Borders in our Lives, Brings Real Freedom to Live

Borders in Our Lives                                       
Bring Real Freedom to Live                 

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A beautiful river without borders becomes
      just another swamp.
So too, like a river without borders, 
     a life without God & Jesus 
     flows into the same result.   



Galations 5:
22 ...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,23gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh          with its passions and desires.25If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.26Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

The irony of success and the problem with the human condition is our freedom to choose.  Either we choose to rely on God and what He has for us, or we rely on self, TV, others, or even the government to tell us or influence us in what to think, say, and do.  One of the problems we face in choosing is we hear much more often from TV and friends that tell us we should depend on this product to make us more attractive, this or that to have more fun, this self-help to make us more confident, and on, and, on and on.  When instead, we should be depending more on seeking a righteous relationship with God and let Him define what is important in our lives and the Real Freedom that brings.

Depending solely on society's norms, popular trends, and strictly personal attitudes to define how we feel is nothing but a path to unhappiness, feelings of insecurity, and sometimes a life of hopelessness and self-destruction   God created this world and we are made in His image and just like a parent as we are interested in our children, so to is God interested in His children.  Similarly, just as good parents give children restrictions and borders for their own good, so too God does the same for us.  Every limit, every border, every "no-no" to our selfish desired behavior that God puts on us gives us a profound freedom to live more in His Ways, His blessings, and in His Joys of life He has for us.  

C. S. Lewis put it this way: 
     "God designed the human machine to run on Himself.  
      He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, 
      or the food our spirits were designed to feed on.  
      There is no other." 

Living in God's borders for our lives allows us Profound Freedom.  Consider this.  Where do we find people who absolutely refuse to live a Godly life to the extent they did what they wanted, when, and how they wanted to.  You find these people filling our jails and prisons, and look at their lack of freedom in their earth bound borders and limits.  The antithesis, the opposite of those jailed people, the people with the most real freedom are those who seek God's Guidance through the Holy Spirit in every thing they think, every thing they say, and in every behavior they live.  Godly focused people live in a confidence beyond themselves, thankful for all they have, never in escessive worry about what others think of them, full of purpose in their life and future, and selfless in achieving the goals God has for them.  Bigger is not better, less is often more, and spiritual gifts are in abundance.  

Now, with that said, will living in God's borders mean you are always happy? No, perhaps most of the time, however, sometimes far from it; but, Joy always resides within us.   We still have to work to live in this world and many times find unhappiness, but Joy comes in the Fruit of the Spirit.  Pretend you are a doctor.  You find happiness in helping people recover from disease.  Even if you live that, God gives you all the talent you have, you cannot save everyone from every disease.  Even in all their success, when good doctors fail they might not show it, but for most of them, failure is disturbing and brings them some unhappiness in wishing to be able to do more.  Another example, as a teacher, I always wanted my students to achieve and it was hard to see them fail try; because, with that persistent attitude, that student would have a difficult life.  I had two students that refused to learn good behavior habits and both are in jail for murder.   But, in living a life within God's borders for us, it better allows us move on in our failures and keep trying to achieve Spiritually well selected goals.

One of the very important results of living in God's borders and in submission to God's will for our lives is the peace of mind that comes to us.  In 1972, as a most self-confident Lieutenant in the Air Force I was presented with a difficult task that for the first time in my life, all I could do is humbly submit to God that I could not solve what a Vietnam combat situation required of me.  I absolutely thought the problem could not be solved but still felt great self inflicted mental pain in my failure.  In my prayer that first night of the "problem" and for the first time in my life I submitted to God, and in giving up to Him the task to be solved, I felt He would have to show me the solution.  In the lowest moment of my life, in humble submission to God, instead of being restless all night trying to solve the problem, I amazingly went to sleep with no effort.  In the first hour of the next morning, it is clear that God put me on the path to the solution.  It was the peace of mind that came in my submission to God that I was lifted to my greatest earthly job related achievement.  By, 8:30 the next morning, the problem was no longer an issue.  Living in God's will, behaving in the borders He teaches us, and in my submission to His will He gave me a peace of mind and a path to His solution.  Peace and Godly vision comes in God's freedom to serve Him.

In the footnotes, I give a second example of the result of devastating unhappiness in living life not humbly submitting our problems to God.

To find God's will for your life,
 Seek Him 
   in prayer, 
     Bible study, and 
especially reading the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5,6, & 7.  

Remember, the Journey in Seeking God's will consists of trying to be in His will in every thought, everything we say, and in every behavior we do.  When we fail, we pray, as we succeed, we pray for strength to continue seeking everything within His borders for for our lives.


Living in God's Will for us: 
we more easily find proper and attainable goals for our lives; 

we realize we do not have to solve every problem we face;

we are more secure in using use His scale
       to make decisions rather than our desires; 

we do not bankrupt our lives living as
       as we behave as we think others want us to live;

we accumulate friends who are more meaningful to us;

selfishness does not rule our lives;

life's purpose  and goals are God given and more meaningful;

and
prayerful decisions in the guidance of the Holy Spirit are more fulfilling in bringing greater inner peace.

Jesus did not promise happiness in all we do, 
but 
living within His borders, we can: 
find peace in the contentment of living this life,
forgiveness in our failures of achieving His will,
a real freedom to excel in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, 
a constant assurance of His blessings, and 
the Promise of Joy in an everlasting life.

Matthew 6:33 NIV

[Jesus speaking] "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

Thanks be to God.

© lonnie coggins

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Publication  0084

intro

A BEAUTIFUL RIVER WITHOUT BORDERS BECOMES JUST ANOTHER SWAMP. So too, like a river without borders, a life without God flows into the same result.  Click for more thoughts on this.    Please share the message on your Fb page as you like, and if you like, click the FB 'Follow' button to have notifications of these publications.  For other messages like this, visit my FB page, or on FB visit-"A Daily Thought Group".

http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2013/01/borders-in-our-lives-brings-real.html

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A second result of accepting God's Will for our lives and living in His borders is learning to find success in and beyond our failures.  On the task given me by the Air Force, I failed miserably the first day of flying trying to achieve the task.  I gave it all I had and failed.  We can give and give and give trying with all our abilities and we often we still fail.  If we do all we do based on our self-developed confidence, the failure can be devastating and crippling.  A friend of mine died in his self-developed confidence.  He was a Major in the Army and in assuming command of a supply depot and due to one behavior of not taking a proper inventory when he took command and when several million dollars of inventory were missing, my friend found himself in a court-martial.  In this "failure", a depression led him to feeling total helplessness and he committed suicide with his parents and children in the house.  This is extreme.  But, when we rely solely on self, failure can be deadly.  God is a God of forgiveness and allows us to fail.  Equally, we should not be too hard on ourselves and allow failure to be only a stepping stone to success.  

© lonnie coggins

lonnie

Publication  0084