Timothy's
concerns:.2Timothy
2:15 "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2Timothy
2:22 "Flee also youthful lusts. But follow righteousness,
faith,
charity.(original
is 'love'),
peace,
with them that call on the Lord out of
a pure heart."
2Timothy
3:1-8 "This know also, that in the
last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their
own selves, covetous, boasters,
proud, blasphemers, disobedient.(original
is 'not influenceable',
'unwilling to listen, comprehend, try or apply
seemingly
helpful advice').to
parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers,
false accusers, incontinent.(lacking
self-control), fierce, despisers of
those that are good, traitors.(would
betray you for a nickle), heady.(impetuous,
rash,
unreasonable due to stubbornness),
highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form
of Godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away. For of
this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women
laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning and never able
to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes
and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth, men
of corrupt minds, reprobate
concerning the faith."
2John 1:10,11
"If there come any unto you and bring not this
doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed.
For he that bids him God speed.(good
luck in your life; not to wish them success in an evil life:.Hosea
4:17; a typical parting greeting:.2Corinthians
3:11).is
partaker of his evil deeds."
Selfish people devoid
of faith that God will
get them through life, prefer instead to apply efforts toward greatness
in their lives here and now, perhaps not realizing just quickly a short
7 to 9 decades or so goes by:.Matthew
16:26 "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own soul?
or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?".Such
are they who favor information on where and how to 'get the bucks'!
Sincere spiritual individuals
of love trusting in God's promises, tend toward concentrating on loving
others by helping and being of service to them, as well as to a
reward to come, with efforts involving where to go and who to see in
order to help others, especially
other spiritual individuals of faith and of course anyone needing
help:.2Corinthians
4:16-18.
-Insomnia:
Take a lesson from the discipline coming from martial arts training.
When we lay down to sleep
or rest, we relax. Then, many thoughts begin to come forth. This thinking
requires
energy. The energy travels throughout the body. And, thus,
you keep yourself awake. Thoughts do generate energy and should be handled
during the day in your meditation/contemplation
times. If you take time for this, you'll sleep much sounder.
Once you lift your mind to
God, you are above the concerns that interfere with sleep:."My
mind is set on the God of all life, love, compassion and on Christ":.Luke
10:27. Go over that a few times when you're ready for sleep. This brings
your mind and heart to the soul level, away from the turmoil
residing at other levels. Christ in you can go on?
Psalms
4:8 "I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for only you God of
all light, love, compassion and creation, make for me to dwell in safety.".(*)
Psalms
127:2 "It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat
the bread of sorrows, instead know that God gives his beloved sleep."
Matthew
11:29 "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek.and lowly
in heart and you'll find rest unto your souls."
Have a thinking time before
sleep. What you're after is a settled contented happy mind. Meditation
helps greatly here as you feel confident a path of contentment is unfolding
once you experience nervous energy discharging and you then automatically
enter into the stillness between thoughts. In the stillness, you are the
you that can now objectively
look at your thoughts, being now distanced from them, instead of being
driven by them because they subjectively
were ruling you.."In
meditation you reclaim authorship over yourself."....Deepak
Chopra.
Because of this, in meditation
you come to understand your real self, and this is prerequisite
to a good sleep. Get a cuppa something, tea or what have you and sit awhile
in the dark, unwinding. Then meditate.
When you go to bed, if thoughts
continue to come and you have not trained yourself to stop them; here is
what to do:
Get outta dah
bed, go and sit down and think. Sometimes you will forget what you got
out of the bed to think about. Go back to bed. If thoughts come again and
you just cannot yet stop them, get outta dah bed again. Do this every night,
every time.
Your goal is
to train yourself so that when you hit the pillow, you are out in a few
minutes or less.
This will never
happen if you continue to think in bed. You must train yourself to not
think in bed.or to turn it off when you are finished with your contemplation
and prayers.
It will take
4 or 5 days of pure punishment, that of, forcing yourself to do what you
do not want to do.(get
out of bed), but doing it anyway because you want the end result, sleep!
That is discipline. Can you make yourself become a disciplined person?
So, get outta
dah bed when you cannot stop the thoughts in your mind that keep you awake.
Realize too, that it is because you have no self control over some dark
side things. Learn to
dissipate them.
