God never ceases to amaze me!
I do not worry. I am content with who and what I am and what I have. It is because I belong to God. Period.
What God has given me, no one and nothing can take away: a clear and sound mind, His knowledge and wisdom and understanding, the faith of Jesus, His love, His Spirit, joy, peace, happiness, His good works, His salvation! I have need of nothing.
The only one who can cause all this to be removed from me is me. My choices make all the difference. If I come to look to self, to trust in my own mental abilities, or to trust in the arm of man, and if I have not love for His truth, His law, His Word, I lose.
God has given me health. And His thoughts of me are only to prosper my health, just as my soul prospers. The salvation He has given me I accept by faith. And by faith I choose to keep my deliverance from sin.
O yes, He has allowed a thorn in my side. That’s because God knows me best. And He knows what is for my best good. He knows I need to remember what all He has brought me through in the moment, just for a moment, when He turned His face in His wrath—just for a moment. When I came to Him, turning away from sin, turning away from my ways—my wicked ways; when I surrendered my will completely to His will; when I died to self and chose life by faith in Him; and as I die daily and take up my cross and follow Him, He has and is doing all He promised to do in restoring me unto His image.
God has been cleaning me. I am His temple, His house!
My mind and body, my home (the physical standing structure), and my land, all of me wholly: It all belongs to God. I ask Him what I am to do and not to do by His Spirit, by His Power (grace) He puts in me His Spirit who gives me both the will and power to do His good pleasure. This is all and only by His love: not me—oh, no! My faith, God has given me; and He gives me the power to do and the will to do His good works.
Faith and works: Faith empowers the good works of God. Good works are the evidence of the faith. This shows the fruit: the love of God. Period. Let that sink in. God has given me faith and increased it. With it—by faith— I choose LIFE, NOT DEATH. I pray your choices are the same.