Wednesday, July 13, 2016

God Loves You Enough To Correct You When You Wander .. Do You Trust Him Enough To Receive It?

My Utmost For His Highest
 
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord… —Isaiah 6:1
 
“Our soul’s personal history with God is often an account of the death of our heroes. Over and over again God has to remove our friends to put Himself in their place, and that is when we falter, fail, and become discouraged. […] My vision of God is dependent upon the condition of my character. My character determines whether or not truth can even be revealed to me. Before I can say, “I saw the Lord,” there must be something in my character that conforms to the likeness of God. […] What I need is God’s surgical procedure— His use of external circumstances to bring about internal purification. Your priorities must be God first, God second, and God third, until your life is continually face to face with God and no one else is taken into account whatsoever. Your prayer will then be, “In all the world there is no one but You, dear God; there is no one but You.”” CHAMBERS
 
What does it take for you to stop trying to fix your life and trust God to do it?  If you are a child of the King, you are in His grasp.  He has not forgotten you.  He will not give up on you.  But, don’t forget, (Hebrews 12:6, 10-11) “For whom the Lord loves He chastens ... For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”  Do you find it hard to imagine a God who knows you by name, and He does.  A God who intervenes in your life for your good and His glory, and He does.  Who uses life and its circumstances to bring you to your spiritual senses, and He will. 
 
The question is, when the chastening comes, will you recognize it, will you receive it, will you let it do its work in you which is to cause you to turn your face toward heaven?  Will it cause you to remember your rebirth, your heavenly citizenship, the love of God the Father, the sacrifice of the Son, the presence of the Spirit in you?  Or will you continue to rail against all that is heavenly and continue to go your own way, no matter how painful?  Perhaps think poorly toward God for allowing this malady in your life or becoming angry toward Him.  Maybe that is where you are today.  Or perhaps you are about to set your foot on that path. Oh, I hope not my friend. Not every bad circumstance is chastening, sometimes, it is simply the result of living in a sin-sick world.  But in either case, the answer is the same ... look up.  (Psalm 121: 1-2) " I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth."  CHARLEY
 
“The Love Of God”  Frederick Lehman
 
The love of God is greater far  Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,  And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,  God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,  And pardoned from his sin.
 
Could we with ink the ocean fill,  And were the skies of parchment made
Were every stalk on earth a quill,  And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,  Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,  Though stretched from sky to sky.
 
Refrain
 
O love of God, how rich and pure!  How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure  The saints’ and angels’ song.

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