God is in control of it all....

Maybe it would seem that it is just us mere humans that are the cause of the troubles that we have, or others that we deal with. But I tend to think that God has everything to do with what happens in the life of a Christian. The tests and trials we face tell us if we are securely anchored to God and Christ, or if we are just floating around in storms of life being tossed about. We make choices based on out beliefs. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I believe that God does put situations in our lives. We do need to choose to follow Him or not to. God does allow and control what happens to us. For what reason? Don't know. Couldn't tell you for everyone. And most of the time I'm not even sure for myself. But the one thing I do know: He is my Rock, my anchor, my fortress in the times of trouble. And I know that Chris and many others will agree. I am a Christian. I am proud of it. And there are days when I would not know what to do if it was not for my being able to trust God to guide me. The sad part of wearing the title of "Christian" is that it is just that. A title. It's like walking around with heavy bag that has the label "Gold" on the outside. After some time it gets to be too heavy to carry any more. Or someone askes youto open it, only to see what is inside. When you open the bag they will see one out of two things: Pure Gold and priceless gems worth everything in the world, or useless rocks that can be found almost anywhere in the world. The question is what does the bag you carry hold? It may have "Christian" on the outside, and many people may be impressed by it, but what's inside? If it were a sack of useless rocks, would you carry it a step farther? What if it was filled with the purest gold or most precious gems on the face of the earth, of more value than anything else? How long would you be willing to carry it then, knowing that it was so valuable? Our faith is like that. It can be a heavy burden to carry, a chore weighing us down with each step we take. Or it can be filled with more value than we can even begin to imagine and that makes it so much lighter. And, when filled with the value of the God's Love, Wisdom, Guidance, Compassion, Grace, Forgiveness, all that He is, well, He is going to send His Spirit to help carry the load. We never have to carry it alone. JR wrote a poem that caught me off guard the first time I read it. It brought tears to my eyes when I realized that he was seeing things more clearly than I was at the time. He called "Broad Shoulders" and it is… I can't find the words. I'm going to put it here for you to read and think about. Mav. "Broad Shoulders" I Love my Dad. I am very glad he's my Dad He is big and strong, can lift a lot of weight on his broad shoulders. He can carry a heavy load and he never lets go. When I was little it made me giggle when he would carry me around the town, never putting me down off his broad shoulders. But now I am older and I can clearly see the weight he carries for me. All the worries of the day protecting me in every way. His shoulders are broad, but they carry a heavy load So at night, and every day, I pray, "Lord, your shoulders are very broad. Help Dad with his load" And every day He takes the load off of Dad's broad shoulders. For the weight Dad carries is heavy to him, but to God it is nothing to carry on His broad shoulders. (http site) This and other poems he has written can be found on his website. [Anonymizer] [NetHUSH] [Megaproxy] [subDIMENSION Anonymizit] [Linkbeat] [freeProxy] [@nonymouse] [BlackCode]