It's funny how scripture invades. I was trying to remember fractions tonight and need to re school myself but of course when I'm threading this needle a scripture comes to memory. His word is alive and active. It's one thing to know it and another to walk it out! Help me Lord! Matthew 19:24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
This has been right where I've been so many times and yet lately I've received so much encouragement but The Lord has used the silent times to teach me to derive my worth from Him and draw from His word. So fitting that I would read this just now.
But the dove found no rest for or the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him... And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf (Genesis 8:9-11).
God knows just when to withhold from us any visible sign of encouragement, and when to grant us such a sign. How good it is that we may trust Him anyway! When all visible evidences that He is remembering us are withheld, that is best; He wants us to realize that His Word, His promise of remembrance, is more substantial and dependable than any evidence of our senses. When He sends the visible evidence, that is well also; we appreciate it all the more after we have trusted Him without it. Those who are readiest to trust God without other evidence than His Word always receive the greatest number of visible evidences of His love.
--C. G. Trumbull
Believing Him; if storm-clouds gather darkly 'round,
And even if the heaven seem brass, without a sound?
He hears each prayer and even notes the sparrow's fall.
And praising Him; when sorrow, grief, and pain are near,
And even when we lose the thing that seems most dear?
Our loss is gain. Praise Him; in Him we have our All.
Our hand in His; e'en though the path seems long and drear
We scarcely see a step ahead, and almost fear?
He guides aright. He has it thus to keep us near.
And satisfied; when every path is blocked and bare,
And worldly things are gone and dead which were so fair?
Believe and rest and trust in Him, He comes to stay.
Delays are not refusals; many a prayer is registered, and underneath it the words: "My time is not yet come." God has a set time as well as a set purpose, and He who orders the bounds of our habitation orders also the time of our deliverance.
I've said this before and it begs repeating but we must take our past, the good, bad, the ugly and face The Lord over it. Even if we wrestle in the word to "feel" forgiven we must wrestle. The Lord knew every sin you and me would commit before the foundation of the world. He sent His Son to atone for our sins yet so many refuse the peace He offers or live with what feels like a Scarlett letter tattooed on their chest. When The Lord met with the Samaritan woman at the well (I could teach a whole series on that lol) He told her everything about her and she ran to tell others about this Man, the Christ that she encountered and she was excited about it! Jesus gave that woman, a Samaritan, a woman looking for love in all the wrong places, dignity. He will change your name proverbially speaking and robe you in garments of white, not keep you bound in grave clothes. Which brings me to the point. We are NEVER EVER as much as we want to...called to forget our past. Paul was saying, forgetting what was behind, which were his past achievements mainly. So we can't live off of yesterday's relationship with The Lord. It has to be day to day. Yet when we've wrestled with God over the past and He does not condemn us, then who can? So, again I bring up this Hebrew word picture of a man rowing in a canoe backwards (please visualize) into the future but very much focused on his past. If we don't remember the quarry from which we were mined from we will not gain a lick of wisdom and we are likely to be the fool repeating his/her folly. We can't go back and undo what's done but we can pull something beautiful from the trash and do things different the next time. With the LORD is unfailing love and full redemption. It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Stand firm and do not be burdened again by a yoke of slavery!! Don't ever forget the pit He has pulled you from.
Be careful what you ask for. Be careful that you don't forget The Lord and what He has done like the Israelites in the wilderness. We all have God given legitimate desires but if we seek to get them met in an illegitimate way we will suffer greatly. Make no mistake. What's scarier is how we can get what we asked for or have made an idol out of and God can send leanness into our souls. He is so merciful but we also have something called free will. We can harden our hearts against God and yes according to Romans 1 He can hand us over to the hardening of our hearts. Scares me to death! Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts against Him! So be careful what you ask for esp if it has become who or what you worship.
But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert; he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them. (Psalm 106:14, 15 ESV)
I'm reminded once again that the enemy masquerades himself as light. He comes in the form of whatever is the thing that will bait you. He has nothing new up his sleeve but will prey on weakness. He promises so much then just like Judas Iscariot the betrayer, he ensnares you and kisses you on the cheek and betrays you. Never forget that satan has no heart. He will kick you at your lowest and leave you to hang yourself in a field with your guts spilled open. his ways aren't worth it. #jennyisms
In Jeremiah 2:17 the question is asked of Gods chosen people who had turned their backs on God and turned to idols and Even returned to lands of slavery like Egypt and to the vilest of their enemies, the Assyrians, as to whether or not they brought this calamity on themselves. Why? They lacked fear of the LORD. They brought their calamity on themselves. I say that to say that I've studied a lot about pits in scripture and could go on into a 5 paragraph essay but I won't. Anyway, in Gods mercy we can be different. He can and will deliver us from a slimy pit that we either jumped into or someone pushed us in. I love what Chuck Swindoll says when speaking of the life of Paul and how we tend to forget his gruesome past toward people of the way. Swindoll says, "The steel of greatness is forged in the pit. It's true of all of us. Don't ever forget that, especially when you're in the pit and are convinced there's no way anything of value will come of it." God so rich in mercy is still in the business of rebuilding the ruins, bringing beauty from the ashes and also using our worst moments to help snatch others from the flames and even use our greatest failures and departures for His glory even if the school of hard knocks was not the way to go. Until He calls you home, He has plans for you. You aren't done. Wrestle the thing out with God so that mans opinion fades and you are liberated and no longer the same.
Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the Lord your God, when he led you in the way? (Jeremiah 2:17 ESV)
#jennyisms
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