Consider

Have you considered......? It is just a word ..."consider" ...but when we activate it into our lives...it changes our perspective. For consideration has the ability to take us our of our tunnel visioned viewpoints and rethink some our stayed opinions. We might come right back to them...but at least we have jiggled them around, added some additional thinking to them, dusted them off and have gotten them out of their secured resting place...and repositioned them as part of an active rather than reticent mode of decision making.

The following verses are verses that I chose as reminders of what God may have us to consider: I won't comment on all of them for I will leave you to "consider" them on your own....but the first one is one of my favorites because too often we don't take into consideration what God has done. Look back in your life...his footprints are in clear view if you look with seeking eyes.

When he asks us to faithfully serve Him with all our heart...he is asking that based on what he has already shown us that he has done, is doing and can do....and they are great things....they may not always seem that way at the time...but God continues to help us work through any of the tough stuff that we are faced with...and he enables us to use His strength, feed on His wisdom, and bask in His grace. What keeps us from serving Him? If we only take time to CONSIDER what great things God has done...and then move forward....we are on His right track.


1 Samuel 12:24
But be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.

1 Samuel 16:
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.

James 1:2
[ Trials and Temptations ] Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds

This is another one of my favorites. I remember studying this in a bible study and thinking how can you possibly be joyful when tough times come?

And I remember the answer being:
1) Because you know God is with you
2) You know God will use whatever it is for His good purposes
3) You will grow through it
4) God has allowed this..... to prove to you His faithfulness
5) So why consider trials PURE joy....because it is purely out of His love for you and me that God is standing with us through them..

The example was of an apple...she held it up saying: "this looks like just an apple"....but when you consider the possibilities of this apple....it goes so much further....and she cut it in half....look at the seeds...and then the seeds carry on and the apple production increases....and so on and so on. God looks at us and considers our trials something that he will use for his good to carry on...and on and on. We learn from our own trials but we also learn from the trials of others...and how they deal with them....and then we pass those lessons on when someone else is in need. And we pass on what God has done through those trials....to grow us in body and in spirit.

I have to add the two following verses to this above verse because they give you the biblical reason....for having pure joy...it is about the process and the results...
"3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."


I will leave you on your on for the rest of these (with only a couple of notes).....consider them....and as you read them ask God to give you a glimpse of what it is that he wants you to take from them. There is something in each of them for each of us....maybe it is something you are working through now...or something that may be around the corner....but tuck these thoughts away....and know that God has given them to you and I for our security, for our comfort, and as a guideline to think as he does.

James 1:26
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.
Gossip? Slander? Mean spirited debates?

James 2:21
Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?

We are considered righteous in the eyes of God because of the life and death and resurrection of His son Jesus...a sacrifice above all others that changed the lives of believers from mortal to eternal...Easter

James 2:25
In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?

God looks at our hearts...not our reputation. For it is man who develops reputation...based on actions and God who develops character...based on the heart.

James 3:5
Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.

James 3:17
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.

1 Peter 3:7
Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

O Lord, How I long to be considerate in the way that you are. Considerate of others....considerate of my thoughts, considerate of the great deeds you have done....considerate in my actions....Help me to consider....."YOU" ....in all things and above all things. Amen

Praise God wherever you are or whatever situation he has allowed you to be in...for His glory will shine through.
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