Praying to see troubles in the proper perspective

I pray to see my troubles in the proper perspective.
I know that, as I have suffered, others have suffered and still suffer more.
I pray that I may help to relieve their pain. Amen

Shelter in the morning

"Do not say, 'It is morning,' and dismiss it with a name of yesterday.
See it for the first time as a newborn child that has no name."
- Rabindranath Tagore

"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul."
Psalm 143:8

“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,
but to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain,
but for the heart to conquer it.”
- Rabindranath Tagore

Cover of Rabindranath Tagore

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Emotional pain and emotional deadness

We all experience pain at some time in our lives.
Physical pain can often be helped by medication but emotional pain is much more difficult to deal with. There are times we wish we could completely escape from such grief and hurt. We may even read books, take course or set boundaries in an attempt to find ways to reduce or eliminate this dreadful pain. This is good and may be helpful but there are a few points we need to bear in mind.

Hot bottle rash in a person with chronic abdominal pain who found some relief from the application of heat. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The opposite to pain is not joy but emotional deadness. If we never experience pain and grief it will be because we are also unable to experience love and joy. As a wise person said, ‘Pain is the price we pay for caring.’

God does not promise to take away our pain. He promises to be with us, comfort us and give us peace in the midst of our pain (Phil. 4:6,7). He shares and feels our pain and who better to do so. He experienced unbelievable pain on our behalf as the price of His caring.

Alan Hermann

“6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to god. 7 and the peace of god which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through christ jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7 MKJV)

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Find also:

1. Meaning of life 
2. Suffering
3. Offer in our suffering
4. God helper and deliverer
5. God's instruction about joy and suffering
6. God's promises to us in our suffering
7. Suffering - through the apparent silence of God
8. Suffering continues
9. Suffering leading to joy
10. Surprised by time in joys & sufferings

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Illustration of the pain pathway in René Descartes' Traite de l'homme (Treatise of Man) 1664. The long fiber running from the foot to the cavity in the head is pulled by the heat and releases a fluid that makes the muscles contract. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Luck

Luck is:
Being able to hold somebody's hand
to  stelpen somebody's pain
 … and to do that again with full love tomorrow.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.” (1Jo 4:7 MKJV)

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie > Overdenk vandaag het volgende omtrent Geluk

1 Corinthians 15 Hope in action

"Our future in Christ is secure. Nothing can shake the promise of resurrection to God's faithful people. Resurrection is a certainty - more sure than anything else we can have in this life. Our resurrections will also be a time of great reward when we will receive a new and immortal life - a life that has none of the problems and pains of the life we now live. Resurrection is an incredible hope.

English: Resurrection of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is because of the certainty and the awesomeness of the resurrection, that Paul says this at the end of the chapter: "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." (1 Corinthians 15 v 58)

Take a look at your own life. Do we stand firm in our faith?

Do we always give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord? If either of those answers are "no," then it follows that either our faith in God's promises is lacking, or that we do not fully understand the implications of the resurrection.

This life is not worth the time and energy we give it. Let's focus on God's promises and the resurrection and always give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord."

- Robert Prins, Thinky Things

"O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?"
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."
1 Corinthians 15:55-58

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2013 update:

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End of the Bottom Line

The importance of the bottom line is one of the first lessons of business. Effective business and professional leaders are naturally performance-oriented. They understand the need for results. But that attitude can sometimes negatively affect our spiritual lives.
Ephesians 2:4-10 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.(Holman Bible)

In Business Terms ...

While hiking alone out of the country, I crushed my left leg in a bad fall. I had to drag myself nearly three hours to get to a road, where miraculously I was found and taken to a hospital. Eventually I was flown back to the United States for surgery. The most profound result of that accident was that I discovered God in my pain. There I was, stretched out in bed in excruciating pain, and praying didn't make the pain go away. So I began to ask God how to find him in the midst of the pain and not only as the alleviator of pain. He answered that prayer. Some of the times of deepest pain and anguish were periods of closest fellowship with him. For the first time in my life, I was taken off the fast track for a brief time. I discovered most of my security and identity was in what I accomplished for God - preaching sermons, writing books, leading a church, being part of a media ministry. All of this identified my worth. What can you do when there's nothing to do but wait for healing? During that difficult convalescence, I discovered in a new way that God loves me not for what I do but simply because I belong to him.  - Lloyd John Ogilvie

Something to Think About:

We can't save ourselves by pulling on our bootstraps, even when our bootstraps are made of the finest religious leather.  -  Eugene Peterson
 - 1 Minute Bible for Business Professionals - "End of the Bottom Line"

From pain to purpose

From Pain to Purpose

A basic leadership principle says, "Go with your strengths" - take what you already do well and put even more energy into developing it. Yet God specializes in using our weaknesses to further his purposes. The apostle Paul had some sort of "thorn in the flesh," likely a physical weakness that God used to teach Paul to depend on him.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

In Business Terms ...
I think life is supposed to be difficult. A lot of life is grabbing your leg by the calf, jerking it out of the earth, putting it down in front of you, and going onward. With my disability, some days are easier than others. But for me, life is always difficult. These are issues I must face every single morning. Every morning somebody has to give me a bath in bed, dress me, lift me into a wheelchair, comb my hair, brush my teeth, fix my breakfast, cut up my food, and feed me. When it comes to the day-to-day routines of dealing with the paralysis, at worst, it's depressing; at best, it's boring. I can't live with those flat facts. I have to turn them, by God's grace, into something that has meaning and purpose.   Joni Eareckson Tada

Something to Think About:
He who can't endure the bad will not live to see the good.  -  Yiddish proverb

1 Minute Bible