, our behaviors, and our lives. We lament that our failures and challenges are putting us behind. We feel anger that the influence or seeming control of another/others is causing unwanted effects to grow as we work to grow in the Lord.

Matthew 13:24-30 talks about the good seed and the tares. A man planted good seeds in his soil, and while he rested, an enemy came by and sowed some tares, or unwanted seeds, in among his good seeds. 

When his servants saw the sprouting of the bad seed among the good, they were aghast. They did not understand how this could have happened when they knew he would not have sown other than good seeds. They wanted to go to work ripping up the tares seedlings. No doubt, they thought it would be better to do this now, than wait for the wheat-resembling weeds to grow larger and stronger. They were concerned that these unwanted plants would take over, and even kill the good plants.

Their master, the owner who sowed the good seed, explained to them that it would be better to let the tares grow along with his good plants. If they ripped them out now, they would also dislodge and destroy many of the good seedlings in the process. He told them to wait until harvest time, when it would be easier to separate the weed plants from the good grain, and throw out the bad and keep the good. The owner knew that the tares would not take over.

This parable relates to what God will do when it's time for this world to end. It is okay that people who don't want to accept Jesus and love God are living, growing, advancing, prospering and even sometimes winning over Christians. In the end, when God's harvest is ripe, he will discard and destroy the remaining tares, those who refused Jesus Christ as Savior, and bring into his bosom those who love Him through the Shed Blood of His Son. 

Practically, we should practice the same confidence in ourselves and our lives. We don't have to worry about our faults, mistakes, failures, challenges, setbacks, relapses, struggles and rebellions. In the soil of our lives and in this world, there will always be tares, planted by any number of people, circumstances and unavoidable influences. Our focus and job is to keep planting and filling our fields with good seed. Don't worry about the bad seeds in our lives, why they are there, or how they got there. Many of them will die off along the way, as our good seeds grow. Those that are stubborn weeds that persist in surviving and even growing along with our good growth? Well, they will be destroyed in the end. In the end, it will be easy for the bad to be completely obliterated, and the good to be preserved.

Don't worry. Continue to focus on planting good seed into your thoughts, your mind, your heart, your being, your life. In the end, anything that is not done for Christ, by Christ, through Christ will be ripped out, separated and destroyed, never to grow, influence and affect again. In the end, everything that is done for Christ will last.

Tares Definition: TheFreeDictionary
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