God Maintains Your Surrender

People say, "I have tried but it seems to fade away and
after a time, is gone. Ah, it is because you do not believe
that when God has begun the work of absolute surrender,
then God holds Himself bound to care for it and will
keep it. Think of it this way. In surrender there are two
parties, God and you, a worm. God the everlasting and
omnipotent Jehovah. Worm, will you be afraid to trust
yourself to this mighty God now? God is willing. Do
you not believe that HE can keep you continually, day
by day, moment by moment?

Moment by moment I'm kept in His love;
Moment by moment I've life from above.

If God allows the sun to shine upon you moment by
moment without intermission, will not God let His
life shine through you every moment? And why have
you not experienced it? Because you have not trusted
God for it, and you do not surrender yourself abso-
lutely to God in that trust.

A life of absolute surrender has its difficulties. I do not
deny that. Yes, it has something far more than difficul-
ties: it is a life that with men is impossible. But by the
grace of God, by the power of God, by the power of the
Holy Spirit dwelling in us, it is a life to which we are
destined, and a life that is possible for us, praise God!
Let us believe that God will maintain it.

Such a life has two sides--on the one side, absolute 
surrender to work what God wants you to do; on the
other side, to let God work what He wants to do. 
Andrew Murray in Absolute Surrender

Reader, I am walking this with you. There is much in
my life right now that seems to make 'absolute surrender'
impossible! But I recognize that all these things piling
up brings me to this point: 'let go, and let God.'

God Accepts Your Surrender

God works it in the secret of our heart, God urges us by
the hidden power of His Holy Spirit to come and speak
it out, and we have to bring and to yield to Him that ab-
solute surrender. But, it may, as far as your feelings go,
be a thing of great imperfection, and you may doubt and
hesitate. Perhaps you are wondering, "Is it absolute?"

Have you never learned the lesson that the Holy Ghost
works with mighty power, while on the human side every-
thing looks feeble? Think of Jesus in the Garden. We 
read that He, "through the eternal Spirit," offered Him-
self a sacrifice unto God. The Almighty Spirit of God 
was enabling Him to do it. And yet what agony and fear 
and exceeding sorrow came over Him, and how He 
prayed! And even so, while you are feeble and fighting 
and trembling, in faith in the hidden work of God's Spirit 
do not fear, but continue to yield yourself to Him. Let it 
be in the faith of God that does now accept it. So often 
this point is missed, that believers should be thus occu-
pied with God in this matter of surrender. I pray that you 
be occupied with God. You can say to Him:

"O God, I have accepted Thy terms of absolute surrender"
While your heart says that in deep silence, remember
there is a God present who takes note of it, and writes it
down in His book, and there is a God present who at
that very moment fills you. You may not feel it, you may
not realize it, but God takes you at your word.

God not only claims it, and works it, and accepts it when
I bring it but, GOD MAINTAINS IT. Andrew Murray

Reader, absolute surrender is the doorway to intimacy with
your precious Savior. In these perilous days while we wait
for His coming, we need to be able to hear from God and
then trust Him for the doing. He is our great keeping God!
He is faithful!

Below are two pieces sung by Steve Green. Steve was
launched by Bill Gaither many years ago and many of you
have not heard of him. What impresses me is that he was
only 20 when he began to sing in public, and His heart
still belongs to His God!

Enter In  This is to die for
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYLu_YFoOc0

The beauty of the bride. I have posted this before but
I love the reminder that our Cosmic Groom is coming
for His bride. I don't like the pictures chosen for the
most part, and it takes away my own imagination as
the song is sung.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS5Pr8S2YIg&list=RDwS5Pr8S2YIg&t=34

God Works in You!!!

For the past few days we have been looking at Surrender.
One blog builds on another so if you have not read the
earlier posts, now would be a good time to do so. The
blog below is from Andrew Murray's book,
Absolute Surrender. 

'Someone says: 'Oh, I have passed through so much trial
and suffering, and there is so much of the self-life still
remaining, and I dare not face the entire giving of it up,
because I know it will cause so much trouble and agony.'

