Nanny 911 and the Children of God

     So many times, I have learned about God in a new way by observing the lives of children in relation to their parents.  James Dobson related a story of taking his child to get their booster shots and how the child begged him to be removed from the painful situation, but as a father he knew it needed to be done.  Recently, one of my daughters related her viewing of the show "Nanny 911" where parents bring in a child behavior specialist (the nanny) to help "fix" a bad family situation.  She said the Nanny usually gave the parents advice on how to set rules and boundaries for their children to help them grow into responsible adults.  My daughter pointed out to us her understanding of the things her mother and I had done to give her guidance and that she now can see a little clearer the reasons. 
     I find myself more and more relating to the children in these stories and even more relating to my daughter's experience of coming to an understanding of the reasons that God takes us through painful times.  I have often spoken to people who acknowledge God and like an infant, they stubbornly remain angry with God for something they had to go through or are going through now.  The younger you are, the less you see that your life is continually molding you and strengthening you.  If you always avoid the pain, you do not see the benefits of God's path.  You do not develop the quality of trust in God which brings peace to your life.  You do not develop the coping strategies or the ability to see and avoid future trouble.  You are stuck in fear with no guidance out the other side. 
     God have given us simple ways to go through troubled times, but sometimes we do not believe it can be that simple.  Or sometimes we refuse to let go of our own plans and turn every moment and every pain and every fear over to God.  Trusting God is NOT logical in the setting of our life.   But at some point you will face something that defies the ability to reason your way out.  You will be stuck and at that point, you must ask God to do something supernatural.   You must ask him to take control of everything, but most importantly to take control of YOU.  You must cry out to God and ask him to step into the situation whether it is logical or not and just be God.  If he wasn't someone who could do that, then He is not who he promises to be and not the one to whom I have trusted my life and soul to.
     There have been times in my life, many that most people do not know about, but times when I have bowed down to the floor, or I have raised my hands in the air and verbally asked God to take over and bring all those involved into his presence where evil and confusion can not exist.   I have asked him to control the spiritual realm around me which is where most of our pain begins.

"12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12

We struggle with things we do not understand, but we must ask God to struggle with them, because He does understand them and overpowers them easily. We must ask him to do so continually. He is God and we are not. In our submission He takes over and becomes our strength and it is a wonderful thing to experience. The confusion in your life subsides. The temptations that run rampant become less and less visible to your eyes which are filled with the blinding light of God's peace. We start to learn that things are a lot easier when we do not act as children do and try to take control of that which we are not yet ready to handle. If we are going to be God's children, then let's run to him crying with our hurts and fears. Let's trust that he truly has the answers and the ability to fight off the things in this world that scare us. Then the boundaries and rules God has outlined for us become a guiding rope along the path of peace.

The More Excellent Way

Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.  And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.  All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they?  All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?  But earnestly desire the greater gifts.

And I show you a still more excellent way.   1 Corinthians 12:27-31

.   This is right before the Bible chapter often called the "love chapter." It sets the context for the verses many of us are familiar with. The setting or context as you can read above is........ the church of Jesus Christ.

It says that we are individuals, but are part of a body. God gave us functions so that we could work together like body parts work together. We have to be individuals, different from each other. We are not all preachers, not all teachers, not all prayer warriors, we are gifted for specific tasks. We have these gifts, but we should also aspire to the greater gifts that God has given us. These are the things that join our body parts together and connect us in order to properly move and serve. What is the "more excellent way" that He will show us?

Lets keep reading ..

Here is my translation of 1 Corinthians 13

If I am gifted to be a great preacher, but do not have love, I am just a lot of noise. If I have the gift of great insight and knowledge; and if I have strong faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my money, sacrifice my time, and give my life over, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. The gifts I have, even if they are used, cannot help without love among the members of the body. How do I act in love so that all of God's gifted parts create a functioning body. Here are some rules about the love that connects us as a body.  We are to aspire to live out this greatest of gifts.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not offended, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails;

Our knowledge and faith will eventually not be needed. Our gifts of preaching and teaching will eventually cease in the light of God's glory. For we know in part and we prophesy in part right now; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. They are gifts God has given us to help us learn the greater gifts. They are teaching tools like you would give to a child. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. Then we will realize what was most important and what was only temporary. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but even faith and hope will be fulfilled in the presence of God along with all of the ministry and gifts we worry over today, but the greatest will remain forever.  The greatest of these is love.