{"id":32,"date":"2004-12-01T21:49:24","date_gmt":"2004-12-02T03:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/?p=33"},"modified":"2004-12-01T21:49:24","modified_gmt":"2004-12-02T03:49:24","slug":"the-tightrope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/?p=32","title":{"rendered":"The tightrope"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is an extremely fine line between life and death. And God seems to be an expert at balancing that. He is able to push a person enough to break down their internal defenses so He can deal with those things in our inmost being that we protect but that are not build on God’s foundation at all. We protect ways of reacting to the world that are actually destructive for us, yet we don’t realize it. Because we are so protective of these things (especially if they have been a part of our lives for a very long time), God sometimes has to push pretty hard to break through. And here’s where the balancing act comes into play. Often these things have become a part of our being; they are not easily cast off. If we are pushed too hard too fast, we are unable to let go of the ‘old ways’ and we will be destroyed. But if God takes us just<\/strong><\/em> to the brink of utter defeat and despair, a tranference is able to take place. In that moment, we are able to take our trust off of the ‘old ways’ and move that to dependency on God.<\/p>\n

There is a very real war going on as God strips away the old to replace it with the new. Galatians 5:17 says “The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.” In this process of growth, at the most intense points, I find myself wavering between hope and despair, between faith and fear. Will I choose to believe and hold firm to what the word of God says? Or do I succumb to the conflict at work within me which wreaks havoc with my emotions, constantly tempting me to keep my eyes on my circumstances and away from God?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is an extremely fine line between life and death. And God seems to be an expert at balancing that. He is able to push […] Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}