Journal 4-13-14

       It is raining this morning, it is Sunday, and I feel a little lonely. My cellie is snoring. The faucet in my cell is leaking and all I can think about is calling my family. I wish I could hold someone close. I miss that. I set down to have a quiet time and I cannot seem to get into it today. I miss my girlfriend. I miss my kids and I miss my work, I miss my life. It’s amazing to me how sin will change you and how it will cause you to take things for granted. There are a few things in this life that people need. God created us that way and sin pulls the wool over our eyes – I guess everybody will have these days- my thinker feels broke – usually that means I have something going on that I need to deal with. Loneliness, frustration, and fear come to mind today in my life. I am eager to get out and get things done. Maybe God wants me to take a chill pill and rest in Him. Usually when I feel this way it is because I have taken the wheel and I need to let Him do the driving. I know this about myself because we’ve been hanging out for 42 years, myself and I that is. Proverbs 14:12 says there is a way that seems right to man, but its end is the way of death. Today what seems right to me would be my family, my life back, my freedom. Psalm 60:11 says “the help of a man is useless” – man cannot be counted on to help a sinner in his need, man cannot save my soul. Only the Lord can do that.
So many times I have begun to feel this way in my life, lonely and discontent. It has been in those times that I have relied on the world to bring me up through work, family, or my social life. Some of those things could be viewed as healthy and some unhealthy. Whatever the case, they were a tool Satan used in the past to deceive me just like he did Eve in the garden 1000’s of years ago. Luke 10:25-37 tells a story about a Samaritan who did not leave a Jew, a stranger, a wounded man, to die on the side of the road like his own people had done and they were actually men of God in that day and age. In the same way the Samaritan helped this man, Jesus is there to help me today in my loneliness. The Lord will lead those who are saved into the fellowship of other believers, like church this morning in prison. If I was left alone today I would be in danger of falling into sin. But with the fellowship of other Christians I can be strengthened to live for God and not the world. Read, pray, turn from sin, and surround yourselves with people put in place to lift you up in the name of Jesus when you are down.

Prayer

Thank you Jesus for sharing that with me this morning. I love you man! Your will be done. Amen

Thoughts:
Jesus gives us strength each day and the promise that He will one day return to take us to be with Him forever. When that day gets here, none of us ever have to worry about feeling the way I do this morning. Until then, He gives us His word, His Holy Spirit, and the church family for fellowship and support. We want people to be there for us when we need help, but are we there for people when they need help? Do we “love our neighbors”? Luke 10:26 says “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” “Have a good day neighbor”