LS007b - Closer Than a Brother II - Higher Than a Friend

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I can't complain. Not when I'm learning to trust Jesus more and more with each and every passing moment of my life and learn to live "in the now" as it were. This is instead of getting trapped in my memory palace being pulled between two places at once with either past regrets or future hopes.

Today, I want to continue on with something that I posted at the start of the year, how Jesus sticks closer to me "than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24) and I want to dive a little bit more into what that means for me going into the next month of this year and beyond...

Higher Than a Friend

I said, in the first part, our willingness to change can either promote us forward into our future or it can actually hold us back, depending on where our focus is at any one time. As you can imagine, I've been through some bitter, bitter disappointment having found out last year that the girl I'd been crushing on relentlessly for nearly 3 years was actually taken.

Yet I realised that the deeper I got into disappointment, the stronger God's presence became and I started to realise that the more I emptied of myself, the more there was left for me to begin to rely upon God all over again.

Now, that particular event stung and still stings to this day because I still like her, a lot. Yet it was here that I realised that the more I emptied of myself into God's lap and began to truly depend upon and rely upon Him, the more I realised that He was all I actually needed in this life.

This again, brought me back to what Ps. Craig Groeschel said in one of his sermons I watched last year: -

"Until God is all you have, you don't realise that He is all you need."

The fact that, on current standings, nothing can now happen at this stage with this particular person hits like a hammer blow to the chest every time I contend with the idea.

You know what though? I've got God with me and that's enough for me right now.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that even if I never met another girl as amazing as... she... is then that would be fine by me because I already have the greatest Treasure that I could ever need in this life; Jesus.

He was here first in my life so He should be first in my life!

What about you? Are you struggling with disappointments or setbacks you think you'll never recover from? Is there no way that you'll be able to get out of that bad debt? Free from that addiction you've had for years?

Bring Jesus into the mix and you will see what a difference He can make the moment you surrender your issue over to Him. You see He doesn't need your permission to change the world, but He loves you enough to want do it through you!

In debt? He loves you.

Addicted? He loves you.

Ashamed of your bad choices? He loves you.

There are no good or bad choices, just choices. The only "good" or "bad" is the meaning that we associate with them. We need to step outside from this way of thinking and remember that no matter what, God is still good (Psalm 119:68)!

Final Thought

Surely that's worth a consideration today if you're struggling with a sense of who you can trust in or rely upon. I'll tell you what, I'll even go one step further by saying that God promises to make straight your paths if you will but trust Him: -

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (KJV)

First, trust God. He knows what He is doing, He's been running things for a while now.

Second, surrender understanding because His ways are "higher than yours" (Isaiah 55:9) so you are bound not to understand everything, all the time.

Third, in everything learn to acknowledge that God is present, that He loves you and that He wants the best for you.

Finally, watch as God works out a masterpiece out of your mess and a treasure out of your trash bringing you into the future that He always knew that you'd be destined to fulfil.

Peace!

===TLP===