Job

The testimony of the life of Job

All those who live godly will suffer persecution. All. Will.
You are the battleground.
The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
I know that in my flesh I will see God--I will stand in His presence clothed in His righteousness. One day I will see Him!
You are His gold. His refining fire makes you more like Him.
It is the height of arrogance to assume that you know why someone else is going through suffering. God hates such arrogance.
Faith is more important than prosperity.
He knows the way you take. And He has prepared your path for your good and His glory.
The height--the depth--of spiritual blindness--to not see the incomparable wonders of His nature in the awesomeness of His creation.
When I truly "see" the majesty of my God, why doesn't matter.
He humbles so that He can exalt.
Let patience have its perfect work.
Lovingly intercede for your fiercest critics so that God will bless them.
One person's faith makes a difference.

Noah

Testimony of the life of Noah:

God is patient. We must be too--even if no one responds in a positive way.
God's patience may run out. When it does . . .
God is our refuge in the storm.
Faith, the fear of the Lord, and patience are inseparable.
God is the One we must please.
God is just as glorified when He judges as when He gives grace.
Grace.

Seek

 We live in a world that is desperately thirsty for meaning. The problem is not just that they have turned from Him--"the fountain of living water"--but that they have built for themselves "broken cisterns that can hold no water." Pray that their eyes will be opened to the brokenness of their cisterns so that they can return to the Fountain of Living Water. And through your life show them--as the panting deer--where your thirst is daily satisfied.
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"Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way, and the unrighteous his thoughts. And let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."

He will--not might--have compassion.

He will--not might--abundantly pardon. Abundantly.

"Who is a pardoning God like Thee? Or who has grace so rich and free?"

Measuring

"When they measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding." Beware of self-made standards of righteousness. Those standards are the paving stones on the path that leads to a total misunderstanding and total misrepresentation of the person of Christ--to the erecting of an false image that looks an awful lot like me. Can you think of a more spiritually devastating path for the child of God? "For if anyone think he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself."
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 The problem with the world today is not its wickedness. The problem is the baskets placed over the lights. How much love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control does the world see in my life? First, in how I treat my fellow members in the household of God? And then how I interact with the lost? "If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another."
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 The person I most need to be delivered from is myself. "If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself." Why are we so stubborn in trusting in our own wisdom and our own planning when they invariably end up creating such a mess? Lord deliver me from self-justification and self-reliance.

Those Days

On those tough days. On those hard days. On those "I don't understand" days. On those "I don't think I can do this" days. On those "I don't want to do this anymore, Lord" days. (I always add "Lord." Hmm.)

And I have more of those days than I care to admit--especially to myself. He already knows. And cares--with a concerned heart not a judgmental heart.

On those days--this is the truth that strengthens me:

"There is a green hill far away, outside a city wall,
Where the dear Lord was crucified Who died to save us all.
Oh, dearly, dearly has He loved, and we must love Him too,
And trust in His redeeming blood, and try His work to do."

Lord

Lord, keep me from the pride that is content with the way things are.
Lord, keep me from the selfish callousness that places "I want" over "they need."
Lord, keep me from trying to find my joy in the worthless nothings of this material world.
Lord, keep me from the spiritual pride that prays for judgment on others instead of interceding for pardon and mercy and a repentant heart.
Lord, keep me from the impudence that quenches the Spirit's conviction in my soul, that tries to quiet His loving prodding with the false lie that "I'm fine the way I am."

Lord, help me to be absorbed in the music--the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs--that fills my thoughts and my heart with the Spirit's presence.
Lord, help me to willingly be a pillar that those I love can rest on, draw strength from, and thus, become all that you intend for them to be.
Lord, help me to be the enemy of indifference.
Lord, help me in the gloom, in the darkness, in the shadows to be your flickering candle.
Lord, help me to love good by seeking first the kingdom of God day by day.

May you be the Lord of my life as Your love and the sense of Your Presence keeps me from having a divided heart. May I never forget that divided loyalty is disloyalty.

Keep me.
Help me.

I can do nothing without You.

Lord.

Weary

 "The Son of Man came into the world not to be ministered to, but to minister to others." Never forget that your entire life, lived before men, is your ministry. Every second of every day.

"And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary."

"But as for you brethren, do not grow weary of doing good."

"But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart"

Feeling weary? Don't gaze at the seemingly impossible challenges of the ministry He's called you to. Don't gaze at the people in the ministry--yes, they are in need of just as much mercy as you are. Don't gaze at tomorrow or back at yesterday. What can you possibly do about those days? Set your affections, your heart, your love on the beauty of your Savior--whom having not seen you love. He never changes. He's always faithful. Every seed He's enabled you to plant will one day bring the harvest. Every one. We labor not in vain. Feeling weary? With unveiled face gaze on Jesus who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Father--work completed. And as you gaze on Him, the Spirit will transform you into the Son's image, and the Father will use you--just as He used His Son to glorify His Name..