George Matheson of Scotland echoes the discipline of his personal despair in his discipline of his personal despair in his book Thoughts for Life’s Journey when he book Thoughts for Life’s Journey when he writes: My soul, reject not the place of thy writes: My soul, reject not the place of thy prostration! It has ever been the robing prostration! It has ever been the robing room for royalty. Ask the great ones of room for royalty. Ask the great ones of the past what has been the spot of their the past what has been the spot of their prosperity; they will say, “It was the cold prosperity; they will say, “It was the cold ground on which I once was laying.” Ask ground on which I once was laying.” Ask Abraham; he will point you to the Abraham; he will point you to the sacrifice of Moriah. Ask Joseph; he will sacrifice of Moriah. Ask Joseph; he will direct you to his dungeon. Ask Moses; he direct you to his dungeon. Ask Moses; he will date his fortune from his danger in will date his fortune from his danger in the Nile. Ask Ruth; she will bid you build the Nile. Ask Ruth; she will bid you build her monument on the field of her toil. her monument on the field of her toil. Ask David; he will tell you that his songs Ask David; he will tell you that his songs came from the night. Ask Job; he will came from the night. Ask Job; he will remind you that God answered him out remind you that God answered him out of the whirlwind. Ask Peter; he will extol of the whirlwind. Ask Peter; he will extol his submission in the sea. Ask John; he his submission in the sea. Ask John; he will give the palm to Patmos. Ask Paul he will give the palm to Patmos. Ask Paul he will attribute his inspiration to the light will attribute his inspiration to the light that struck him blind. Ask one more-the that struck him blind. Ask one more-the Son of Man. Ask Him whence has come Son of Man. Ask Him whence has come His rule over the world. He will answer, His rule over the world. He will answer, “From the cold ground on which I was “From the cold ground on which I was lying-the Gethsemane ground; I received lying-the Gethsemane ground; I received my sceptre there.” Thou too, my soul, shalt be garlanded by Gethsemane. The cup thou fain wouldst pass from thee will be thy coronet in the sweet by-and-by. The hour of thy loneliness will crown thee. The day of thy depression will regale thee. It is the desert that will break forth into singing; it is the trees of thy silent forest that will clasp their hands.”
The Unsurpassed Intimacy of Tested Faith
Jesus said to her, ’Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?’ —John 11:40
Every time you venture out in your life of faith, you will find something in your circumstances that, from a commonsense standpoint, will flatly contradict your your faith. But common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense. In fact, they are as different as the natural life and the spiritual. Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him? Can you venture out with courage on the words of Jesus Christ, while the realities of your commonsense life continue to shout, “It’s all a lie”? When you are on the mountaintop, it’s easy to say, “Oh yes, I believe God can do it,” but you have to come down from the mountain to the demon-possessed valley and face the realities that scoff at your Mount-of-Transfiguration belief (see Luke 9:28-42).
Every time my theology becomes clear to my own mind, I encounter something that contradicts it. As soon as I say, “I believe ’God shall supply all [my] need,’ ” the testing of my faith begins (Philippians 4:19). When my strength runs dry and my vision is blinded, will I endure this trial of my faith victoriously or will I turn back in defeat?
Faith must be tested, because it can only become your intimate possession through conflict. What is challenging your faith right now? The test will either prove your faith right, or it will kill it. Jesus said, “Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me” (Matthew 11:6). The ultimate thing is confidence in Jesus. “We have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end . . .” (Hebrews 3:14). Believe steadfastly on Him and everything that challenges you will strengthen your faith. There is continual testing in the life of faith up to the point of our physical death, which is the last great test. Faith is absolute trust in God—trust that could never imagine that He would forsake us (see Hebrews 13:5-6). -My Utmost For His Highest: Oswald Chambers
“Rock Bottom”
A new look at the phrase “rock bottom”. Many people use this to say they’ve reached their lowest in life. When I hear that reference, I think about how when we reach our “bottom” in life, that’s where we find The Rock. He never leaves, its just that sometimes it takes us reaching the bottom to find Him. We can go to the depths and He is there. Though we walk through the valleys… He is there. When we reach “rock bottom”, He, The Rock himself, is there.
Walk while you have the light
Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mountaintop with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:23).
The moment you forsake the matter of sanctification or neglect anything else on which God has given you His light, your spiritual life begins to disintegrate within you. Continually bring the truth out into your real life, working it out into every area, or else even the light that you possess will itself prove to be a curse.
