…how much more will your
Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! —Matthew 7:11
“Fill your mind with the
thought that God is there. And once your mind is truly filled with that
thought, when you experience difficulties it will be as easy as breathing for
you to remember, “My heavenly Father knows all about this!” This will be no
effort at all, but will be a natural thing for you when difficulties and
uncertainties arise. Before you formed this concept of divine control so
powerfully in your mind, you used to go from person to person seeking help, but
now you go to God about it. Jesus is laying down the rules of conduct for those
people who have His Spirit, and it works on the following principle: God is my
Father, He loves me, and I will never think of anything that He will forget, so
why should I worry?[…] At times God will appear like an unkind friend, but He
is not; He will appear like an unnatural father, but He is not; He will appear
like an unjust judge, but He is not. […] you can rest in perfect confidence in
Him.” CHAMBERS
God sent His Son to
substitute His life for ours. Jesus
suffered. But for most Christians I
think that their minds go immediately to what happened to Jesus before He went
to the cross and while He was on the cross.
In fact, we make movies about it and are, I think, preoccupied with
it. I am not denying it happened, it’s
in the Bible. But what I am saying is
that is not the punishment that the Christ came to endure. It was the penalty of sin and death. On the day of our second birth there is a
spiritual transaction that takes place, but it has to do with eternal things,
not worldly things. So many of us focus
nearly all of our attention on the worldly things and not the eternal
things. We measure God’s adequacy in
terms of how much He helps us out of jams .. difficulties in the natural ..
with little regard for the super-natural.
I would suggest that if we would devote ourselves to pursuit of the
spiritual, the issues we face in the natural would not be nearly so dominant in
our lives.
The other day in our Sunday School
class, the teacher was taking prayer requests.
Someone said something about traveling mercies. That simple, benign request seems so reasonable.
But, I had to go and make a big deal out of it.
[Now I am remembered for it :o(] I said, “If we believe that God is sovereign,
why would we pray that nothing bad happens to us as we travel? Shouldn’t we pray for everyone else who is
also traveling? Are we asking that God
intervenes in the event that some unexpected event occurs, that not even He
knew was going to happen?” Some disagreed with me, some thought I was a bit
fanatic, some (I think those who pray for their cat) were disturbed by it. I just wanted them to consider the sovereignty
of God. I suggested that what might be a
better prayer is “God give me the faith and boldness by your Spirit to enter in
to spiritual opportunities that I encounter as I travel.” Do you see the
difference? One is self-centered, and
the other is God-entered. CHARLEY
My Will – DC Talk
“I'm setting the stage for,
the things I love. And I'm now the man
I, once couldn't be.
Nothing on Earth could, now ever move me. I now have
the will and, the strength a man needs.
It's my will, and I'm not
moving. 'Cause if it's your will, nothing can shake me.
It's my will, to bow and
praise you I now have the will, to
praise my God
Complexity haunts me, for I
am two men. Entrenched in a battle, that
I'll never win.
My discipline fails me, my
knowledge it fools me. But you are my shelter, the strength that I
need.
I'm learning to give up, the
rights to myself. The bits and the
pieces, I've gathered as wealth.
And nothing compares to, the
joy that you bring me. The peace that you've shown me, is the
strength that I need.”
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