Strife: BEWARE

I am officially a Joyce Meyer fan after getting the opportunity to go to one of her conferences this weekend. WOW - she speaks pretty practically, yet almost everything she says is truthful and deep. I wrote down a lot of 1-liners and wanted to just put them here so that I won't forget them one day. And the message being on "Strife"? Pure destiny. I needed to hear it. Thank You Lord.

STRIFE 

The opposite of peace, perhaps you could say, is strife. It is dangerous and should be treated like poison. Strife is the unpeace in relationships, the bitterness, the angry undercurrents, and the thing that causes us to afford criticism to others. It is neither anointed nor does it allow for the Word to work. Strife can originate from a multitude of things, but perhaps most prevalent is pride. Humble yourself. Do not open the door for the devil or go to bed mad, for it is literally dangerous (Ephesians 4:25-27).

1) There is power in agreement.

“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."

Matthew 18:19-20

Agreement can only be maintained with grace and forgiveness.

2) Live in a peaceful place.

If you don't dwell in a place of peace, it's going to affect the work you have to do (Matthew 10:11-14).

3) Prayer is not effective while in the midst of strife.

"I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing."

1 Timothy 2:8

4) To not seek peace...is evil.

For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good; they must SEEK peace and PURSUE it."

1 Peter 3:10-11

5) How can we receive correction without condemnation?

• God only corrects those He loves (Revelation 3:19-20)
• We should be grateful for the correction of Christ
• "If God is correcting me in this (His child who is of no business to the devil), then I am going to take it joyfully, grow and keep on going."
• When God shows you something wrong with you - AGREE with Him! Ask HIM to change you, to not leave your side until you can do it. 

6) Do not be OFFENDED.

• Offense derives from the Hebrew word that describes the part of a trap that the bait hangs on to tempt the animal into the trap.
• Satan wants us to be offended...and where we are offended, love cannot flow.
• Faith and prayer do not work without love.

7) It's okay to admit that you are a wretch.

"What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

Paul in Romans 7:24-25

8) Peace starts with you and God.

• You have to have peace with God.
• You have to have peace with yourself.
• THEN you can have peace with people.

If you can't get along with yourself, you can't get along with others.

9) People are created for freedom. 

So say to them out loud and in your heart, "I love you the way you are and I commit to not trying to change you. Pride is the problem in this area. My interests are not more important than the interests of others. What I have to say is not more important than what another has to say." (Romans 12:3)

When it comes to loving and treating others well, we don't start by controlling our behavior, we start by controlling our thoughts.

10) Nine things that will help you have peace in your relationships:

• Be courteous and respectful of others opinions even if you don't agree with them.
• Listen with an open mind. Consider that they might be right.
• Don't be touchy and sensitive.
• Be willing to pray about what people say.
• Keep looking for a place to agree instead of looking for things to grumble about.
• Look for good things in people.
• Be very careful with body language and the tone with which you say things.
• Pray and pick your timing. Ask God to anoint it.
• Don't put your friends & loved ones under pressure making them feel like they need to prove their love to you everyday. BELIEVE they love you.
• QUIT being selfish.

 11) My own personal notes to remember:

• When offended by someone who has hurt you, instead of asking, "Lord, how can I get rid of this pain?" ask, "How can I address this pain?" Don't be afraid to address it with the Lord. He IS your healer.
• Pray for a shield of faith that you would never be personally offended by someone. And that also, if it exists, with the protection of the shield, you can actually begin to see the deep pain within the person who has offended (Ephesians 6:16).
• Remember that God affords us strength and that even in our weakness, He is strong.
• Battle the hopelessness of strife with thankfulness.

Remember this about yourself and remember it in regards to others.

Hope Defined

HOPE:  

It's a thing. It's an action. We can possess it and be possessed by it. We can be without it and in search of it. It's contagious and it's good. We can hope in true things and in false things. We can have hope in things and for things. We can have unfulfilled hope and hope deferred.

The moral of the story? As people, we hope. All I know it that this thing called HOPE is important. It shows up in scripture 180 times in the NIV translation. I wanted to know more about "hope," so I did a word study on it from the Bible. I hope it makes sense :)

Possession: 

• Hope is something we can possess or not possess, be with or be without (1). You can do something wrong, screw up in the past, and still have hope (2). There are times when you no longer have hope, times when you actively hope, and times when you don't have hope yet, but will have in the future (3). If you forget God, your hope is destined to perish (4). Not only can you possess hope, but hope can possess you (5). You can possess hope as an individual as well as mutually possess the same hope as someone other than yourself (6). Having hope is closely tied to praise and prayer (7,8). 