Alas! Alas! that God's children have such thoughts of Him, 
such cruel thoughts. Oh, I come to you with a message, 
fearful and anxious one. God does not ask you to give the 
perfect surrender in your strength, or by the power of your
will: God is willing to work it in you. Do we not read:
'It is God that works in us, both to will and to do His 
good pleasure?'
And that is what we seek for--to go on our faces before God, 
until our hearts learn to believe that the everlasting God 
Himself will come in to turn out what is wrong, to conquer 
what is evil, and to work what is well-pleasing in His bles-
sed sight. God Himself will work in you.

God comes and offers to work this absolute surrender in
you. All these searchings and hungering and longings 
that are in your heart, I tell you they are the drawings of
the divine magnet, Jesus Christ. He lived a life of absolute
surrender, He has possession of you; He is living in your
heart by His Holy Spirit. You have hindered Him terribly, 
but He desires to help you to get hold of Him entirely. And 
He comes and draws you now by His message and words. 
Will you not come and trust God to work in you that absolute 
surrender to himself? Yes, He can do it, and He will do it.

Reader, "You can come with feeble desire and say, 'Oh my
desire is not strong enough. I am not willing for everything
that may come, I do not feel bold enough. But my God, I 
am willing that You should make me willing.'"

God Expects Surrender

Reading again from the first chapter of Andrew Murray's
book on Absolute Surrender. God expects surrender.

'Let me say, first of all, that God claims it from us. Why?
because it has as its foundation in the very nature of God.
God cannot do otherwise. Who is God? He is the Foun-
tain of life, the only Source of existence, the power, and
goodness, and throughout the universe there is nothing
good but God works. God has created the sun, moon, 
stars, flowers, trees and grass. Are they not all absolutely
surrendered to God? Do they not allow God to work in
them just what He pleases? And God's redeemed child-
ren, oh, can you think that God can work His work if
there is only half or part of them surrendered? God can-
not do it.'

'You know in daily life what absolute surrender is. You
know that everything has to be given up to its special
purpose and service. I have a pen in my pocket, and the
pen is absolutely surrendered to the one work of writing,
and that pen must be absolutely surrendered to my hand
if I am to write properly.'

'As believers each of us is a temple of God, in which God 
dwells and who will work mightily on one condition--
absolute surrender. God not only claims it, but God will 
work it Himself.'

Reader, when I came to the last phrase I breathed a
sigh of relief. 'God will work it.' We will look at this
in the next blog.

Absolute Surrender

Searching through my library I came across a dogeared
book by Andrew Murray called Absolute Surrender. He
hits the nail on the head and since he wrote it when there
were no copyrights, I am free to write from his words in
detail. I will break up the first chapter into small bits.

My Lord, O King, according to thy saying, I am thine
and all that I have.  1 Kings 20:4

The context is very interesting but it is the words of Ahab
that are the focus here. 'The condition of God's blessing is
absolute surrender of all into His hands. Praise God! If our
hearts are willing for that, there is no end to what God will
do for us, and to the blessing God will bestow.' Murray
goes on to say:

'In Scotland once I was in a company where we were talk-
ing about the condition of Christ's Church, and what was
the greatest need of the Church and of the believers; and
an elderly missionary said that "the condition for obtaining
God's full blessing is absolute surrender to Him.'"

Murray goes on to say, 'I desire by God's grace to give to
you this message--that your God in heaven answers the
prayers which you have offered for blessings on yourselves
and for blessing on those around you by this one demand:
Are you willing to surrender yourselves absolutely into His
hands? What is our answer to be? God knows there are hun-
dress of hearts who have said it, and there are hundreds
more who long to sati but hardly dare to do so. And there
are hearts who have said it, but who have yet miserably
failed, and who feel themselves condemned because they
did not find the secret of the power to live that life.'

Reader, I have asked God to lead me ahead of you so that
my words are not that of a hypocrite. I have obviously
read this book many times in the past, but it is new to me.
I so desire to be a green tree in my old age. What about
you? Well, I am not saying that any of you are currently
old! But, wouldn't it be wonderful to grasp this now?

