#2 DIG YOUR OWN WELL? BEING CODEPENDENT By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com (Part #2) TEXT: Proverbs 5:15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
ARISTOTLE’S GOLDEN MEAN. Aristotle taught a concept known as the Golden Mean. He taught life has two extremes. At one end of the balance is EXCESSIVENESS and at the other end was DEFICIENCY. Jesus taught this lesson as MODERATION in all things. (VIRTUE ETHICS)
Philippians 4:5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
Christianity is not a mere religion. Jesus is about relationships. We need a personal relationship with God and with other people. We are social beings. We function poorly as individuals, we work best as a team. We must make it as clear as you can to other people we are team mates. We pull together. The preacher is not your enemy. Law enforcement are not your enemy. Your teachers are not your enemy. Your spouse is not your enemy. Authority is not an enemy. All that we meet are on our side. We must learn to work with them and not against them. Jesus desires us to be gentle and cooperate together. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. Jesus is coming will we be ready?
We need to understand that spiritually, mentally and physically we need to find the balance between INDEPENDENT ATTITUDES and CO-DEPENDENT. Dependent people learn to be a team and rely on each other. Codependent individuals tend to feel worthless unless they feel needed by others. Dependent and codependency are learned behaviors. God help us to be balanced…
CODEPENDENT: low self-value, characterized by excessive emotional or psychological reliance of others, one that feels they cannot function by themselves and needs and requires the support of others, a feeling of neediness, no joy or happiness by self. We seldom learn that WE CONTROL OUR PERSONAL MOODS.
CODEPENDENT can become an addiction. This trait often is birthed by personal failure and frustration that promotions an imbalance in relationships. This concept yields to a feeling of great loneliness in that a person can never feel complete without others.
Fear of what is ahead, self-doubt for what is behind, disappointments in others, bitterness from scars of the past, loneliness and where is that hand when I so needed it.
REMEMBER A MAN IN THE BOOK OF ACTS… HE IS CALLED SIMON MAGUS OR THE SORCERER HE LOVED WHAT HE SAW THE PREACHERS DOING… HE HAD A SURFACE RELIGION.
Acts 8:13 Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done.
Simon offers to BUY THE GIFTS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT. HE HAS NO PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. HE IS LOOKING FOR A CIRCUS. YOU PRAY FOR ME? WHY NOT PRAY FOR YOUR SELF? WHY NOT PRAY FOR YOURSELF?
Acts 8:24 Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.
DAVID REALIZES HE IS TOTALLY DEPENDENT ON GOD… THE LESSON OF ZIKLAG? Crying until you can’t cry no more... OR TRUSTING GOD… THAT IS THE OPTION.
1 Samuel 30:4 Then David and the people that were WITH HIM lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more tears.
1 Samuel 30:6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people talked of stoning Him... How did David feel? Is crying enough?
David had been in battle, and even a good battle is bad ... and when David gets home, the enemy had quietly came into their home and did much damage and David loses all hope. Would his men help him?
Can David depend on his men? Naw, they are talking we shall kill David for this? Kill your God leader? Yes, the vision was lost? The hope was gone? The pain was fresh? I can imagine how David felt? Yet, I know, been there and done that...
Where are you God? Couldn’t You protect mine, while I was fighting for You? Sure, God could have! God could have whipped the enemy and let David lay under a shade tree laughing, but God was growing a man... growing a man takes more than emotional highs and lows, ups and downs...
David learned to depend on God. David had already whipped bear, lion and Goliath, that was easy, now comes the hard battle...
While everyone else was talking negative about everyone else, David had to spend time with God.
David learned a RARE SKILL that few ever learn. David had to learn --- how to encourage yourself ... HOW TO ENCOURAGE YOURSELF?
Well, that is everyone else’s job, if I am lonely God must send someone right NOW to correct my problem. NAW, God didn’t want to grow another jellyfish, God was growing His man with His plan.
1 Samuel 30:6... David encouraged himself in the Lord his God...
How did David do it? ... How can you get ahold of your boot straps and grow?
1 Samuel 30:7 And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. 8 And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.
