Suffering

Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me? 
John 18:11

In order to have sympathetic God, we must have a 
suffering Savior, for true sympathy comes from under-
standing another person's hurt by suffering the same
affliction. Therefore we cannot help others who suffer
without having known a great cost within ourselves.

The most comforting of David's psalms were squeezed
from his life by suffering, and if Paul had not been given
'a thorn in his flesh,' we would have missed much of the
heartbeat of tenderness that resonates through so many
of his letters. 

If you have surrendered yourself to Christ, your present
circumstanced that seem to press you to the ground, are
forming you into His image and also giving you a mes-
sage that will bring comfort to many. LB Cowman

Reader, I would also add that God the Father is making
us into a fit Bride for His Son. As we share in a small
part of His sufferings we are not only able to understand
a little more His terrible suffering for us on the cross, the
love that put Him there, but we are also being molded into
His image. We will not be unequally yoked with Him as
His Bride through all of eternity. Does that not put suf-
fering into a different light?

Take time to go back into your life and list the sorrows
and sufferings that you have experienced. Is there a
pattern that emerges? Then list what came out of the
valleys you walked through. For me it has been a much
deeper relationship with the One my heart loves best.

Fully Committed

The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to 
strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed
to him. 2 Chronicles 16:9

God is looking for men and women whose hearts are fully 
fixed on Him and who will continually trust Him for all 
He desires to do with their lives. God is ready and eager 
to work more powerfully than ever through His people, 
and the clock of the centuries is almost at midnight. 

The world is watching and waiting to see what God can do
through a life committed to Him. And not only is the world
waiting but God Himself awaits to see who will be the most
completely devoted person who has ever lived: willing to be
nothing so Christ may be everything; fully accepting God's
purposes as his own; receiving Christ's humility, faith, love
and power yet never hindering God's plan but always allow-
ing Hin to continue His miraculous work. CHP

Reade, there is no limit to what God can do through you,
provided you do not seek your own glory.  

Silence

I called to Him but he did not answer.  SS 5:6

Once the Lord has given great faith, He has been known
to test it with long delays. He has allowed His servants'
voice to echo in their ears, as if their preyers were re-
bounding from a contemptuous sky. Believers have 
knocked at the heavenly gate, but it has remain immov-
able, as though its hinges had rusted. And like Jeremiah,
they have cried, 
'You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no 
prayer can get through.'  Lam 3:44

True saints of God have endured lengthy times of patient
waiting with no reply, not because their prayers were 
prayed without intensity, nor because God did not accept
their pleas. They were required to wait because it pleased
Him who is sovereign and who gives 'according to his 
good purpose' Phil 2:13. And if it pleases Him to cause
our patience to be exercised, should He not do as He 
desires with His own?

No prayer is ever lost, or any prayer ever breathed in vain. 
There is no such thing as a prayer unanswered or unnoticed
by God, and some things we see as refusals or denials are
simply delays. Horatius Bonar

Reader, do you have prayers whose answers seem lost and
perhaps the prayers forgotten. When I get discouraged I
think of Eve who lost her first and second born and never
saw the promise of the Savior. I think of Job who did not
understand what was behind his suffering. How about
Abraham who waited 25 years for the fulfillment of the
promised one. Surely he cried to God in the night!

So, you see, we are not alone in this walk of faith!

Wingless Birds

They will soar on wings like eagles.  Isaiah 40:31

There is a fable about the way birds got their wings. The 
story goes that initially they were made without them. 
Then God made the wings, set them down before the 
wingless birds, and said to them, "Take up these burdens 
and carry them."

The birds had sweet voices for singing, and lovely
feathers, that glistened in the sunshine, but they could 
not soar. When asked to pick up the burdens that lay 
at their feet, they hesitated at first. Yet soon they obeyed, 
picked up the wings with their beaks, and set them on 
their shoulders to carry them.

For a short time the load seemed heavy and difficult to 
bear, but soon, as they continued to carry the burden and 
to fold the wings over their hearts, the wings grew 
attached to their little bodies. They quickly discovered
how to use them and were lifted by the wings high into
the air. The weights became wings. 