Surrender

We are assured and know that all things work together
and are (fitting into a plan) for good to those who love
God and are called according to (His) design and 
purpose. Romans 8:28, Amplified

The Lord has been speaking to me about surrender
and showing me more what that means, what that
does for the Christian. I am reminded of a woman
who began to understand 'surrender' about the time
she was diagnosed with ALS. Elizabeth was in her
seventies and full of life. The disease took her
ability to live alone and she went to live with her
daughter's family. I visited her on a regular basis
and watched as her body began to fail her. Toward
the end she lost speech but could use a spelling
board. Elizabeth really understood the wonder of
surrender and I never visited but that I left more
uplifted than when I arrived. She was amazing!

Reader, we are living in the end times when things
come at us quickly and our lives change as a result.
I think of those in California who went to bed and
at 3AM were throwing stuff into cars in order to
flee a fast moving fire. Some did not make it. Many
lost everything. Fires, hurricanes, earthquakes,
tornadoes, are things that are unexpected. Certainly
those who went to the concert in Las Vegas will
never be the same. So, how does surrender make
a difference?

Courage

Be men of courage; be strong.  1Corinthians 16:13

Never pray an easier life--pray to be a stronger person!
Never pray for tasks equal to your power--pray for
power equal to your tasks. Then doing your work will
be no miracle--you will be the miracle. Phillips Brooks

Reader, We were not called by God to a self-indulgent
life. I have thought that I needed courage to fight the
lions, the scary things of life, but it is true also in the
drudgery of life, when I just want out.

It's a Relationship

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all 
your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 
Mark 12:30,31

When my boys were young I explained just how im-
portant it is never to allow Christianity to become
anything other than a relationship, for all our 'doing'
is to grow out of a relationship with the living Christ.

I am quite sure that if we included in a mother's job
description the shuttling of every kid on the block to
various activities, with the passing of time that mom
might become resentful. However, the same mother
thinks nothing of providing for her own children. As
she does the laundry, picks up after them, cooks, runs
them to various activities, cares for them when they
are sick, and confronts them when wrong, the thought
of motherhood's being a burden does not enter her
mind. Why? Because the mother has a relationship
with her children.

Few working fathers are vexed by the thought of work-
ing to provide for their families. In fact, a job that is dis-
liked is actually tolerable if one is providing for others.

In contrast, children can believe themselves put upon
when required to act on behalf of the family. That is,
they do not yet see the relationship the foundation of
the doing. As they mature and reach adulthood, they
who rebelled at the smallest inconvenience will begin
to take care of and provide for parents in times of need,
not from duty but as a normal outgrowth of the rela-
tionship.

We must be careful to emphasize the relationship that
we are to have with God. Within the context of this
relationship, anything asked of us is a privilege, not a
duty. We are not told to perform so that God will not
get us, but from love, or as a sign of commitment and
spirituality. Obedience is an enjoyable blessing amid
a loving relationship with our Lord.
Michael Wells, from My Weakness for His Strength

Reader, how many of us serve God because of the word,
'ought,' or 'to please' a God who demands a certain amount
of 'doing good?' It has been a huge relief, as I have aged,
to realize that I am living out my Christian life in a rela-
tionship and not out of the word, 'should.' If He is not ask-
ing me to do something for Him, I am free to take a walk,
read a book, or take a nap--without guilt! Even these
activities flow from His Life. We have a wonderful loving
Father who rejoices in us, in our uniqueness, gifts,pleasures,
desires. Oh, this fills me with such wonder!

I Was Afraid

Offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought
forth from death to life. Romans 6:13

One night I went to hear a sermon on consecration. 
Nothing special came to me from the message, but as
the preacher knelt to pray, he said, 'O Lord, You know
we can trust the Man who died for us.' That was my
message. As I rose from my knees and walked down
the street to catch the train, I deeply pondered all that
consecration would mean to my life. I was afraid as
I considered the personal cost, and suddenly above the 
noise of the street traffic, came this message: 'You can
trust the Man who died for you.' I boarded the train,
and asI traveled toward home, I thought of the chan-
ges, sacrifices, and disappointments that consecration 
might mean in my life--and I was still afraid.

