5.18.11

John 10:10 The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.  My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

My Thoughts

We are such visual people... this would be an easy choice if there were two people standing in front of us...one looking all evil, with weapons in their hand, drugs or alcohol ...maybe a criminal record posted behind them. Then on the other side a kind, gentle looking man with a nice save home... nice food cooking on the stove... news paper articles posted behind him of all the kind things he has done. There you are in the middle with a choice to make... you can live with this person... or that person.  Most of us would choose the safe place.. the place where somebody was going to nurture us... help us grow strong.. love us... make the right choices for us.  Look at this picture it is a no brain-er!!

Yet daily in our heads and our hearts we have the same thing going on.. we just feel it...we don't see it.  We are more confused... we shouldn't be but we are.  The devil is filling our heads with the wrong choices...telling us that we are useless... that people don't love and care about us.. telling us that alcohol and drugs will make us feel better. The Holy Spirit is telling us to do things that are good for us... Jesus tells us if we make the right choices and do what is good and kind and loving.. if we look to Him... he will take care of everything else.  We hear the Holy Spirit...then we often listen to the "but" of the thief, the devil himself.  If we could get a visual in our head of which voice was talking to us most all of us would choose to listen to the Holy Spirit. After all who in their right mind would not choose a rich and satisfying life??

There is a way to get that visual in our mind.. to know the difference in the voices inside our heads. God's word... when we read God's word daily... put it in our heart... when we know what God wants for us in our lives, we  better recognize the Holy Spirit talking to us.. we better understand the big  picture.  We can hear the "but" ...and know that the thief adds the "but's" in our lives so he can steal away our riches...our satisfaction that Jesus wants us to have. When we learn to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit... we become stronger and wiser... more and more able to protect ourselves from the thief and more and more able to stay in the safety of God's loving arms.  We always make better choices with the right information.. the right information comes from God's word.