Friday, August 17, 2018

The Sweetest Rose

We must go through hardships to enter the kingdom
of God. Acts 14:22

The best things in life are the result of being wounded.
Wheat must be crushed before becoming bread, and
the incense must be burned by fire before its fragrance
is set free. The earth must be broken with a sharp plow
before being ready to receive the see. And it is a bro-
ken heart that pleases God.

Yes, the sweetest joys of life are the fruits of sorrow.
Human nature seems to need suffering to make it fit
to be a blessing to the world.

"Beside my cottage door it grows,
The loveliest, daintiest flower that blows,
A sweetbrier rose.

At dewy morn or twilight's close,
The rarest perfume from it flows,
This strange wild rose.

But when the raindrops on it beat,
Ah, then, its odors grow more sweet,
About my feet.

Often with loving tenderness,
Its soft green leaves I gently press,
In sweet caress.

A still more wondrous fragrance flows
The more my fingers close
And crush the rose.

Dear Lord, Oh, lit my life be so
Its perfume when strong winds blow,
The sweeter flow.

And should it be Your blessed will,
With crushing grief my soul to fill,
Press harder still.

And while its dying fragrance flows
I'll whisper low, "He loves and knows
His crushed brier rose."

If you aspire to be a person of consolation, if you want
to share the priestly gift of sympathy, if you desire to
go beyond giving commonplace comfort to a heart that
is tempted, and if you long to go through the daily ex-
changes of life with the kind of tact that never inflicts
pain, then you must be prepared to pay the price for a
costly education--for like Christ, you must suffer.
Frederick William Robertson.

Reader, it is not what I want to hear. I don't like the
negatives dropping into my life, but it is comforting
to know that God is in the midst of it all for my good
and His glory. I find that in these times everyday be-
comes a challenge in some way or another.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness...

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