[Faith-talk] FW: [URCTCPrayerGroup2] I'm ok! by Joyce Meyer

[Eric Calhoun]

Hi, people.  This will conclude my forwards for right now, but know I am
praying for every need represented in Faith Talk.  And Mary, your dad's
not
suffering anymore.  The Lord is blessing you now.


Original Message: 
From: Donna Kiser <kiserdonna5 at gmail.com>
To: URCTCPrayerGroup2 at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [URCTCPrayerGroup2] I'm ok! by Joyce Meyer
Date: 
Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:48:56 -0500

 I'm OK and I'm On My Way!
by Joyce Meyer
The expression "nobody's perfect" is used or heard almost every day, but
it's true-I'm not perfect, you're not perfect, nobody's perfect.
Hopefully,
though, we're all getting better and are on our way to perfection. The
important thing to remember is that even though we're not yet perfect,
we're
still OK. Just because we haven't arrived yet doesn't mean that we're not
on
our way.

It's true that we all still have a long way to go. I used to get
discouraged
about how far I had to go, and it seemed like I was reminded of it every
day, sometimes every hour. I carried a constant sense of failure-a feeling
that I just wasn't who I needed to be, I wasn't doing good enough, and I
needed to try harder. Yet when I did try harder, I only failed again.

I've now adopted a new attitude: "I'm not where I need to be, but thank
God
I'm not where I used to be. I'm OK, and I'm on my way!" I now know with
all
my heart that God isn't angry with me just because I haven't arrived yet.
He's pleased that I'm pressing on and staying on the path. If you and I
will
just "keep on keeping on," God will be pleased with our progress.

Keep walking the walk one step at a time. This is an important thing to
remember. It's true that we have to keep pressing on, but thank God we
don't
have to hate or reject ourselves while we're trying to get to our
destination.

If I invited you to take a walk, you'd think I was crazy if I became
angry
after the first few steps because we hadn't yet arrived at our
destination.
We can understand ordinary things like this, yet we have a difficult time
understanding that God expects it to take some time for us to grow
spiritually.

We don't think there's something wrong with one-year-old children because
they can't walk perfectly. They fall down frequently, but we pick them up,
love them, bandage them if necessary, and keep working with them. Surely
our
heavenly Father can do even more for us than we do for our children.

The process is always difficult. Growing and learning is never easy, but
the
changes make us better people. We begin to think differently, then to
talk
differently, and finally, to act differently. This process develops in
stages, and we must always remember that while it's taking place, we can
have the attitude, "I'm OK, and I'm on my way!"

Enjoy yourself while you're changing. Enjoy where you are on the way to
where you're going. Enjoy the journey! Don't waste all of your "now time"
trying to rush into the future. Remember, tomorrow will have troubles of
its
own (Matthew 6:34).

Today you may be wrestling with a bad temper, thinking if you could just
get
freedom in this area, everything would be all right. But the thing is,
God
will then reveal something else that needs to be dealt with, and you'll
be
back in that same frame of mind again, thinking, "If only I didn't have
this
problem, I could be happy." We must learn to look at these things in a
new
way.

We can be free to believe that we are, indeed, OK and on our way-not
perfected yet, but pressing on. We can be free to enjoy life, enjoy God
and
enjoy ourselves.

Hugs,
Donna--
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. James
4:10