Upon arriving home, I went straight to my room, fell
on my knees, and saw my life pass before my eyes. I
was a Christian, an officer in the church, and a Sunday
School superintendent, but I had never yielded my life
to God with a definite act of my will. Yet as I thought
of my own 'precious' plans that might be thwarted, my
beloved hopes to be surrendered, and my chosen pro-
session that I might have abandon--I was afraid.

I completely failed to see the better things God had 
for me, so my soul was running from Him. And then 
for the last time, with a swift force of convicting power 
to my inmost heart, came that searching message; 'My 
child, you can trust the Man who died for you. If you
cannot trust Him, then whom can you trust?' Finally
that settled it for me, for in a flash of light I realized
that the Man who loved me enough to die for me could 
be absolutely trusted with the total concerns the life 
He had saved.

Dear friend, you can trust the Man who died for you.
You can trust Him to thwart each plan that should be
stopped and to complete each one that results in His
greatest glory and your highest good. You can trust 
Him to lead you down the path that is the very best in 
the world for you.  JHM

Reader, how many of you are afraid to find out what
God's will is for you, just like this writer? It is often a
very difficult place and fear often makes it difficult to
hear Him. I pray for you today that you will be able
'to trust the Man who died for you.'

Stuck

With skillful hands he led them. Psalm 78:72

When you are unsure which course to take, totally sub-
mit your own judgment to that of the Spirit of God, ask-
ing Him to shut every door except the right one. But 
meanwhile keep moving ahead and consider the absence 
of a direct indication from God to be the evidence of His 
will that you are on His path. And as you continue down
the long road, you will find that He has gone before you,
locking doors you otherwise would have been inclined
to enter. You can be sure that somewhere beyond the 
locked doors is one He has left unlocked. And when you 
open it and walk through, you will find yourself face to 
face with turn in the river of opportunity--one that is 
broader and deeper than anything you ever dared to ima-
gine, even in your wildest dreams. So set sail on it, be-
cause it flows to the open sea. 

God often guides us through our circumstances. One mo-
ment, our way may seem totally blocked, but then suddenly 
some seemingly trivial incident occurs, appearing as no-
thing to others but speaking volumes to the keen eye of faith. 
And sometimes these events are repeated in various ways in 
response to our prayers. They are certainly not haphazard 
results of chance but are God opening up the way we should 
walk, by directing our circumstances. And they begin to mul-
tiply as we advance toward our goal, just as the lights of a 
city seem to increase  as we speed toward it while traveling 
at night.  FB Meyer

Reader, I have noticed that the question of 'where do I go
now?' is a huge one in the Christian's life. Over the years I
have discovered that God does not let me head in the wrong
direction for very long before He initiates a course correc-
tion. It comes when I am moving  forward according to the
light I have currently. During the years I had Lyme Disease
and was so tired of sitting in a chair and reading mystery
stories which I could not remember after finishing the book,
God closed almost every door I tried to open. It was not the
season for activity as He still had things to teach me, like the
word, 'wait.' Toward the end of that journey I decided to put
up a website and blog. That was six years ago and so far He
has not allowed me to give it up!

I have posted my story, The Crucible of Lyme Disease below.
http://hisvictoriousindwelling.com/story.php?id=8

Loneliness

It can be a wilderness, it can be a pathway to God.
Elisabeth Elliot

I am looking at loneliness today because I believe
that we are the loneliest generation due to two things:
Technology and business. I recently read a book on
loneliness by Elisabeth Elliot. I want to share it.

Elisabeth Elliot was the wife of Jim Elliot who was
murdered by the Aucca Indians in January 1956.
Elisabeth had waited five years before Jim realized
he had not been given the 'gift' of singleness! They
were only married 27 months before his death which
also left behind a 10 month old daughter.

Here are some of her pithy comments on loneliness:

'Loneliness is a kind of death. The loneliness of widow
hood was an exit from the comforts and consolations
of having a husband, and an entrance into the strange
world of having to make unilateral decisions again.'

'One of the surprises in store for most brides and 
grooms is that they are still lonely. Marriage teaches 
us that even the most intimate human companionship 
cannot satisfy the deepest places the heart. Our hearts 
are lonely till they are resting in Him who made us for 
Himself.'

