"Much mental suffering is tied to our false expectations. We may so link our hopes and joys and future to a new job, to a promotion, or to certain kinds of success, to prosperity, that when they fail to materialize, we are utterly crushed. But quiet confidence in God alone breeds stability and delight amid "all the changing scenes of life. The degree of our peace of mind is tied tour prayer life because we address a prayer answering God, a personal God, a responding God and a sovereign God whom we can trust with the outcomes of life's confusions." DA Carson,
Our expectations of God are sometimes too much. We expect Him to solve all of our problems by a mere prayer. "Lord help me I am in trouble" and then a wave of some kind of force and all our problems are wiped away and we continue on.
NO! Sometimes He answers our prayer and the answer is "deal with it", "I am here but you need to deal with it. " God may be putting you through a trial and that trial maybe there so that you will realize just how much you need the Lord or that your walk is weak and God has put this trial upon you to make your dependency in Christ.
I have failed God so much and I'm realizing just how much, I am so weak and He is so strong. I am such a wretched sinner and He is perfect. I love Him so much, but I don't love Him enough.
I have disappointed Him in so many ways, and He keeps on loving me, I wonder why sometimes. The flesh can be so strong at times, living in this sin infested world can be so difficult.
God will make you face the sin in your life and he will do what ever it takes to do it! If you face up to the fire, God will guide you through it and it may takes hours, days ...or years, but God is there and if it is a lifetime of pain and you leave this world suffering from it, think about the second you leave this world and you enter eternity in Glory, it's worth it.
I believe the hard heartiest, most cross grained and most unloving Christians in all the world are those who have not had much trouble in their life. And those that are the most sympathizing, loving and Christlike are generally those who have the most affliction. The worse thing that can happen to any of us is to have a path made too smooth. One of the greatest blessings the Lord ever gave us was a cross." Charles Spurgeon
Please pray for me because I am so weak and and in the hours, day and months ahead I want to draw nearer to our Savior, I want Him proud of me.
"You may have just victoriously gone through a great crisis, but now be alert about the things that may appear to be the least likely to tempt you. Beware of thinking that the areas of your life where you have experienced victory in the past are now the least likely to cause you to stumble and fall. Stay alert, keep your memory sharp before God. Unguarded strength is actually a double weakness, because that is where the least likely temptation s will be effective in sapping strength. The bible characters stumbled over their strong points, never their weak ones." Oswald Chambers
Friday, January 29, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
REPENTANCE
A child of God weeps that he is sometimes overcome by the prevalence of corruption. "For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do." (Romans 7:19).
Repenting tears are precious. God puts them in his bottle (Psalm 56:8). Repenting tears are beautifying. To God—a tear in the eye, adorns more than a ring on the finger. Oil makes the face shine (Psalm 104:15). Tears make the heart shine. Repenting tears are comforting. A sinner's mirth turns to melancholy. A saint's mourning turns to music! Repentance may be compared to myrrh, which though it is bitter to the taste—is comforting to the spirits. Repentance may be bitter to the flesh, but it is most refreshing to the soul. Wax which melts is fit for the seal. A melting soul is fit to take the stamp of all heavenly blessing. Let us give Christ the water of our tears—and he will give us the wine of his blood!
Godly men weep over the evils whichare found in themselves, such as
. . . error,
ignorance,
prejudice,
pride,
self-righteousness,
worldliness,
levity,
unloving tempers and dispositions,
censoriousness,
envy,
sinful anger,
hatred,
a proneness . . .
to remember wrongs,
to indulge complaints,
to forget mercies.
