{"id":530,"date":"2019-01-25T17:14:53","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T22:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/?p=530"},"modified":"2019-04-09T01:42:04","modified_gmt":"2019-04-09T05:42:04","slug":"in-spite-of-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/in-spite-of-me\/","title":{"rendered":"In Spite of Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was<\/em> on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. ” – Genesis 1:2 (NKJV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world is dark. The mind is dark. And the heart is dark. Darkness dwells, filling in every area we see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in the beginning, there was\ndarkness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Word says everything was swallowed in darkness. There was only emptiness (Genesis 1:1-2). Even now in this world, we have only darkness, the deep emptiness of a spiritual kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the first thing God does in both circumstances \u2013 in the beginning and through Christ \u2013 is to shine light into the darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen God said, \u201cLet there be light\u201d; and there was light.\u201d – Genesis 1:3 (NKJV). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And again:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the beginning the Word already existed.
\n    The Word was with God,
\n    and the Word was God.
\nHe existed in the beginning with God.
\nGod created everything through him,
\n    and nothing was created except\nthrough him.
\nThe Word gave life to everything that was created,
\n    and his life brought light to everyone.
\nThe light shines in the darkness,
\n    and the darkness can never extinguish\nit.\u201d John 1:1-5 (NLT)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so we have light. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I were to be honest with you, even with\nknowing God for as long as I could remember, I struggled with the darkness in\nmy mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The darkness stemmed from all the\nbitterness in my heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pain and loss leads to bitterness. Bitterness leads to resentment and hatred. This bitterness corrupts others, for it is written: \u201cLook after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.\u201d \u2013 Hebrews 12:15 (NLT), <\/p>\n\n\n\n

and \u201cGet rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.\u201d \u2013 Ephesians 4:31-32 (NIV), <\/p>\n\n\n\n

and again, \u201cA good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.\u201d- Luke 6:45 (NLT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet I can\nstill remember with clarity all the sufferings and wrongs at the hands of\nothers. This leads to despair, for if I cannot be free from this even after\nyears of struggle, where\u2019s my hope? When will it end, and where will I go?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romans\n15:13 clearly says in no uncertain terms that God is the source of hope. Hope\nis not to be found in good deeds we see and hear of that leaves us glowing with\nhappiness and dissipates after a little while. That sort of hope is eventually\nforgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope\nis not in tomorrow. Hope is not in the new job you need. Hope is not in\nprogress you are making, for anything we do can become undone in a moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cMeaningless!\nMeaningless!\u201d
\n    says the Teacher.
\n\u201cUtterly\nmeaningless!
\n    Everything is meaningless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do people gain from all their labors
\n    at which they toil under the sun?\u201d \u2013 Ecclesiastes 1:1-3\n(NIV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore God is the source of hope. Whatever He\ndesigns to accomplish, He will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs the rain and\nthe snow
\n    come down from heaven,
\nand do not return to it
\n    without watering the earth
\nand making it bud and flourish,
\n    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread\nfor the eater,
\nso is my word that goes out from my mouth:
\n    It will not return to me empty,
\nbut will accomplish what I desire
\n    and achieve the purpose for\nwhich I sent it.\u201d \u2013Isaiah 55:10-11 (NIV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I look to God and feel very sure of this, that my purpose in the\nLord will be fulfilled. \u201cI cry out to God Most High, to God\nwho fulfills his purpose for me.\u201d \u2013 Psalm 57:2 (ESV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David wrote this, not knowing when his exile during the reign of his enemy, King Saul, would end. He knew that God is the source of hope. And so He is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep this for yourself. Whatever purpose God\ncreated you, created me for, it will be done. In spite of you. In spite of me.\nIn spite of our failures, our pain, our weaknesses. It will be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May we have joy not dependent on anything in\nthis world, in ourselves, people, and our beloved animals, but in God. That\u2019s\ntrue hope. That\u2019s His unchanging, eternal love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither\nangels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor\ndepth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the\nlove of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u201d- Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. ” – Genesis 1:2 (NKJV) The world is dark. The mind is dark. And the heart is dark. Darkness dwells, filling in every area we see. Even in the beginning, … Continue reading In Spite of Me<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":575,"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions\/575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}