'Loneliness comes over us sometimes as a sudden tide.
It is one of the terms of our humanness, and, in a sense,
therefore, incurable. Yet, I have found peace in my lone-
liest times not through acceptance of the situation, but
through making it an offering to God, who can trans-
form it into something for the good of others.'

'Loneliness is a gift that we can offer back to God.'

Reader, most of you will not remember the slaughter of
five men who desired to enter a tribe in Equador in order
to share the Gospel, but it was huge news in 1956. As
a result, many young men and women prepared to go in-
to unreached places with the Good News of Eternal Life.
Elisabeth continued to work in that area and had the
privilege of going into that tribe with her five year old
daughter. Amazing love!

I was able to purchase, Loneliness, by Elisabeth Elliot
from Amazon for under $3. She was married three times
and was widowed twice. Here is her biography.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_Elliot

I would also recommend a movie, End of the Spear, that
was made about Steve Saint who spent much time with
those who killed his dad and discovered why they were
killed. I was not able to stream it but it is available as a
dvid.

The love of Christ can conquer that which man cannot
even imagine!

The Father's Business

Did you not know that I must be
about my Father's business?
Luke 2:49

     Think about your own circumstances.
     Are you so closely identified with the
Lord's life that you are simply a child of God,
     continually talking to Him and realizing
that everything comes from His hands? Is the
eternal child in you living in His Father's house?
Oswald Chambers

Reader, do you find yourself commenting to Him
concerning the things that give you pleasure, joy,
life?  He desires our relationship, our company.
Sometimes I go for hours without thinking about
the One who loves me most and who wants to be
involved in all areas of my life. Do you realize
that we will be face to face with Him through all
eternity?

The Storehouses

Have you entered the storehouses...which I reserve for
times of trouble?  Job 38:22-23

Our trials are great opportunities, but all too often we
simply see them as large obstacles. If only we would
recognize every difficult situation as something God has 
chosen to prove His love to us, each obstacle would then
become a place of sheltering rest, and a demonstration
to others of His inexpressible power. If we would look
for the signs of His glorious handiwork, then every 
cloud would indeed become rainbow, and every difficult
mountain path would become one of ascension, transfor-
mation, and glorification. 

If we would look at our past, most of us would realize
that the times we endured the greatest stress and felt that 
every path was blocked were the very times our heavenly 
Father chose to do the kindest things for us and bestow 
His richest blessings.

God's most beautiful jewels are often delivered in rough
packages by very difficult people, but within the package
we will find the very treasures of the King's palace and 
the Bridegroom's love. A B Simpson

Reader, everything I pick up these days from those who
lived, worked, suffered long ago, have almost the same
message. We are all living in very trying times and just
going to church once a week, and saying a quick prayer,
is not cutting it...

The Cross in Prayer

At that day you shall ask in My Name. John 16:26

We are too much given to thinking of the Cross as some-
thing we have to get through; we get through it only in
order to get into it. The Cross stands for one thing only
for us--a complete and entire and absolute identification
with the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is nothing in which
this identification is realized more than prayer. 

'Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before 
you ask Him.' Then why ask? The idea of prayer is not in 
order get answers from God; prayer is perfect and complete 
oneness with God. If we pray because we want answers, we 
will get huffed with God. The answers come every time, but 
not always in the way we expect, and spiritual huff shows a 
refusal to identify ourselves with our Lord in prayer; we are 
here to be living monuments of God's grace.

'I say not that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father 
Himself loveth you.' Have you reached such an intimacy with 
God that the Lord Jesus Christ's life of prayer is the only ex-
planation of your life of prayer? Has our Lord's vicarious life 
become your vital life? 'At that day' you will be so identified 
with Jesus that there will be no distinction.

When prayer seems to be unanswered, beware of trying to fix 
the blame on someone else. That is always a snare of Satan. 
You will find there is a reason which is a deep instruction to 
you, not to anyone else. Oswald Chambers

Reader, I am always challenged by Oswald Chambers. His
messages are from God's perspective, not mine.

The Whirlwind and the Storm

His way is in the whirlwind and the storm.  Nah 1:3

I remember when I was a young person attending school
in the vicinity of Mt Pleasant. One day I sat on the side
of the mountain and watched a storm as it moved through
the valley. The skies were filled with darkness, and thun-
der began to shake the earth. It seemed as though the lush
landscape were completely changed, and its beauty gone
forever. But the storm passed quickly and soon moved 
out of the valley. 