There is no plague like the plague of an evil heart! There is no misery like the wretchedness of 'conscious vileness'. There are no sighs so long and so deep-drawn as those caused by indwelling sin. Though the righteous shall not weep always, yet they may weep bitterly. "What a wretched man I am!" Romans 7:24"I abhor myself!" Job 42:6"Behold, I am vile!" Job 40:4"Woe is me! For I am undone!" Isaiah 6:5"Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" Luke 5:8
True repentance is a daily turning of the soul further and further from sin—and a daily turning of the soul nearer and nearer to God.True repentance includes . . . a true sense of sin, a deep sorrow for sin, a hearty loathing of sin, and a holy shame and blushing for sin.To repent is to make . . . a clean head and a clean heart; a clean lip and a clean life.To repent is for a man to loathe himself, as well as his sin. Is this easy for man, who is so great a self-lover, and so great a self-exalter, and so great a self-admirer—to become a self-loather? To repent is to cross sinful self,it is to walk contrary to sinful self, yes, it is to revenge a man's self upon himself.True repentance lies in a daily dying to sin, and in a daily living to Him who lives forever.
Grace Gems
Repenting tears are precious. God puts them in his bottle (Psalm 56:8). Repenting tears are beautifying. To God—a tear in the eye, adorns more than a ring on the finger. Oil makes the face shine (Psalm 104:15). Tears make the heart shine. Repenting tears are comforting. A sinner's mirth turns to melancholy. A saint's mourning turns to music! Repentance may be compared to myrrh, which though it is bitter to the taste—is comforting to the spirits. Repentance may be bitter to the flesh, but it is most refreshing to the soul. Wax which melts is fit for the seal. A melting soul is fit to take the stamp of all heavenly blessing. Let us give Christ the water of our tears—and he will give us the wine of his blood!
Godly men weep over the evils whichare found in themselves, such as
. . . error,
ignorance,
prejudice,
pride,
self-righteousness,
worldliness,
levity,
unloving tempers and dispositions,
censoriousness,
envy,
sinful anger,
hatred,
a proneness . . .
to remember wrongs,
to indulge complaints,
to forget mercies.
There is no plague like the plague of an evil heart! There is no misery like the wretchedness of 'conscious vileness'. There are no sighs so long and so deep-drawn as those caused by indwelling sin. Though the righteous shall not weep always, yet they may weep bitterly. "What a wretched man I am!" Romans 7:24"I abhor myself!" Job 42:6"Behold, I am vile!" Job 40:4"Woe is me! For I am undone!" Isaiah 6:5"Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" Luke 5:8
True repentance is a daily turning of the soul further and further from sin—and a daily turning of the soul nearer and nearer to God.True repentance includes . . . a true sense of sin, a deep sorrow for sin, a hearty loathing of sin, and a holy shame and blushing for sin.To repent is to make . . . a clean head and a clean heart; a clean lip and a clean life.To repent is for a man to loathe himself, as well as his sin. Is this easy for man, who is so great a self-lover, and so great a self-exalter, and so great a self-admirer—to become a self-loather? To repent is to cross sinful self,it is to walk contrary to sinful self, yes, it is to revenge a man's self upon himself.True repentance lies in a daily dying to sin, and in a daily living to Him who lives forever.
Grace Gems
Monday, January 18, 2010
DEATH AND LIFE
The last thing a child of God has to fear is death! Death to a christian means to be in the presence of their Savior. Oh the Glory of that moment absent from the body, present with the Lord, not even but a second of closing your eyes and then to open them and see the Holy one that you have served. The joy will be indescribable! All the pain and suffering you endured will be wiped from your mind.
"The sound of weeping and crying will be heard no more!" Isaiah 65:19
The joy we will experience when we look into His face and see the love He feels for us, a love no greater.
"And they shall be Mine, says the Lord Almighty, in that day when I make up My jewels." Malachi 3:17
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him." 1 Corinthians 2:9
To meditate on how much He loves His own to remember how He suffered so much for us by laying down His life. ..No greater love then to lay down your life.
He is preparing it for us brethren! Home Sweet Home Awaits us!!
~Cristina~
"The sound of weeping and crying will be heard no more!" Isaiah 65:19
The joy we will experience when we look into His face and see the love He feels for us, a love no greater.
"And they shall be Mine, says the Lord Almighty, in that day when I make up My jewels." Malachi 3:17
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him." 1 Corinthians 2:9
To meditate on how much He loves His own to remember how He suffered so much for us by laying down His life. ..No greater love then to lay down your life.
He is preparing it for us brethren! Home Sweet Home Awaits us!!
~Cristina~
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