Dear Doves,
 
I spent some time recently thinking about how God works in our lives, especially when we are in desparate need for help that is outside our abilities to achieve. Of course, He also works when we are not screaming out in emotional or physical pain and grief, but we ten often, I think, to forget these times. He is always at our side and is active in seeing that we form an ever closer relationship to Himself, Jesus and the Holy Spirit
 
An outcome of my thoughts are the following 10 actions which I suggest for review prior to imploring God for help in our everyday problems. The order of the actions follows the priority I think is important, starting with straightening our basic relationship with God before all else.
 
I did not provide Scriptural verses to justify these actions, because I am sure they are all too familiar to most Christians. However, as an exercise to make the imprinting of these actions more powerful in your own mind, you might stop after each action description to see if you know of the verses from Holy Scripture that support the thought that is expressed there. If you do this exercise, I would love to see the verses you selected! (robertbelangerc@aol.com)
 
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TEN ACTIONS WE CAN DO
 
1) We must get our own relationship with God and His Son aligned to His will. We must confess our known and unknown sins (lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life) and repent of our unfaithful behavior. We absolutely need to start with ourselves, rather than seeking someone or something else to blame for our troubles Our troubles are often our own fault because we have an inborn tendency to stray away from God's protective presence (called sinning), by not praying and reading the Word He has provided.
 
2) We must completely surrender our free will to His will and present ourselves as instruments or agents for His will both in our own lives and in the  lives of others. If we are in a good relationship with God, Remember, He can and does empower others to work for our benefit, often unknown to us at the time. However, if we are not in good standing with God,He cannot easily work through those that can affect the outcome of our life decisions.
 
3) We must forgive all, as He forgives all knowing that they know not what they are doing when they try to live separate from His lovingkindness and care. We are all members of His eternal family, after we accept the sacrifice He provided in Jesus death and resurrection, and we need to love others as He loves us all even though at times we may fail to trust in Him completely, or to lean on His understanding instead of our own.
 
4) Again, we must let Him have His way in our life, let go of the steering wheel so to speak, so that He can work unhindered by our ignorant meddling in what He does best and truly enjoys doing for us. Usually He knows and can bring about better results than we can even imagine from our limited viewpoint  Trapped in a three-dimensional world of sense, we cannot see the ends that are associated with actions and thoughts that seem trivial and inconsequential to us, but are not so in the reality of higher dimensional understanding.
 
5) We must rest in the comfort of His grace, which is sufficient for our every need. He is ever present with unlimited resources to do what is needed, even to perform miracles, to see that His ways are fulfilled and that we come at last to enjoy the peace and happiness He meant for us since the beginning. We must know completely that He wants what will bring us joy, peace and complete wellness while we are here on earth in this mortal body. He needs to have our trust at all times.
 
6) We must use our opportunities to help others with needs while we wait for our needs to be tended to. We should of course ask for His guidance so that our meddling arrogance does not overflow into the lives of others and create more stumbling blocks for God to remove.
 
7) We must never fear that He will not do what He promised for His children who pray in the name of His dearest Son, Jesus. He will never leave us nor forsake us and wants above everything else that we return to His loving arms where we belong.
 
8) We must display our faith by the actions and words we use in our relationships with persons on this side of heaven, so that unbelievers will be motivated to search out the basis of our spiritual strength and eventually turn in trust to Jesus for salvation.
 
9) We must actively maintain our relationship with God by stopping every evil thought coming seemingly out of nowhere from the fallen ones who desire our destruction. We need to cast out such thoughts, in Jesus name, that are not perfectly aligned with the love and forgiveness of God, as demonstrated by Jesus. Our strength for overcoming is promised, but we must appropriate it actively to obtain the power it contains for us.
 
10) We must seek His perfect peace by staying our mind as much as possible each day on His love and awesome power. He will forgive and save to the uttermost everyone that trusts in His ever-present and capable efforts. He will assist us believers, the apple of His eye and His dearly beloved creation, until we are finally back to where we were created to reside for eternity--by His side and in the radiance of His Son Jesus Christ our redeemer.
 
YBIC,
 
Robert