Decide that
no
thought is important to think at sleep time. You will get so fed up
with getting out of bed to think, you will change. Perhaps write important
things that well up in your mind on a piece of paper that you keep close
to the bed.(and
a pen and a dim light), so you can
deal with them in the morning.
But, what if
you got stuff to worry about? Schedule 10 minutes every Thursday.(or
whatever).just
before bed to worry. Now if worrisome thoughts grab you at any other
time, you are just not going to deal with them till Thursday for ten minutes
just before bed. When Thursday comes you will have forgotten 90% of what
it is that you thought you were supposed to worry about, the things that
you earlier deemed so important, screw 'em, right! Hey!
Are you bigger
than the worries you sometimes allow yourself the luxury of
contemplating?
Are you able to observe and regulate what thoughts are 'running' you? Yeah,
you are bigger and you can! Don't let your thoughts run you; run them!
If you can't control your thoughts and when they come, well, you're not
a robot are you? And God is there,
always
there, but like the sun behind heavy dark clouds can't be seen yet is always
there, so it is with the true God and your attention. You bring into your
life what your attention is upon.
So, how
much is enough sleep?
Scriptures.
A sampling of important favorite scriptures of many people.
New Testament:.Matthew
1:23; 3:8; 5:44;
6:22;
7:16-20;
10:16;
11:27;
18:19,20;
22:37-40;
28:18-20;
Mark
9:23; 11:24;
12:33;
Luke
1:37; 1:49;
3:8;
6:38;
10:19;
12:32;
17:20,21;
19:40;
20:19;
John
1:4; 4:24;
5:22-47;
6:51;
6:65-69;
8:12;
8:31;
8:38,39;
8:44;
10:10:
10:28;
10:30;
13:35;
14:6;
14:12;
14:20;
15:13;
16:24;
16:33;
17:3;
17:23;
Acts
15:18;
19:11;
20:32;
26:8;
Romans
1:4; 8:28;
8:37-39;
12:18;
13:10;
14:19;
1Corinthians
2:9; 10:13; 11:1;
12:7;
12:12;
2Corinthians
1:20; 3:16;
6:16;
9:8;
10:4;
11:14;
Galatians
3:6-9; 4:7; Ephesians
2:10; 4:4; 4:6;
4:21;
5:22;
6:12,13;
Philippians
2:3;
3:10; 4:6,7;
4:11-13;
Colossians
3:14; 1Thessalonians 5:9;
5:17;
2Thessalonians
2:10;
1Timothy 2:4; 4:2;
6:17;
2Timothy
1:9; Titus 2:11; Hebrews
4:15; 8:11;
9:10;
9:15;
9:25,26;
10:1-3;
10:12-14;
13:5;
13:16;
James
4:8; 1Peter 2:9; 2Peter
1:3,4; 1John 1:7; 3:16;
4:4;
4:11;
5:11,12;
3John
1:4.
Old Testament:.Genesis
50:20; Leviticus 26:8; Numbers
23:19; Deuteronomy 3:22;
5:29;
23:5;
29:9;
30:15,19,20;
31:6;
1Samuel
16:7; 1Kings 14:13; 1Chronicles
11:9; 2Chronicles 7:14;
19:11;
20:15,17;
Job
9:24; 14:10; 42:10;
Psalms
16:11; 27:1,5;
27:14;
30:5;
33:15;
34:17;
37th
chapter; 46:1-3;
46:10;
62:10;
66:9;
91:7,8;
94:20;
103:3,5;
103:14;
119:71;
121:8;133:1;
Proverbs
4:23; 11:14; 13:12;
13:22;
16:6;
27:17;
Ecclesiastes
10:1; 10:4;
Isaiah
30:10; 30:21;
44:24;
54:8;
54:17;
57:13;
59:1;
59:9;
63:7;
Jeremiah
4:22; 2:5; 29:11;
31:34;
32:17;
33:3;
Daniel
6:22,23; Hosea 4:6; 11:9;
Joel
2:12-14; Amos 5:14,15; 9:6;
Micah
4:4; 6:8;
Zechariah
1:3.
Suggested quick reads:.Psalms
and Proverbs, also God
in Christ and Christ in God. Also see Lists.
Hunt and pick through them what you feel.
