There is a story of two siblings that were brought up together. They were raised the same and we are to believe treated the same. Their outcome though was different.
Cain and Able have always interested me, I think mainly because it was their choices that led them to their outcomes. Cain chose to be jealous and angry and kill his brother, he ultimately allowed his thoughts and emotions of feeling that the Father was wrong, mean and subsequently treated him poorly, but certainly his next actions were within his own free will to make things worse. Able on the other hand is different, we know through what it says in the Bible that Able was good and behaved appropriately, and this is what I have been thinking about. Able just got on with it, and God rewarded this favourably to him.
Cain didn't have to do what he did, God did not show favour to Able because the thoughts that Cain had. Miracles can be recieved in any size, shape and form. Miracles can be given to who so ever asks. Anyone can be blessed.
Quite a few thoughts came out of this, the first reminded me of a story. And Yes for all my Donkey reading fans out there it is another donkey story.
The farmer and his donkey would go out to plough the fields each day, whatever the season or the weather. One day the donkey fell into a hole.
The farmer stood and pondered a while as to what he should do. The donkey couldn’t get out under its own steam, the farmer wasn’t strong enough to get him out on his own and the nearest village where he could get help was a good couple of hours walk away.
So the farmer finally and reluctantly decided that the donkey was near enough to the end of his life that he probably wouldn’t last much longer so he might as well just bury him in the hole. He set about the long hard task of shovelling the earth over his shoulder and into the hole. Now the donkey was understandably not at all happy about this stuff landing on and around him and anyway had no intention of dying. So he started moving around, shaking the earth off and gradually tramping it down under him. The farmer, intent on digging and hurling in the earth, didn’t notice.
Some time later the donkey walked out of the hole.
So the moral of the tale: If something’s getting you down, you’re not happy about it and have no intention of accepting it, learn from the old donkey:
Shake it off, put it behind you and get on with life!
So much possibilty is in front of us, so much we are capable of achiving, and when we reflect back on this it seems apparent that we have performed miracles in our darkest moments, often apparent that they are little miracles but miracles none the less.
I had my car taken away from me today.
It is horrible, there has been some confusion with the warrenty on the licening that the disability team from the motability. They had very kindly extended the date for the cars return but the dates being muddled up caused a lot of problems, and now for the next three weeks I do not have a car. (I do have several options available to me that i have been working on) Now, this plus a lot of negativity last week would have normally have sent my depression in to a downward spiral. I would be feeling bad, negative about my health, where I wouldn't be able to get around, sad that I have lost the car and generally having low self esteem. Yet instead I rung around, found out all of my opions available, relied on friends to talk to and help leveate some stress. And I now have several options infront of me without being depressed and spiralling out of control.
I honestly believe that the holes we get into can be avoided, we can act better and avoid some situations, ignore negativity, do not rise to arguments and continue being the good person that you can be. In allowing the devil the little bit of satisfaction of getting you to the ground is difficult to avoid because he is so good at doing it. But I heard a phrase at a Christian conference recently that stated that we should avoid the devil putting the spear into our necks when we are concentrating on everything else around on, as we lay motionless on the ground. This made me think that the bigger things that happen can be avoided.
Stop blaming other people for teh things that are bad that happen and blame yourself for your problems. Just because things are not going right in your life now does not give you the right to blame others. Because things have not gone right before and you are haunted by things in the past shouldn't be anyone else's fault. Stop worrying about the past and concentrate on the future, look forward rather than the problems behind you. Look up (to God) rather than allowing the devil to keep you focused motionless on the ground. God will hold His hand out to help you, He will strengthen you in all of His ways but He will not do it for us, because we have the free will choice. Just because life is hard shouldn't mean we should sit and wait for a mirale. We need to get up dust off and climb out of the hole.
Keep the thought "I can do what I can do"
David had 5 smooth stones but killed a giant. Moses didn't think he could do the things God asked out off him. Trust that God will help you and when you wiggle and dust yourself off God is with you helping you make a bit of progress. The reality of living our lives can be hard, very hard, but sometimes we need to act like Able and get on with it, see the miracles unfold, be aware of the bad that is around us but continue for God, because in that case God will still provide and give us a helping hand. Sitting and waiting for the miracles to happen in front of you or waiting for God to do teh task for us is never going to happen. As the saying goes "A watched Kettle doesn't boil" If you want to heat water until it boils, then you watch it while you wait, then it seems to take a very long time. In the same way, anything that we wait for with eager attention seems to take a very long time: like waiting for someone to arrive, waiting for the phone to ring, waiting for a letter to come. This Miracle watching reminds me of the scene from Mary Poppins when the children tidy the nursery, The boy Micheal sees Mary and his Sister Jane perfom the magic and he tries and tries again to do it himself but once everything is busy around him he is slightly distracted and then he just gets on with it.
Sometimes we can get into terrible situations in life, sometimes we can be angry about them, but try and not let the devil allow you to concentrate to much on them. Get up, wiggle, dust yourself off and climb out of the hole. Click your fingers and pray to God and instead of waiting or getting tied up with His answering of your prayer get on with your life and do good. More importantly Miracles can be given to who so ever asks. Anyone can be blessed.
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