He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. (Psalm 103:9-10)

Striving has the connotation of contention. Contention is almost like an agitated action – mostly verbal – which brings unpleasantness and lack of positive results to a situation.  So many people try to beat themselves up when the slightest thing goes wrong and then end up blaming God. If things are not immediately self-corrected. This is The opposite of how God operates.It is actually not surprising that the natural human reaction is antithetical to the magnificent attribute of God, Who is already bent towards love and forgiveness.  We kick and fuss and cuss and even worse -blame God, when God is saying “chill out! I am here, what are you going on about?”.  Psalm 46:10 says “Cease striving and know that I am God”.The striving God is talking about here is the same as “come on, man, relax. I am God and there is no other”.  There is no better example than the Book of Job chapter 38 through chapter 41.

For most of the Book of Job, Job rambled and rambled and said all sorts of incorrect things about God. If there is one big mistake any believer can make is to either appropriate God unto your own natural self-created paradigm and say: “God told me to do this” or to start putting your own words in God’s Mouth. God responded with rapid-fire, almost machine-gun like questioning of Job about his knowledge of the ways of God.  God did not contend with Job. He let Job and his friends go on and on and on for what had to be almost two years, in error, before finally put a stop to it.  God did not strive or contend with all this foolishness.

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Freedom into your destiny only begins when you have broken free from the stronghold of sin, which has held you down. This is not some charismatic mumbo-jumbo, but truth released from the Word of God.
Christians too can be bogged down by strongholds to the point of distraction where it becomes a major distraction in life. This will rob you of your favor, your destiny and your complete rest in the Arms of the Savior.

The strongholds of sin, sex and the flesh are not the only ones which will rob you of your peace of mind or Shalom (rest). There is the stronghold of Unforgiveness! This is a stronghold which will hold you back so much that it can make you the most unpleasant human being to be around.

Have you ever seen people, and most of them ‘go to church’, who are so negative over everything and everybody that you cannot stand to be around them? They bust on every national of local event. They are annoyed by every little kid running down the church hallways. They comment on every short dress worn by some young married mom. They can’t see the reason why the church just bought a new snowblower to clean off the sidewalks to the parking lot. No matter what they reason, they find no joy in life.

If you speak to them long enough, you will find a cause for this effect – they really hate another person. It could be their boss, supervisor or co-worker. It could be Mary Sue across the aisle who stole her boyfriend in high school. It could be Frank down the street who got the promotion at work over you, even if you have been a loyal employee at the office longer than he was. Then you come to find out Frank and the boss’ son play in the same golf league and go to the same sports bar! More hate….more opportunity to gripe and complain…more..more…more…..

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