This is a parable for us. We are the wingless birds, and 
our duties and tasks are the wings God uses to lift us up 
and cary us heavenward. We look at our burdens and
heavy loads, and try to run from them, but if we will 
carry them and tie them to our hearts, they will become
wings God uses to lift us up and carry us heavenward.
We look at our burdens and heavy loads, and try to run
from them, but if we will carry them and tie them to our
hearts, they will become wings. And on them can we
rise and soar toward our God.

There is no burden so heavy that when lifted cheerfully
with love in our hearts will not become a blessing to us.
God intends for our tasks to be our helpers; to refuse to 
bend our shoulders to carry a load is to miss a new
opportunity for growth.  JR Miller.

No matter how overwhelming, any burden God has love-
tingly placed with His own hands on our shoulders is a
blessing.  Frederick Faber

Reader, God is using the blog to encourage me into a
greater understanding of how the trials in my life are
a doorway to His abundant life. I hope that you too,
find today's blog, liberating

The Furnace of Affliction

I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.  
Isaiah 48:10

Doesn't God's Word come to us like a soft rain shower,
dispelling the fury of the flames? Isn't it like fireproof
armor, against which the heat is powerless? Then let
afflictions come, for God has chosen me. Poverty, you
may walk through my door, but god is already in my
house, and He has chosen me. Sickness, you may in-
trude into my my life, but I have a cure standing ready--
God has chosen me. Whatever occurs in the valley of
tears, I know He has chosen me.

Dear Christian, do not be afraid, for Jesus walks with
you. Through all your fiery trials, His presence is both
your comfort and safety. He will never forsake those 
He has chosen for His own. 'Do not be afraid, for I am
with you,' (Gen 26:24) is His unfailing word of promise
to his chosen ones who are experiencing 'the furnace 
of affliction.' Charles H Spurgeon

Reader, many in this country are finding life hanging by
a thread. Whether it is Houston and Florida getting
deluged by wind and water, or the west which seems to
be burning up with fire and drought in so many states,
people are in danger of losing everything. God will never
forsake His own for we belong to Him. This is the bottom
line of the present and of our future.

Even in Old Age

You will come to the grave in full vigor, like sheaves 
in season. Job 5:26

A man who once wrote about the salvaging of old ships
stated that it was not the age of the wood from the
vessel alone that improved its quality. The straining
and twisting of the ship by the sea, the chemical reac-
sion produced by the bilge water, and the differing
cargoes also had an effect.

Several years ago some boards and veneers cut from an
oak beam from an eighty year old ship were exhibited
at a fashionable furniture store on Broadway in NYC.
They attracted attention, because of their elegant color-
ing and beautiful grain. Equally striking were some
mahogany beams taken from a ship that sailed the seas
sixty years ago. The years of travel had constricted the
pores of the wood and deepened its colors, so that they
were magnificent and bright as those of an antique
Chinese vase. The wood has since been used to make
a cabinet that sits in a place of honor in the living room
of a wealthy New York family.

There is also a great difference between the quality of
elderly people who have lived listless, self-indulgent,
and useless lives and the quality if those who have
sailed through rough seas, carrying cargo and burdens
as servants of God, and as helpers of others. In the
latter group, not only has the stress and strain of life
seeped into their lives but the aroma of sweetness of
their cargo has also been absorbed into the very pores
of each fiber of their character.  Louis Albert Banks

Reader, as we celebrate our 47th anniversary today, this
piece is so encouraging. God means for us to be fruitful
and beautiful even into old age. I think one of the biggest
 'youth tonics' is to give Him thanks in all things. Try it.
You will come to like it. And your face will reflect His
goodness to you even in the hard times.

God's Faitfulness

What if some did not have faith? Will their lack nullify
God's faithfulness.  Romans 3:3

I suspect that the source of every bit of sorrow in my life
can be traced to simple unbelief. If I truly believe the 
past is totally forgiven, the present is supplied with power,
and the future is bright with hope, how could I be any-
thing but completely happy?

Yes, the future is bright, because of God's faithfulness.
His abiding truth does not change with my mood, and
He never wavers when I stumble and fall over a promise
of His through my unbelief. His faithfulness stands firm
and as prominent as mountain peaks of pearl splitting 
the clouds of eternity. And each base of His hills is rooted 
at an unfathomable depth on the rock of God.
Samuel Hart

Reader, God is faithful even in our unfaithfulness. His
mercies are new every morning.