Lethal Haven

This is something that has been throwing me off balance and making me delve deeper for the past month and a half or so….lethal havens. In the terms Im using, the haven isn't a good thing, as a haven should be. Havens in the way Im representing them here, are places that pull you away from places you should be. Focus tends to slip away from Heaven…and God…and into Havens and Sin. Its that magnetic pull that gets strongest when it sees your hold on faith slip even the slightest bit. There are many many many havens…I tried to crawl away from this whole revelation in sheer shame. I have so many havens…

Some havens are self perfection, althletics, sleep, computers, games, music, gossip, friends, food, movies, television, over working, sports, underworking, bitterness, anger. Some of these things don't seem to fit under "haven" however, a haven can be many things…It may not seem relaxing and comforting, but it IS where you may go to get away from life. You may go into a bitter mood, or an angry one…see its all over the place. A haven is a place or thing that you use as you relaxing or gratifying resource. Differences between going to havens and looking toward heaven, aka God are pretty stark in contrast.

Havens, seen as a place of instant-rest generally

Heaven, is the place of TRUE ultimate never ending rest

Havens distract you from day to day stresses, so you can ignore them and forget about them

Heaven motivates you to face these stresses and not just push them to the side, but resolve them

Havens slow you down and urge you to relax a bit longer

Heaven is urgent, it prompts you to continue steadily as time is short

Havens degrade you and those around you, because your going to your haven to ignore everything but what you want to make you happy. So you could care less about others.

Heaven pulls you closer to others for support, as your concern isn't so much about yourself but them

Havens encourage nothingness…boredom…because its easiest to be completely lazy

Heaven urges you to strive continually, not allowing yourself to look at things the same way, rather than seeing nothing to do, you see what you can do…

In short…Havens are easy to lean on to get too. Heaven…not so easy. But the more time you spend running to the shelter of human made havens, the more you'll find they cant satisfy, no matter how you switch it up, no combination of havens will bring you that fulfillment your looking for! Even when you notice a haven that has somehow become a regular refuge in your life instead of God, getting rid of them is really hard, when you cut down on one haven another will try and sneak in. THIS IS BIG PEOPLE! I know, I am totally a haven hugger! Haha. I mean it though, I am a pro at finding havens and pretending they aren't. The biggest danger, is that God loses his strength in your life. When you look away from the main focus, God, the upmost reason for living…then you get swept off into haven after haven, a huge maze just waiting to swallow you up. Look at these verses,

1 Corinthians 11:27-32,Hebrews 12:1-13. They sum/explain everything perfectly. How do you overcome these "havens?", well as Hebrews 12:1 says, you already have a cloud of witnesses, people that can help you, accountability partners, people that can help you stand to your choice to get untangled from sin and set on running the raced marked out for you!!!! Instead of taking the detours. I'm pretty much thrilled about this whole thing Gods been telling me, I'm not going to lie…Gods got a huge delicious plan, I can almost taste it…hehe. I love you all….tell me your thoughts/ideas…

GOD! TAKE CONTROL AND BURN THE HAVENS FROM MY LIFE! LET THE FOCUS BE ON YOU AND YOU ALONE! VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!