(no subject)
Life is absolutely NOTHING unless Jesus is first in your life. Nothing can make up for it.
The person who will receive the crown of eternal life is the person who successfully endures trial - that is, the person who fights for joy in the pain of loss and gets the victory over the unbelief of anger and bitterness and discouragement.
Tonight I was feeling burdened over the fact that there are so few people who truly LOVE the Lord. Like, everything is so "fine & dandy" and that there are many things to "make up" for the feeling of emptyness or loss. There is something to keep your mind busy 24/7 if you choose - and yet the hardest thing is to do nothing, and stand before your Creator. But I've come to find out, that there is nothing SO IMPORTANT as putting God first and truly SEEKING Him first - that means, loving Him, finding out about Him, reading about Him, asking Him for wisdom, talking to Him, praying, and doing what you need to do to learn more about Him. There is absolutely nothing that can fill that void in your heart except what can be filled with Jesus. There is a God-sized void and hole in every heart that cannot be filled with anything besides Him. That loss will stay with you, it will NEVER leave until you ask Him to fill it. But when God fills your heart He fills your life with JOY and PEACE and wisdom through trials. Even when the trials come, He stands there and makes it all worth it because you KNOW He's right beside you - and it will only be for your good.
WHY aren't there more people who LOVE GOD?! What is wrong with us? I was listening to a message on Focus on the Family today about this girl who was aborted but lived to tell about it. She had so much love, forgiveness, and passion for others - instead of being selfish and self-seeking - she was giving all she had to share God's love to others.
"Today worship services, Bible studies, prayer meetings, and fellowship gatherings in many churches do not have a spirit of earnestness and intensity and fervor and depth because people do not really believe that anything significant is at stake in the fight for joy - least of all their eternal life. The all-important priority seems to be cheerfulness, even jollity. OH, that the church would waken to the warfare we are in and feel the urgency of the fight for job. This is how we hold fast to eternal life."
When we devote ourselves to resist the idolatrous power of every craving, every desire, every pleasure that is not God, then God is exalted as the superior Treasure of our lives.
Philippians 2:12-13 descrives how Christian work is enabled by the work of God within us. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." God's work in us does not eliminate our work; it enables it. We work because HE is the one at work IN US.
"I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew my up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a NEW song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God." Here is a man after God's own heart, who spent time in the "pit of destruction" and in "the miry bog" - where there was no song in his mouth. How long was he there? We are not told. What matters is WHAT HE DID THERE. He waited for the Lord. He could not make the Lord come. He COULD wait and hope and trust that he would come. And He did come. He put David's feet on a rock and put a new song in his mouth.
Seeing the glory of Jesus Christ in the gospel awakens joy. And joy in Christ magnifies his worth. That is why Satan aims chiefly at blinding us from seeing Christ for who he is.
The essence of the Christian life is learning to fight for joy in a way that does not replace grace. We must be able to say at the end of our lives, "I have fought the good fight." We must also say, "It was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." I have pursued christ as my joy with all my might. But it was a might that HE mightily imparted . We must fight for joy in such a way that we prove Jesus true when he said, "My yoke is easy, and my burden light." we will succeed in this battle when we can say with Paul in Colossians 1:29 that we are "struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me." We struggle to bear the burden and carry the yoke. But he gives the power. All burdens are light to him. All yokes are easy to him. This too is something glorious to see in him. This too makes us glad in him. Trust him for this. Our joy in him will be the greater because we see him as the one who gives both the joy and the strength to fight for it.
"My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." - 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
The christian life is not about being weak - but humbling yourself in your own pride, and letting HIM raise you up.
The person who will receive the crown of eternal life is the person who successfully endures trial - that is, the person who fights for joy in the pain of loss and gets the victory over the unbelief of anger and bitterness and discouragement.
Tonight I was feeling burdened over the fact that there are so few people who truly LOVE the Lord. Like, everything is so "fine & dandy" and that there are many things to "make up" for the feeling of emptyness or loss. There is something to keep your mind busy 24/7 if you choose - and yet the hardest thing is to do nothing, and stand before your Creator. But I've come to find out, that there is nothing SO IMPORTANT as putting God first and truly SEEKING Him first - that means, loving Him, finding out about Him, reading about Him, asking Him for wisdom, talking to Him, praying, and doing what you need to do to learn more about Him. There is absolutely nothing that can fill that void in your heart except what can be filled with Jesus. There is a God-sized void and hole in every heart that cannot be filled with anything besides Him. That loss will stay with you, it will NEVER leave until you ask Him to fill it. But when God fills your heart He fills your life with JOY and PEACE and wisdom through trials. Even when the trials come, He stands there and makes it all worth it because you KNOW He's right beside you - and it will only be for your good.
WHY aren't there more people who LOVE GOD?! What is wrong with us? I was listening to a message on Focus on the Family today about this girl who was aborted but lived to tell about it. She had so much love, forgiveness, and passion for others - instead of being selfish and self-seeking - she was giving all she had to share God's love to others.
"Today worship services, Bible studies, prayer meetings, and fellowship gatherings in many churches do not have a spirit of earnestness and intensity and fervor and depth because people do not really believe that anything significant is at stake in the fight for joy - least of all their eternal life. The all-important priority seems to be cheerfulness, even jollity. OH, that the church would waken to the warfare we are in and feel the urgency of the fight for job. This is how we hold fast to eternal life."
When we devote ourselves to resist the idolatrous power of every craving, every desire, every pleasure that is not God, then God is exalted as the superior Treasure of our lives.
Philippians 2:12-13 descrives how Christian work is enabled by the work of God within us. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." God's work in us does not eliminate our work; it enables it. We work because HE is the one at work IN US.
"I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew my up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a NEW song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God." Here is a man after God's own heart, who spent time in the "pit of destruction" and in "the miry bog" - where there was no song in his mouth. How long was he there? We are not told. What matters is WHAT HE DID THERE. He waited for the Lord. He could not make the Lord come. He COULD wait and hope and trust that he would come. And He did come. He put David's feet on a rock and put a new song in his mouth.
Seeing the glory of Jesus Christ in the gospel awakens joy. And joy in Christ magnifies his worth. That is why Satan aims chiefly at blinding us from seeing Christ for who he is.
The essence of the Christian life is learning to fight for joy in a way that does not replace grace. We must be able to say at the end of our lives, "I have fought the good fight." We must also say, "It was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." I have pursued christ as my joy with all my might. But it was a might that HE mightily imparted . We must fight for joy in such a way that we prove Jesus true when he said, "My yoke is easy, and my burden light." we will succeed in this battle when we can say with Paul in Colossians 1:29 that we are "struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me." We struggle to bear the burden and carry the yoke. But he gives the power. All burdens are light to him. All yokes are easy to him. This too is something glorious to see in him. This too makes us glad in him. Trust him for this. Our joy in him will be the greater because we see him as the one who gives both the joy and the strength to fight for it.
"My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." - 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
The christian life is not about being weak - but humbling yourself in your own pride, and letting HIM raise you up.