If I had sat in the same place the following day and said,
'Where is that intense storm and all its terrible darkness?'
the grass would have said, 'Part of it is in me.' The beauti-
ful daisy would have said, 'Part of it is in me.' And all
other flowers, fruits, and everything that grows in the
ground would have said, 'Part of the storm has produced
radiance in me.'

Have you ever asked the Lord to make you like Him? 
Have you ever desired the fruit of the Spirit and prayed 
for sweetness, gentleness, love? If so, then never fear the 
fierce storms that even now may be blowing through your 
life. Storms bring blessings, and rich fruit will be harves-
ted later. Henry Ward Beecher

Reader, it seems that storms flow through our lives on a
daily basis these days. The news we read seems to impact
us on some level. Hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, floods,
droughts are not 'over there.' Then there are the storms
that personally impact us. I know that my life has moved
into a new level of intensity. It is so important that we
take time each day to get quiet and seek Him through His
Word. He has much to say to us in these difficult times
but we have to stop and pay attention to that quiet Voice.
God is asking us to come into a new place of trust.

'God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in
trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be
removed, and though the mountains be carried into the
midst of the sea...BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM
GOD: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be 
exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the
God of Jacob is our refuge.  Ps 46

Test Me In This

Test me in this...and see if I will not throw open the flood-
gates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you
will not have room enough for it. Mal 3:10

Here is what God is saying in this verse: "My dear child,
I still have floodgates in heaven, and they are still in my
service. The locks open as easily as before, and the 
hinges have not grown rusty. In fact, I would rather, throw 
them open to pour out the blessings than hold them back. 
I opened them for Moses, and the sea parted. I opened them 
for Joshua, and the Jordan River was stopped. I opened 
them for Gideon, and the armies of the enemy fled. And I 
will open them for you--if you will only let Me.

"On my side of the floodgates, heaven is still the same rich 
storehouse as always. The fountains and streams will over-
flow and the treasure-rooms are still bursting with gifts. 
The need is not on My side but on yours. I am waiting for 
you to 'test Me in this.' But you must first meet the condi-
tion I have set to 'bring the whole tithe into the store-
house,' and thereby give me the opportunity to act.' 

I will never forget my mother's concise paraphrase of this
verse. The actual Bible verse begins with the words, 'Bring 
the whole tithe in to the storehouse' and ends with, 'I will...
pour out so much blessing that,' in effect, 'you will be 
embarrassed over your lack of space to receive it.' But 
my mother's paraphrase was this:
'Give all He asks and take all He promises.'
Samuel Dickey Gordon

Reader, with all of the 'blab it and grab it' we see today it
makes it difficult to receive what God wants to give to us.
At least for me. But, He is a generous God. Jesus said this:

'...give at it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed
down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your 
lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured 
back to you.' Luke 6:38

Paul says this:
...He that sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and 
he which sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully...
for  God loves a cheerful (hilarious) giver.' 2 Cor 9:6,7

As I was growing up we went to Chautuaqua summers and
the man who introduced the offering said that the word
'cheerful' meant, 'hilarious' in the Greek!  It made me want
to give lavishly.

Unmitigated Disaster?

And all things that are written by the prophets concer-
ning the Son of Man shall be accomplished...And they 
understood none of these things. Luke 18:31,34

God called Jesus Christ to what seemed unmitigated disaster. 
Jesus Christ called His disciples to see Him put to death; He 
led every one of them to the place where their hearts were 
broken. Jesus Christ's life was an absolute failure from man's 
standpoint but was a tremendous triumph from God's, be-
cause God's purpose is never man's purpose.

There comes the baffling call of God in our lives also. The call 
of God can never be stated explicitly; it is implicit. The call of 
God is like the call of the sea, no one hears but the one who 
has the nature of the sea in him. It cannot be stated definitely 
what the call of God is to, because His call is to be in comrade-
ship with Himself for His own purposes, and the test is to be-
lieve that God knows what He is after. The things that happen 
do not happen by chance, they happen entirely in the decree 
of God. God is working out His purposes. 

