Good morning everyone,

Psalm 59:8-10
But you, O Lord, laugh at them;
you hold all the nations in derision.
9 O my Strength, I will watch for you,

for you, O God, are my fortress.
10 My God in his steadfast love will meet me;
God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.

I believe one of the biggest challenges for us Christians, especially in our nation, is to not live frustrated at God when things are not peaceful or as comfortable as we hoped. One of the possible reasons we feel that way, is that we usually have confidence that we have been faithful and obedient in doing all God has asked for us to do. So in turn we think life should be rather smooth and easy because we obey. However it reveals how much we need our mind renewed from our culture and back to the Word.

It is no wonder that churches that preach and teach "a life of material prosperity and comfort is what God desires for you to have" is popular amongst Christians (or anybody for that matter!). Because our culture "preaches" that happiness comes from having everything be "good" in this life, kind of of like heaven! Though we know this isn’t heaven, many Christians even try to persuade others that their life isn’t tough, and anything that doesn’t look "prosperous" is an embarrassment to them. An easy example is how we portray our marriages to people, our kids, our home, etc. All of these things if we are not biblical, will tempt us to try and act like we are "blessed". But we wrongly think that having no issues or having nice stuff is what being blessed by God is all about.

Yet such a mentality will not witness or relate at all to people around us who are embarassed about their issues yet "materially propsperous" and are "hiding from God", full of shame and guilt. We should think like David, who didn’t think himself to be cursed by God because He allowed enemies to try and take his life! Many Christians might think that David did something wrong to be attacked by Saul. Yet God allowed David to have such attacks to show David that through faith in God he will truimph over his enemies! Such is the Christian life if we are faithful, as things break out in our lives that we wrongly think is a curse or punishment from God, really is an opportunity for us to truimph in faith over such evil thoughts and situations (ie. a renewed mind). If we have issues in our lives, faith will look to God in order for Christ to be glorified in it, while unbelief hides from God and wrongly blames Him for not giving us what are culture promises.

In His Love, Ld