The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the prideful self-satisfaction of a past experience, but is not working it out in his everyday life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it shows in your life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent or self-gratifying; that belief came from the pit of hell itself, regardless of how beautiful it may sound. Your theology must work itself out, exhibiting itself in your most common everyday relationships. Our Lord said, “. . . unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).In other words, you must be more moral than the most moral person you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you working it out in the everyday issues of your life? Every detail of your life, whether physical, moral, or spiritual, is to be judged and measured by the standard of the atonement by the Cross of Christ. -My Utmost For His Highest
Never Give Up
3 words, never.give.up. This life that we live is a fight to the finish. I was watching the Olympics the other night and they flashed back to 2008 where one of the female runners who was doing hurdles stopped almost toward the end of the race, fell to her knees and cried. She didn’t even finish. I said, “Wow, that is horrible. She didn’t even finish and now she is being ‘glorified’ as a strong runner?” I heard a voice inside. How many times have I fell down during the race to my knees and sobbed? Poor me, I did so horribly, I failed, I didn’t have the victory. And I stop right there in the middle of it all. But God… He encourages us as His children to get back in the race. To train harder for the next go around. To face forward with our eyes on the prize. To be determined. To realize the fullness we have when we are running as opposed to when we are not. Sometimes it takes a coach, an encouraging peer whom God will place in our lives to get us on track. But many times, as I have found in my own life, it is God Himself. He knows it all, He knows us through and through better than we know ourselves. And when we are straining and agonizing as we feel pain and pressure in our race we have to remember the victory in order to press on. The other side of the line. Never.Give.Up.
While you were asleep
Psalm 121:4 says that our God neither slumbers nor sleeps. I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid, it was always easier to fall asleep knowing my dad was awake and sitting out in the living room with the light on. Even more so, your heavenly father is ALWAYS awake, so you can go ahead and rest peacefully knowing that He is not only awake, but He loves you and is watching over you. Can you trust Him to handle things while you’re sleeping? He holds every single day of your life in His hands and NOTHING can snatch you from the Father’s hands!(John 10:29). Next time you can’t sleep, remind yourself that God holds your life in His hands; He has you engraved on His palms (Isaiah 49:16).
From the fall to our feet
i wonder if a correlation can be made between the number of times a person falls on hard times and how quickly they can stand back up on the assurance of God.
I think the simple answer is that with each fall, brings another opportunity for God to heal the hurt. And each healing opportunity becomes a reminder that He heals every time (maybe not in our timing, but He is Jehovah Rophi). He makes our brokenness beautiful and gives us the confidence to stand back up boldly on His promises.
I do believe each time this collision of the hurt and the healer occurs, we are reminded of Jesus’s words in Matthew 6:25-27. We do not need to worry in our pain and suffering, God will take care of us. With each living example in which He has shown this very promise, we can rest in His blessed assurance ’quicker’ than the last, stand back up with readiness and start walking in His peace.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
When its just God and me
One of my favorite things to do is sit in a park and reflect on life. I watch families play together, fish or picnic. I see sweathearts walk hand in hand or read on a blanket and it all makes me smile as I think about the love they may be experiencing… what joy they must feel. Many probably aren’t even recognizing the rare and precious happiness or comfort their hearts may be in. I watch for what seems like minutes but is more like hours. I imagine flying in the wind to grip a receiving Frisbee or basking in the sunlight with someone’s hand caressing my arm.
This is what I thank God for-the joy I find through daydreams and others. I pray for the family I hope one day to help make, the wife God is forming me into, the husband who may stand beside me and the children I may one day love.
We have nothing without faith
I have progressed into the “top 3” for a marketing position with my dream job and its nearly a month and a half since the interview process began. One thing I’m terrible at and have been praying much for is patience… and you know what God does when we pray for something; He gives an opportunity to work on it. In the meantime, He’s also provided “a way out” for the temptation to become impatient by providing me with a temporary income that is sufficient for all my needs. Each time my heart gets a little restless with wanting my dream job to start right now, I’m reminded very quickly that He got me this far and He’s meeting my needs today. I am learning to wait on His perfect timing with security in who I know my God to be; El Elyon, El Shaddai, Jehovah Jireh, Immanuel.
Name of all names
In the Old Testament, the tribe of Judah was always to march out first in front of all of the other tribes into battle. Judah means “praise.” Praise needs to go first in the battle! The Lord taught me that in order to be more effective in spiritual battle, I need to spend more time praising Him. During a horrible time in my life, I remember I could hardly praise God. I prayed to Him all the time, begging Him for help. I read my Word, went to church, spent time with Christians, etc., but I didn’t spend much time praising Him.
You can praise Him by singing along with worship music which I love to do, but I also like to declare who He is out loud. Just say something like: You are awesome God. You are Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides, Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals, You are the Alpha and the Omega, You are the great I AM, You are the Ancient of Days, You are the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace! Like facets on a diamond, He has many different names and each one reveals an insight into His character. Just as our Heavenly Father calls us by name, get to know His and experience the power found in each one.