If we are in communion with God and recognize that He is take-
ing us into His purposes, we shall no longer try to find out what 
His purposes are. As we go on in the Christian life it gets simp-
ler, because we are less inclined to say--"Now why did God allow 
this or that?" Behind the whole thing lies the compelling of God. 
"There's a divinity that shapes our ends." A Christian is one who 
trusts the wits and the wisdom of God, and not his own wits. If 
we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the 
leisureliness which ought to characterize the children of God. 
Oswald Chambers

Reader, take this one in and ponder it. "If we do not have a pur-
pose regarding our own in life we enter into a simplicity and a
leisureliness that is supposed to characterize the children of
God." This was written long before our modern day when even
those who are Christians are constantly moving, never resting,
and feeling like they are getting nowhere and looking at nothing
but failure. We are constantly looking to the purpose instead of
the God of purpose. It even pursues us into old age!

The Long Haul

Then they believed his promises and sang his praise.
But they soon forgot what he had done and did not
wait for his counsel. In the desert they gave in to 
their craving; in the wasteland they put God to the
test. So he gave them what they asked for, but sent
a wasting disease upon them. Ps 106:12-15

In Hebrews 11:27, we read that Moses 'persevered be-
cause he saw him who is invisible.' Yet in the above 
passage, exactly the opposite was true of the Children 
of Israel. They persevered only when their circumstan-
ces were favorable, because they were primarily influ-
enced by whatever appealed to their senses, instead of 
trusting in the invisible and eternal God.

Even today we have people who live an inconsistent
Christian life because they have become preoccupied
with things that are external. Therefore they focus on
their circumstances rather than focusing on their God. 
And God desires that we grow in our ability to see Him 
in everything and to realize the importance of seem-
ingly insignificant circumstances if they are used to deli-
ver a message from Him.

We read to the children of Israel, 'Then they believed his 
promises.' They did not believe until after they saw--'
once they saw Him work, 'then they believed.' They una-
bashedly doubted God when they came to the Red Sea, 
but when He opened the way and led them across and 
they saw Pharaoh and his army drowned--'then they be-
lieved.' The Israelites continued to live this kind of up-
and-down existence, because their faith was dependent 
on their circumstances. And this is certainly not the kind 
of faith God wants us to have.

The world says that 'seeing is believing,' but God wants 
us to believe in order to see. The psalmist said, 'I would 
have despaired unless I had believed that I would see 
the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.'  
Ps 27:13

Do you believe in God only when your circumstances are 
favorable, or do you believe God no matter wha your 
circumstances may be?  C.H.P.

Reader, many of you are going through deep waters right
now and I pray that this will encourage you to trust God.
He not only knows your name but He knows what causes
you distress.

When I was doing visits to a care center with my dog, I
came across a new resident who was not adjusting very
well. She asked me to find a verse in the Bible. I was able
to locate it on a card at home and brought it to her the next
visit. Actually, God has placed this phrase in both
testaments!

Be strong and of good courage. fear not, nor be afraid 
of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with 
thee; he will not fail thee nor forsake thee. 
De 31:6 KJV

..."I will never leave you nor forsake you..." 
Heb 13:5 ESV--check out the whole verse!

The Brave Comradeship of God

Then He took unto Him the twelve
Luke 18:31

The bravery of God in trusting us! You say--'But He
has been unwise to choose me, because there is noth-
ing in me; I am not of value.' That is why He chose
you. As long as you think there is something in you,
He cannot choose you because you have ends of your
own to serve; but if you have let Him bring you to
the end of your self-sufficiency then He can choose
you to go with Him to Jerusalem, and that will mean
the fulfillment of purposes which He does not dis-
cuss with you.  Oswald Chambers

Reader, it is so very easy to fall into feeling that, either
God needs you very much, or God needs you not at all!
However, knowing that there is nothing in me but self,
does indeed free me from expecting myself to perform.
It is Christ in me that it is hope of glory!

PS My computer took an unexpected bath and needed
four days of rice bedrest. It appears to be working fine.
Unbelievable! Thank you, Father.