Basics...

Ive recently been realising just how real a battle there is in this world. God fights continually for our attention.. We fight continually for the attention of our friends and peers. Our parents so often fight for our respect. We fight and fight, so much so that we often miss opportunities. We fight against our friends and those we're closest to a lot. The devil fights against us a lot too. The armour of God is important. You're probably thinking, "That's just stating the obvious Jayne." Well yes it is the obvious and its the basics of Christianity that are important.. It's the basics that we build our relationship with God upon. If we don't have the basics as our foundation then what are we building ourselves on? If we don't have the promises of God in our head as the foundation then what use are they? We have the quotations in our head to use, to help us in times of trouble and to help us think clearly. Are we actually using these? Or do we actually have enough of them in our head to quote? If we don't have our strong foundation built solidly in God, when we come "under attack" what do we actually have to protect us? What can we fall back on? Where will we fall to??

I over think a lot. I delve into things and over read, over analyse and over think. There are benefits to being a "thinker" but there's a lot of downsides too. Sometimes I stop myself and just ask, "Are these thoughts actually beneficial?" If I cant see how they will expand my relationship with God or help me grow Ive started to just forget about them. I waste a lot of time thinking about things that that don't have a great purpose. I often end up asking people these questions but the 'best answer' I had to a recent question I pondered was "Is this fact really fundamental to the Christian faith?"

Great answer? I thought so too. It was that persons way of saying they don't know the answer because of its lack of significance and they were trying to subtly discourage me from wasting time pondering over it.. It worked. Although it made me ponder even more over what us fundamental to the Christian faith? A Bible? A journal? A meditation book? Lots of Christian bands CDs? A church membership? Christian friends?

All these things are a great help (at the right time in the right amount) BUT the key is simply a relationship with God. There's no use in us having the image of being holy if we aren't. There's no need for us to act like someone we aren't. God knows our inner heart. Man knows only what we allow him to see. Why not let these both be the same thing? Why not let man see what God sees? Why deny and hide who we really are? Basics are fundamental... Being ourselves allows us to connect with God. If we connect with God then we can connect with ourselves, as God is in us, therefore, by connecting with God we are automatically connecting with ourselves. Connecting with others falls into this too. Connecting with the poor is also connecting with God.

We were talking about this recently in cell but Ive been thinking about it a lot since. These thoughts have been trying to answer questions such as: Who is classified as the poor? Anytime someone has spoken to me about the poor I always think homeless people, Big Issue sellers and so on.. Recently Ive been challenged and had my eyes opened more to the reality. The poor can be defined as anyone who doesn't know God. They may have a big house, several cars, lots of accessories and so on.. But if they don't know God personally, then what do they have thats worthy? They are poor - in a spiritual way. We need to help those who are struggling with life, with God and with different situations a lot.. These people aren't necessarily struggling for physical assets but spiritually they are... But until recently I've never thought of this as being a definition of helping the poor... These people are poor and they need help. We are all called to help people who are poor.. But there's more than one type of poor....