David prayed and inquired of the Lord..DAVID LEARNED GOD CAN HANDLE THIS.. There arose in David an "ARISING SPIRIT" --- a "GET UP AND DO SOMETHING ATTITUDE" --- I have a problem in real menial life, I often let my emotions react to what I feel or see, --- well, we must know reacting to problems can be testimony killers. Where do great testimonies arise from... ? Great test? We need an arising spirit from the Fire of the altar... GET UP, GET UP AND LET GOD... GOD IS LOOKING FOR AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE RELEASED...
1 Samuel 30:10 But David pursued, he and four hundred men: for two hundred abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.
David had to leave behind 200 men, WHY? They were so faint they could not arise ... their emotions dictated to their spirit. Now, you can be one of the two hundred and faint, but God knows if you will adjust your outlook and release your faith to GET UP, God will move and bring a release.
Well, spiritual maturity must arise and say problems, trials, storms, more problems--- I am going to depend on God’s plan and react by faith. Why cry all night, for crying all night is not trust nor is it faith...
WE ARE TOTALLY DEPENDENT ON GOD. HE IS LOOKING FOR AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE RELEASED... 2 Chron. 16:9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, TO SHOW HIMSELF STRONG in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.
God wants to show how strong He is, not how weak you are! Also notice, God is not looking for perfect people, but people with perfect hearts...
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I DON’T WANT TO BE ONE OF THE TWO HUNDRED FAINTING BY THE BROOK!
GOD I MUST ARISE AND BE ONE OF THE 400 THAT GETS A GRIP ON MY EMOTIONS AND ARISE TO THE PLAN OF THE ALMIGHTY GOD! I am not a victim, the devil is not beating God’s camp, I have read the book. 2 Tim 1:12 I know in whom I believe and I am persuaded that God is ABLE TO KEEP WHAT I COMMIT TO HIM... Is the question God is able? Naw, the real question is: WILL I MAKE A COMMITMENT AND TRUST GOD?
BACK TO ZIKLAG AND DAVID... The word of God was clear: Depend on God.
1 Samuel 30: 8 God told David --- pursue them, and you shall surely OVERTAKE THEM, AND WITHOUT FAIL YOU SHALL RECOVER ALL...
Might I ask you how much is ALL?
1 Samuel 30:18 AND DAVID RECOVERED ALL THAT THE AMALEK HAD CARRIED AWAY... 19 AND THERE WAS NOTHING LACKING IN THEM, --- DAVID RECOVERED ALL!
THERE IS ANOTHER TEST? HOW SHALL WE TREAT THOSE THAT FAINTED BY THE BROOK? WE WON DIDN’T WE? They didn’t did they?
1 Samuel 30:22 Then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial, of those that went with David, and said, Because they went not with us, we will not give them ought of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away, and depart.
Seems some of David’s men did not want to share the spoils and rewards of the victory with those that fainted, it is clear that those that fainted, don’t deserve any reward?
DAVID LEARNED A GREAT TRUTH AND HAD TO TEACH HIS MEN... US 400 DIDN’T WIN AND THEM 200 WERE BORN LOSERS?
1 Samuel 30:22 --- David declares it was not us, IT WAS GOD WHO PRESERVED US...
Don’t you ever forget you have a duty to the weaker to share the spoils of serving God with them... Just because you can get up --- ARISE --- and win, you owe God to be liberal with the gifts God has allowed to come your way. Is your faith getting the job done? Are you wasting many opportunities? Do we have an effectual prayer life? What are you producing? What fruits are you bearing? Is your spiritual life producing God’s desires in you?
WHAT COULD GOD DO IF WE WOULD ARISE, AND DEPEND ON GOD’S WORD? OVERCOME THE EMOTIONAL RIDE, AND TRUST THE UNSEEN HANDS? Don’t shrink God’s power. The prodigal son said, I WILL ARISE AND GO TO THE FATHER... After making this powerful decision, the young man washed the pig pen and depression off him, got up and headed home. The prodigal son never allowed the what if’s and the but’s to hinder him.
Isaiah 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. I asked you to GET UP, TRY AGAIN, AND THEN TRY AGAIN... WE ARE A TEAM. LET US DEPEND ON GOD AND HIS WORD.
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
