He Whose Name Shall Not Be Mentioned

 Today’s message from Cody:

Every day we start out with choices from the minute we wake up. I don't have many choices in here but the one I'm currently facing is probably the biggest choice I'm up against today other than choosing to have a good attitude. The choice is, do I eat a blueberry or brown sugar pop-tart? Strawberry gets the ax today because that was yesterday’s choice.  

If I had a ziplock bag I'd just open both, have one of each now and save one of each for another day when I’m feeling particularly indecisive. But, I’m not giving Mickey Mouse or Stewart Little an invite into my cell by storing open pop-tarts, so brown sugar it is for today. 

Here are my thoughts from my daily Proverb reading: 

Proverbs 29:2 “when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice but when a wicked man rules, the people groan." 

That one speaks for itself. One person in particular comes to my mind but it’s not worth my time to even type his name, so I’ll move on. 

 "The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts the Lord shall be safe." Proverbs 29:25

This verse really helps me with my tendency to let my thoughts run toward negativity and pessimism.

When I truly focus on the Lord and choose to not focus on “he whose name shall not be mentioned”, whatever wrong doing he does against me in court doesn’t matter. There are many times I’ve seen him try to do things to me and God has kept it from happening.

He may walk around prideful at what he's done, but he still lost. He charged me with murder and I was acquitted of murder. Pride comes before a fall, and vengeance is the Lord’s not mine. I look to God’s promises when I get frustrated with how wrong things have been done:

Proverbs 19:5 "a false witness will not go unpunished, and he who speaks lies will not escape." 

Proverbs 19:9 "a false witness will not go unpunished, and he who speaks lies shall perish." 

Proverbs 12:2  "a good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of wicked intentions He will condemn." 

Proverbs 11:21 "though they join forces, the wicked will not go unpunished  but the prosperity of the righteous will be delivered."  

While praying that God rights what’s been done wrong, I also pray these verses over myself, to keep myself from being bitter and angry: 

Proverbs 24:17-18 "do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not be glad when he stumbles lest the Lord see it, and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him. " 

Matthew 5:43-48 "you he heard it was said, " you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. but I say to you, love your  enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. for if you love those who love you, what reward have you? do not even the tax collectors do the same? and if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? do not even the tax collectors do so? therefore you shall be perfect , just as your Father in heaven is perfect."   

I have confidence that God’s plan is something He is working for my good. I don't know what that looks like. He could choose to deny the appeal and I have to serve my time. Even if that happens and they get away with it on this side of heaven, I do know there will be a day He will right all the wrong. The day He returns all wrong will be made right.

I know I did my job how I was trained to and the best I could in the circumstances. What man says about me doesn't matter. I've seen God bless me and my family and He has been so close to me every step of the way. 

Even if I don't get the vindication I'm praying for, nobody can take away how I've experienced Christ. Because of what I’ve been forced to walk through, I’ve been able to experience Him in ways most never will.

It’s a very bitter-sweet experience but the sweet far outweighs the bitter. Pessimism is less tempting when I look at what He has done for me and focus on the hope of what He will do for me in the future.

Side note: Excuse the punctuation. The tablet is a pain to type on and will take forever to capitalize every word.  So, expect misspelled words and run on sentences. Im an inmate, not a grammar teacher lol   

One last thing, I should have chosen blueberry pop-tarts. I regretted brown sugar on the first bite lol