Is being stranded on the side of the road an opportunity, or an inconvenience? Is a troubled teen an occasion or just pain? Is watching your 13 year old wave good bye as they go off to a field trip a moment in time when you realize that never again will your precious children need you like they once did, or run to you and catch you in "the knees," as they did not too long ago? Is the burdens that are weighing you down advantageous to your faith or are the cares of this world strangling you so that the term "water boarding" takes on a whole new meaning? It's just 9 am Lord. The day has barely begun. Your mercies are or were new, but why do they feel already nullified and waiting for the sunset of the day and the sunrise of another?
Expectations...my child, what are your expectations or were your expectations of this life? Were you never to feel the pain of separation, or the tortuous agony that today is as good as it gets here? Were you never to grow weary, old, or broken? What saint ever glorified Me by having everything handed to them on a silver platter? If you really thought about it you would still be miserable if all your unrighteous expectations were met. If I had not been with you, you would be consumed by your own lusts, drowned in your own evil desires. Think with you head, and you heart will sure to follow. Gain your expectations from My Word not from what the world tells you, it disappoints every time. Listen to this.......
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly." Romans 5:1-6
My servant Paul wrote that. It is still true, it has not changed. Relativism does not affect My Word. Could you say that Paul never experienced a gas shortage on the side of the road, a rebellious teen, separation, trials of all kinds, and did he not even shed blood on my account? Though, nothing that I didn't go through as well for both of you. He also wrote,
"18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."
"32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?..... 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation (lack of gasoline), or distress (seeing loved ones make the wrong choices), or persecution (being misunderstood by an entire culture), or famine (where oh where have my little ones gone?), or nakedness (nothing else can you depend on in this life), or danger (what if...?), or sword (the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, but blessed be the name of the Lord)? 36 As it is written,"18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."
"For your sake we are being killed (killed from false desires, hopes, expectations, self) all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered (like Stephen Curtis Chapman's son running over his adopted daughter, or Elizabeth Elliot losing her husband to cannibals, or as a friend of mine, was considered dead to her family as she embraced Christ, because her family is Jewish)."
"37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:18, 32,35-39
My love Lynn, My care, My concern for you and yours, I shed My blood so that You would be mine forever and ever. Nothing will ever, ever pluck you from my hand. None of the above and nothing that will come. You are mine, bought with a price...my blood, my body, my separation from the Father. I love you. Remember today.. even though it is only 9 am.
3 comments:
Thanks for the precious reminder. All our trials are precious gifts to us to shape the character of Christ in us..."who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross..."
Thank you friend. Somedays, though, it is just overwhelming. What I would do without His Word, I do not know. Lynn
I know what I did without His Word - I drank like a fish and smoked like a chimney...and popped lots of meds! Thank God for His Word, and the grace that taught me to believe Him, and keep believing. Which is not to say I'm never overwhelmed. I was overtaken by near panic for a couple of days after I took on a new cleaning client recently. (God's way of showing me how much I need Him, I guess.)
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