{"id":618,"date":"2012-03-29T23:22:56","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T04:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/?p=618"},"modified":"2016-11-02T23:23:47","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T04:23:47","slug":"anticipation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/2012\/03\/29\/anticipation\/","title":{"rendered":"Anticipation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Anticipation\u2026 the word from the Carly Simon song keeps playing in my head while I\u2019m writing this.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Anticipation can be incredibly delicious and painful at the same time; because anticipation comes from the desires of our hearts.\u00a0 Desire for someone or something can be overwhelming to our emotions. It can affect our whole perspective on life and can consume our every thought until the desire itself seems to take on its own life and personality; at which point, we begin to focus on the desire and not on the person or object of our desire. That\u2019s the point an alarm should go off in our respective heads- because then the desire controls us and can influence us do things we later wish we hadn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Truthfully, there is only one object, one person we can set our sights on and delight in with no limitations. And that is Christ. If the focus of our every thought is aimed at being in the center of His will. Like the eye of the hurricane, Christ in us, through us, over us, under us, in front of us, behind us, and all around us; we will be in the most perfect spot we can be in on this earth. When we are focused on Christ, our whole lives are directed by the unseen hand. The hand that was pierced out of love for us – centuries before we were even a thought in our parent\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I realize that even though I said \u201cwe will be in the most perfect spot we can be in on this earth\u201d, there are still bad things that happen to people who are in that place with Christ.\u00a0 We live in an imperfect, fallen world. And it would be foolish to think that we could be in this world and not be affected by the things and people around us in a negative or detrimental way.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0Evil prowls upon this place; even in the midst of truth and beauty. Sometimes, it disguises itself\u00a0with<\/em>\u00a0truth and beauty and we see something quite appealing. Sometimes, it affects us indirectly through friends, family, and situations that occur; and at others it attacks head-on aiming directly at our hearts. Only a heart and mind focused on Christ can weather the snares and pitfalls laid by evil.\u00a0 (Please note that I did not say \u2018avoid\u2019; for it is not possible to avoid the affects of evil in this world.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I realize that to some a faith in an unseen God, who loves us and cares for us and has invested His very self in us, seems an incomprehensible, far-away fairytale wrapped in legend and myth. But for those of us who have placed our hands, our hearts, and our very lives in His hand, there is no other way to live.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We were designed by Him with a specific purpose- to love Him with all our heart. Because He loves us, He made us to love Him. Yet, He does not make that choice for us. He waits for us to decide that He must be the object of our desire in our heart of hearts; that a life lived with Him, in Him and for Him is what we anticipate above all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Something to think about:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness, even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. Psalm 51: 6<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me\u2014the task of testifying to the good news of God\u2019s grace. Acts20: 24<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For we are God\u2019s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anticipation\u2026 the word from the Carly Simon song keeps playing in my head while I\u2019m writing this. Anticipation can be incredibly delicious and painful at the same time; because anticipation comes from the desires of our hearts.\u00a0 Desire for someone or something can be overwhelming to our emotions. It can affect our whole perspective on … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[328],"class_list":["post-618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-anticipation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":619,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions\/619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}