Faith In God Versus Faith In Man
I said a prayer before I started to type this. I said several. I said them through tears, I said them through sorrow. I said a prayer for my daughter. And her father. And every other Black man that I have loved in my life. I prayed for those I do not know. I prayed for those who are victims and those who are transgressors.
I prayed.
Because I honestly do not know what else to do.
It seems as if everyone has solution. They want you to join their militia, their cause, fight, or protest. Some are preaching love and unity...others are preaching more separation. But all the while, more people are dying and more dissension is growing. What is my role in this? If you think I am here to sway you to some side of the court to stand on, you are mistaken. I cannot do that for you. I will not do that to you. But because I am a blogger, I do have a role of responsibility in this. Actually, I take that back. As a human, I have a role of responsibility in this. And my role here, is to stand in my truth.
My truth is not easy to stand in. It is honestly something I have been struggling to stand in well before the tragedies that have fallen upon our nation in the past few days. I have been attempting to stand in my truth for many years and it seems like just recently it has all began to make sense. Something went off like a light bulb in my mind. Maybe it was my daughter looking up at me with this sense of expectancy in her big brown eyes. She looks at me like she is begging for me to give her some direction. Contrary to what the media would tell me to do.
Let her make her own choices.
Do not push your agenda on her.
Just love her for who and what she is.
Ignorance. Pure ignorance. A child needs direction. A child needs nurturing. A child must be brought up in the ways that their parents see fit. From adulthood on forward, at that point, my child can take the keys of wisdom I have placed upon her and make her own decisions. But until then, it is my role, my God given job to protect, teach, love, and care for her. But the one thing I do know, is that I cannot care for her if i do not care for myself.
"If I have no direction to where my faith lies, how can I direct her?"
For many years, I have held the belief that I believe in God. Despite some of my actions, I have always believed that God and I, we had this bond. I have went through cycles in my life where I could speak to Him like I was talking to my best friend. If someone looked in on our conversations they would probably label me insane. I looked like Homeless Joe walking down the street talking to someone who was not there. And for me, He was there. But even still, my faith was not in Him. My faith was in man and I did not even realize it. I have preached the word to others, went door to door to share the good news of Jehovah God. I have witnessed but the moment things got rough for me, I worried and would unknowingly lose faith.
For many years I struggled with the notion that I could not do certain things on my own because I was afraid. During the recent years as the world has fallen deeper and deeper into hatred, I have worried about what would happen to my child in the future. I have put on a good game face but on the inside my mind raced daily on what was to come of this world. Just recently, I have stopped. I have stopped being worried. I have stopped running and I have placed my bible in front of me and I have prayed. I do not have much to give you with this post. And in honesty, this may all look like a lot of rambling. But what I can give you is the Truth. I want to share some of my favorite scriptures with you. Take them and write them down. Read them when your heart is heavy. And pray. This is my gift and my offer to my readers. I hope this helps bring you peace.
These scriptures have been pulled from the New World Translation of The Holy Scriptures. You can find out more at www.jw.org.
On the Wicked Ones Of The Earth
Proverbs 18:5- It is not good to show partiality to the wicked one Or to deprive the righteous one of justice.
Psalm 10:2- The wicked one arrogantly pursues the helpless one, But he will be caught in the schemes he devises.
Proverbs 29:7- The righteous one is concerned about the legal rights of the poor, But the wicked one has no such concern.
Proverbs 10:25- When the storm passes by, the wicked one will be no more, But the righteous one is a foundation forever.
On Hard Times
Isaiah 8:22- Then he will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness, obscurity and hard times, gloom and no brightness.
2 Timothy 3:1- But know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here.
Ecclesiastes 3:3- A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up;
On Faithfulness
James 2:18- Nevertheless, someone will say: “You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
Romans 1:17- For in it God’s righteousness is being revealed by faith and for faith, just as it is written: “But the righteous one will live by reason of faith.”
John 14:1- Do not let your hearts be troubled. Exercise faith in God; exercise faith also in me.
2 Corinthians 5:7- for we are walking by faith, not by sight.
On Love
1 John 4:7- Beloved ones, let us continue loving one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God.
1 John 4:18- There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts fear out, because fear restrains us. Indeed, the one who is fearful has not been made perfect in love.
John 13:34- I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also love one another.
1 Thessalonians 4:9- However, concerning brotherly love, you do not need us to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.
On Hope
Psalm 39:7- What, then, can I hope for, O Jehovah? You are my only hope.
Romans 15:13- May the God who gives hope fill you with all joy and peace by your trusting in him, so that you may abound in hope with power of holy spirit.
Galatians 5:5- For our part, we are by spirit eagerly waiting for the hoped-for righteousness resulting from faith.
On The Future
Luke 23:43- And he said to him: “Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise.”
Revelation 2:7- Let the one who has an ear hear what the spirit says to the congregations: To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
Psalm 37:11- But the meek will possess the earth, And they will find exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.
With love,
-Shanicia