Hope In: 

• We can hope in good things and in bad things. When I think of hoping in something, I like to even think of myself physically walking into that something - going inside of it to do the hoping I will do.

• Things that are good for us to hope in: God, the Word (9), His unfailing love (10), His teachings (11), the resurrection of the dead and eternal life (12, 13), His promises including Jesus (14, 15), the glory of God (16), and the salvation of others (17).

• Things that are bad for us to hope in: That which is stolen (18), the failure of others (19), created things including other humans and money (20-22), and the law given through Moses (23).

Stages: 

• Hope has a process to it, just like anything. It helps me to think of hope in stages, such as:  

• Cause for hope --> actively hoping --> hope's fulfillment. 

• It's important that hope be fulfilled, or else our hearts grow sick (24). God is the one who fulfills hope and keeps us flourishing (25).

Source: 

• Well, that's all easy enough, but from where does that cause for hope originally come? There's many answers to that question. The first source of hope is always God (26-28). He calls us to it and sets it in front of us (29, 30). Any cause for it comes from Him first, for example: doing what is right (31), endurance and encouragement (32), joy and peace (33), love (34), and wisdom (35). And because God is the source of hope and gives it, He can also take it away and does when it does not glorify Him (36, 37).

Action: 

• Hope is a verb. We do it. We hope. We can choose to hope by purposefully thinking of things that will evoke it in us (38).

Thing: 

• Hope is a noun. It's not just something we do, but can actually be something. This is my favorite part about hope, because to think of it as a thing physically outside of myself helps me to realize it's something I need and don't always have. If you were to describe hope, how would you do it? If you were to place your hope somewhere, which you possess, where would you put it?

• We can put hope places (39-41) and put it on things (42). We can raise and lower hope (43, 44) and literally give it up (45). We can firmly hold onto hope (46, 47) and set it on top of grace (48).

• Hope can be an anchor (49), a door (50), and an outfit (51). Hope can be our lens, something we actually look out of (52-54), and by doing so, our hope becomes closely connected to our patience.

Hope is quite a contagious thing (55) !

Along With Hope Comes:

• Suffering (56-58), rest (59, 60), boldness (61), never disappointment (62), purity (63), confidence (64), security (65), never shame (66), guidance and learning from truth (67), inheritance (68), protection (69), discipline (70), strength (71), belief (72), patience (73) and endurance (74).

Find it in the Word 1. Ruth 1.12 2. Ezra 10.2 3. Proverbs 23.18 4. Job 8.13 5. Jeremiah 23.16 6. 2 Corinthians 10.15 7. Psalm 71.14 8. 1 Timothy 5.5 9. Psalm 119.74 10. Psalm 33.18 11. Isaiah 42.4 12. Acts 23.6 13. Titus 1.2 14. Acts 26.7 15. Romans 15.12 16. Colossians 1.27 17. 2 Timothy 2.25 18. Psalm 62.10 19. Luke 20.20 20. Psalm 33.17 21. Proverbs 11.7 22. Acts 16.19 23. John 5.45 24. Proverbs 13.12 25. Job 6.8 26. Jeremiah 29.11 27. Psalm 119.49 28. Psalm 62.5 29. Ephesians 1.18 30. Hebrews 6.18 31. Job 4.6 32. Romans 15.4 33. Romans 15.13 34. 1 Corinthians 13.7 35. Proverbs 24.14 36. Job 19.10 37. Jeremiah 13.16 38. Lamentations 3.21 39. Matthew 12.21 40. Psalm 33.22 41. Psalm 42.5 42. 2 Corinthians 1.10 43. Ephesians 1.12 44. 2 Kings 4.28 45. Acts 27.20 46. Hebrews 3.6 47. Hebrews 10.23 48. 1 Peter 1.13 49. Hebrews 6.19 50. Hosea 2.15 51. 1 Peter 3.5 52. Micah 7.7 53. Job 6.19 54. Psalm 39.7 55. Romans 15.13 56. Job 13.15 57. Acts 26.6 58. Acts 28.20 59. Acts 2.26 60. Psalm 62.5 61. 2 Corinthians 3.12 62. Isaiah 49.23 63. 1 John 3.3 64. Job 4.6 65. Job 11.18 66. Psalm 25.3 67. Psalm 25.5 68. Psalm 37.9 69. Psalm 119.114 70. Proverbs 19.18 71. Isaiah 40.31 72. Romans 4.18 73. Romans 8.25 74. 1 Thessalonians 1.3