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Cash in on your troubles. Do you know the cash value of your troubles? Did you even know that your troubles had a cash value of an exceeding eternal weight of glory. Cause if you don’t, you could be walking away form a considerable treasure trove the next time you choose the flight plan, instead of the fight plan.

TROUBLES?.. BRING IT ON!

If you could make your troubles become an asset, you could have a no-loose, win/win prospect for life. If you had a clear line of sight on exactly what benefit your troubles were generating for you, not only could you be sustained by, but thrive on an attitude like Paul’s. What did Paul say about the troubles of life…..BRING IT ON. This is a man born with a silver spoon in his chops; yet he choose a life rife with troubles, and met his troubles with a no-beat-down attitude to boot. If you could make a goldmine out of your troubles you would too. Paul had an impressive resume of troubles, probably second only to Job’s…..or third, if you count our Lord; listen:

Calm under fire, the bush burned but was not consumed.

For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Are (any) ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool ) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned and left for dead (Acts 14:19 And there came certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, (thinking) he had been dead.), thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;

In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak ? who is offended, and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me: And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.

Make your troubles an asset, they are pointing us to a life that comes form heaven, and requires no earthly provision. We encounter many afflictions, but as we are delivered from them all we become acquainted with the power of this life that is revealed in our deliverances.

How many people talk about the green pastures, and still waters of Psalm 23 without giving even so much as a thought about the paradoxical location of that such still waters, and green pastures. The valley of the shadow of death is where these tranquil visions are located….right dead smack in the valley of the shadow of death. This place is called the shadow of death not on a whim, but purposefully, because this is a place where you experience the sensations of death; you don’t actually die literally, but the difference is not hardly appreciable, because it is virtually real death.

Even the table prepared for me, is in the presence of my enemies. All the conflicts that I encounter, God causes them to work together to get me to the rock that is higher than myself.... the rock from which I am carved. When I am overwhelmed God leads me to that rock.

You encounter all the pain, the fear, the alarm, the hunger, the emptiness, the loneliness, the abandonment, the heaviness, the grief, the loss, the diminutions, the shrinking away, on the road to death, but when you get to that point, you find instead, green pastures, and still waters, not death itself. This is that life that you find when you loose your life in death valley, or conversely will miss out on it, if you choose to find your own life.

We started out together, nine months of cramped quarters in the dark womb; then the great coming out party. Somebody turned on the lights; a whole new world of sights and information bombardment. Was always fed by continual uninterrupted supply; now I have to cry to get fed. The temperature was always just right, now you have to constantly make adjustments. Never needed clothes, now you can’t do without. You are the only voice I’ve known, how could we not be right? Why do we have to part ways.

If we end up with the life we were born to, we will have missed some vital signs alon the way. We are born to one kind of flesh and blood life, but we inherit another kind of life; the life of God. God makes us to experience hunger, and thirst which point us to this kind of life.

Only way to cross the river is to show up; you can’t cross it without being there. The Levite Priests carrying the ark of God’s presence were told to cross the river, but the waters were not going to roll back until they would stepp in. The Red Sea didn’t open until Moses got to there, you’re doing what you know is right, and something shows up that looks like it’s going to end you; so you re-assess the plans that got you to that spot, and draw up new ones; maybe it was time to see just how no weapons formed against you can prosper, instead of making new plans.

We get a real sense of God's kind of life when we can experience limitless freedom and liberty enve thouth there are phylical chains about our ankles. This speaks to us about the power of life in the Spirit of God that transends physical limitations. We are delivered from all manner of bondages but encouter bondage and fear so we can diaplay freedom from fear in fearful times, and liberty from bondage before the chains are taken off.

Not just wait, but wait on the Lord to make of your troubles, quickly an end. Forward still is Jehovah’s will, though the bellows dash and spray; we will march ahead with a conquering tread, and roll the sea away. No guarantees were made that no troubles would show up on the road given you to walk, so when troubles show up; recalculating a new route is perhaps not your best laid plan, but confronting that challenge. Paul’s letter in Hebrews told of people who waxed strong in battle; you don’t become strong by running away, but by engagement in conflict.

Habakkuk reports that in the valley of the shadow of death he found a life where he could have joy and rejoice instead of everything bringing him information to the contraty. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:

Cash in your troubles which carry an eternal weight of glory; endure hardship like a good souldier if you will inhertit the glory of the Lord Jesus.

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.

Deuteronomy 8:1-8 And (The Lord) humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

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THE PLANS I HAVE FOR YOU
CONFLAGRATION: Starting To Believe…Transformation cont’d
THE POWER OF GOD: Jesus
THE GIFT OF GOD: Just Say’N Sow It
AGE OF INCREDULITY

VISIT HOME FOR MOST RECENT OF SEVERAL POSTS, FRESHLY PRESSED

Take a look at the alternate versions of your life. What it was, and what it could be as Christ.