Spiritual Direction: Have Difficulty In Your Life?

Have difficulty in your life?  Need a reason to keep your faith when you are being tested?  Then try these two Holy Bible passages.  See what we are supposed to do to get back to live with our Father in heaven.  

Hebrews 12:25-29 Penalties of Disobedience

See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven! At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken — that is, created things — so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire. Praise be to God always!

Matthew 5:17-20

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I tell you unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

“The United States and NATO are not a threat to Russia,” Mr. Biden said. “Ukraine is not a threat to Russia. Neither the U.S. or NATO have missiles in Ukraine. We do not, do not have plans to put them there as well. We’re not targeting the people of Russia. We do not seek to destabilize Russia. To the citizens of Russia. You are not our enemy.”

Mr. Biden had a warning for Americans, too.

He said a Russian invasion that triggered severe economic sanctions could cause oil prices to rise, making it more difficult for the administration to fight the already damaging inflation in the United States.

“I will not pretend this will be painless,” he said.

The only problem here is that sanctions would hurt the Russian people and hurt people who are the most vulnerable. This is simply not right.  His last quote was the most telling.  This tension will bring about a tremendous increase in oil prices which would startup inflation-the likes of which we have not seen since the 1970s when had the last two major oil price surges. 

The direct relationship between oil and inflation was evident in the 1970s when the cost of oil rose from a nominal price of $3 before the 1973 oil crisis to over $30 just after the 1979 oil crisis.

This helped push the consumer price index (CPI), a key measure of inflation, to more than double to 86.30 by the end of 1980 from 41.20 in early 1972. To put this into greater perspective, while it had previously taken 24 years (1947-1971) for the CPI to double, it took about eight years during the 1970s

The price of gasoline increased 40.0% in the 12 months ended January compared to the 49.6% annual increase in December, according to the most recent inflation data published February 10, 2022, by the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics 

 Gasoline Inflation by Month and Year (1968-2022)

The below table shows the percent increase or decrease in gas prices on an annual basis by month and calendar year. As the BLS-provided figures below are 12-month periods, look to the December column to find the overall change in gas prices by calendar year. Here the greatest years of increases- all have led to high rates of inflation.

  1974  Oil Prices
26.7  Jan
32.7  Feb
41.6  Mar
41.5  April
43.3  May
40.9  June
41.1  July
40.1  Aug
40.5  Sept
32.0  Oct
25.7  Nov 

20.7  Dec

1979  Oil Prices
10.0 Jan
12.4 Feb
16.6 March
23.5 April
29.0 May
36.5 June
42.0 July
46.0 August
49.4 Sept
50.5 Oct
50.7 Nov
52.1 Dec

1980 Oil Prices
60.1  Jan
67.9  Feb
68.1  Mar
59.7  Apr
51.7  May
42.0  June
34.5  July
28.8  August
23.9  Sept
22.1  Oct
20.7  Nov
18.9  Dec

 2021
-8.6
1.5
22.5
49.6
56.2
45.1
41.8
42.7
42.1
49.6
58.1
49.6
2022
40.0

What is the President of the United States Preparing us for?  Should we in the United States be worried?  Was the cutting off of the domestic drilling part of this plan before or after this oil production slowdown?  Did we purposefully cut our production to cause more panic in the oil markets?  These are questions for this earth and this government to deal with, for me I will be drilling deeply into recesses of my soul and following the Lord.  His direction is true and his direction will get you safely to your final destination, will the alternative give you the same?  Amen