Two Passages I See Similarities in
One Bible study I participate in is working through Galatians and another through James.
Galatians 5:16-26
"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.  Now the works of the flesh are evident:  sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.  I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."
James 3:13-18
"Who is wise and understanding among you?  By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.  But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.  This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.  For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and siuncere.  And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace."

This week's post comes about as a consequence of Bible studies I've been doing.  First from Galatians 4:3-7:
"So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.  But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.  Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'  Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through Christ."
2 Corinthians 5:17-21: 
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.  Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal though us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
Think about this:  because Christ kept the Law perfectly, God can extend grace to us.
Romans 10:9-13:
"that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.  For the Scripture says, 'Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed'--for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for 'Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.'"

Anniversary Post
It is about four years since I began this blog.  I've noticed that other "bloggers" sometimes do anniversary posts so that is what I am going to do this week.  This isn't a repeat, it just goes back very many years.   I pass this on as a witness, for God has been good in the 16+ years since we've located to California, become involved in Grace to You, Grace Community Church, et al.
Positive Negatives
On page 115 of his book, Anxiety Attacked, John MacArthur writes, "Contentment is a by-product of distress.  It comes when you experience the sustaining power of Christ when you simply have run out of steam.  'To him who lacks might He increases power' (Isaiah 40:29).  We do well to experience enough difficulty in our lives to see Christ's power on display in us."
23 May 1993
Short list of positive negatives:
No house (no mortgage)
No kids (to uproot)
Little debt
22 July 1993
Garry is on the phone to someone out west about work.... He's much more relaxed than he was a week ago.
26 July 1993
It's still a challenge to think (realize) that five weeks from tomorrow is G's last day as a full time employee of MPress, or that it's 18 weeks since he learned it would be at or by the end of 1993.  It'll be "by" rather than "at."  I'm thankful for all that is known.  And not.  I'd rather move to CSprings than to the L.A. area if we move west.
Expansion and Retroflection
Sometimes God may deny us what we most want in order to give us what we most need.
Garry and I had discussed options we might explore once he had put in his twenty years, and plans we would need to make in the intervening years.  At that time, I was working part time, and he had been with his employer more than fifteen years--almost sixteen.
Those anticipated years proved to be months.
The day before our fourth wedding anniversary, Garry told me changes were under way which included phasing out his department by year's end.  Department meant his position.  No, no place else for him in the organization.  Sorry, but.
Less than a month after Garry cleaned out his desk, my father died unexpectedly.  For a long time he had encouraged us to strike out on own our, to start a business of our own.  Now that we were going to, before we could tell him, he was gone.
Running our own business did not work out as we had hoped it would, but we did not know what else to do, or what possible dividends might come later as a consequence of the contacts made or strengthened. 
We ended up living with friends from the church in Illinois for several months.  (That is a story in itself.  While we were wondering if we should ask them, they were wondering what help they might offer.  It worked out as only God could cause it to.  We joined their family on the weekend of our fifth anniversary and stayed until we moved to California.)
Just when we had reached the end of options we could think of, knowing we could not stay with our friends much longer, Garry was offered a position which could not have been more suitable.  It did not come "out of the blue"; he had been making phone calls to everyone he knew who might either know of some work or have some to offer.  We did not just say, Okay, God, here we are, take care of us.
However, the job was in California.  Southern California.  Near Los Angeles.
We lived in the Midwest.  Our roots went deep there:  our families, our church, and our lives.  Never had the possibility of moving to California entered into my/our calculations/plans.
Yet here we are--16+ years later--and gratefully.
What do positive negatives have to do with anything?
Not buying a house, as we were advised to do when we first married, meant not having to deal with that when things changed.  It was hard enough emotionally to leave the apartment we were renting.
Not having let credit purchases get out of hand meant having credit to draw on.  Garry plans and saves rather than acting impulsively.  Being fiscally conservative has proved to be a blessing.  That has not meant we've had no lean times, just no importunate creditors adding to the mix.
Not having children--which was hardest to come to grips with--has also meant being more flexible.  It took me many years to come to a place of peace about my childlessness.  God graciously worked through many, including women's ministries at my current church, until I realized that not having (physical) children has made it possible for us to, again, be flexible and available for ministry.
I have not "arrived" but I am aware that being denied what I had most expected or wanted does not mean being denied what I most need.
We really learned this passage from James 4:13-15 during the year 1993-1994:  "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit'--yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.'"

Prayerlessness, a confession
I had two other posts in mind, but this third one is the one I have to write today.  I thought about calling it "to pray or not to pray" because that is the choice we all make every day about every circumstance. 
If you are like me, you pray about many if not most circumstances/situations whether they involve you directly or someone else.  But there are probably a handful of times where you don't even consider prayer an option.  You know, those smaller matters where you ought to be able to handle them yourself. 
Examples?  Personally, the time the desktop froze and instead of praying I got all excited [anxiously].  Providentially Garry was able to deal with it and it defrosted.  The little blinking light on our new dishwasher?  Baffled but not prayerful.  The repairman couldn't find anything wrong with the components after running diagnostic tests.  Garry reset our hot water heater.  No prayer before that either but God has graciously kept the dishwasher working since.  And plumbing issues have occurred twice in the last five days.  I think "plumbing" and "panic" start with the same letter intentionally.  And when we have plumbing problems, my usual response is not prayer but panic.  Hey, why bother God about something so mundane?  Not that I "think" that but I might as well given my behavior in these situations.
What is the point of this?
When I decide--intentionally or not--to not "bother" God by praying about the "little" things, I sin--panic etc.
When I realize that to Him nothing which is of concern to me is too small to bring to Him, I am free to pray rather than panic and then to praise rather than being rattled.
Note: This morning Garry wasn't going in at his usual time as someone was scheduled to check something else out in our condo.  Shortly before he was going to work, the phone rang.  It was someone from our condo association office about the plumbing problem from yesterday. 
When we'd not heard from the association's contacts yesterday, we'd had a friend from church who is a plumber come. We had three wastebaskets under the leaks in the hall.  
Doug graciously stepped in and helped out, which was a great relief.  I didn't relish the idea of the leaks continuing during the night.
The person from the association told Garry we'd be reimbursed for that expense--which we had not expected--and take care of repairing drywall and replacing damaged ceiling panels.
How had we prayed?  Not for the reimbursement but for wisdom in dealing with the drywall and the panels.