Monday, April 12

Discussion in 'Daily Text' started by Jinnvisible, Apr 12, 2021.

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    Jinnvisible

    Jinnvisible Experienced Member

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    Monday, April 12

    I am . . . under great stress.1 Sam. 1:15.


    Sometimes, we must face a number of stressful problems at the same time. Consider the following examples. A Witness named John, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, was devastated when his wife abandoned him after 19 years of marriage. Then his two daughters stopped serving Jehovah.

    A couple named Bob and Linda faced a different set of challenges. They both lost their jobs, and then they lost their home. In addition to those problems, Linda was diagnosed with a potentially fatal heart-related illness, and another disease began to damage her immune system.


    We can be sure that our Creator and loving Father, Jehovah, understands how stress affects us. And he wants to help us deal with the challenges we face. (Phil. 4:6, 7) God’s Word contains many accounts that describe the challenges his servants endured. It also records how Jehovah helped them deal with those stressful situations.


    w19.06 14 ¶2-3
     
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    Jinnvisible

    Jinnvisible Experienced Member

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    ....Some of Jesus’ followers in the first century did allow their love to grow cold. What may have caused the love of some Christians to grow cold?

    Bethel commentators have often applied Jesus words about the 'cooling off the love of the greater number' to the world generally, reluctant to connect it with the Christian congregtion. With notable exceptions such as the above excerpt from 'Do Not Let Your Love Grow Cold' Watchtower Study edition May 2017.

    Congregation members who suffer debilitating conditions, and their family members who care for them, are not always given the full measure of support that might be possible. It might seem presumptive to connect this to 'the leaven' in the literature, everyday general pressures and responcibilities are for sure enough to dampen enthusiasm for extra curicular volunteering. That said, if there is too great a level of encouragement toward cultivating gratitude, affection and obesience toward the mechanism of the watchtower and designated 'faithful and descret slave' it will certainly have played some part.

    When folk are under extreme pressures of dealing with disabilities and diseases, being expected to express a sense of fulfillment and nurishment from the literature, which is actually not much more than an excersize in flattery, could become an additional unwarrented burden. Especially when real help and assistance is warranted. In the example given the 'two daughters' are said to have fallen away after the marriage of thier parents failed. Multiple sclorosis, a cruely advancing condition would require more and more support as the condition advances. 19 years is a long enough period of time for the marriage to have suffered and survived many different problems. The daughters of the marriage would be only just at the brink of adulthood. At the disoulotion of the marriage, were they then expected to have taken up the carer role their now absent mother previously provided and failed at ? The case is presented in brevity and it may be a straight forward case of betrayal and abandonment, either way there is undoubtably much more to it than is written in the comment.

    In the second given example of Bob and Linda it is notable that illness is mentioned as having followed financial devestation, although not specifically mentioned as connected. During the boom and bust economic cycles of the west, illness many times follows incidence of career loss and loss of home. Hopefully they recieved support for their congregation. For others traumatic life events may actually be a cause or part cause for the finding and accepting the truth of the bible.
     

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