God's Word on That

Author: Myrna L

  • Let Us Continually Pray

    To ‘pray’ is to ‘desire’ or ‘long for’ — but to desire what God would have us desire. True prayer is simply another name for the Love of God. Pure love is in the Will alone. It loves without feeling, as faith believes without seeing.

    The heart in which the true love of God and true desire exist never ceases to pray. Love, hidden in the depths of the soul, prays without ceasing, even when the mind is drawn another way. Such a hidden desire in the soul ceaselessly draws God’s mercies.

    Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

    The Spirit helps us in our weakness; we do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express (Romans 8:26).

    Talk with God with the thoughts that your heart is full of, whatever the Spirit brings into mind. If you enjoy the presence of God, tell Him so. Tell Him your hopes, your fears, your joys and sorrows. But when you tell Him about your miseries, ask Him to cure them. Tell Him without hesitation everything that comes into your head with the simplicity and familiarity of a child sitting on its parent’s knee.

    When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites… When you pray, go into your own room, shut the door and pray to your Father privately… And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like that, for your Father knows what you need before you ask (Matthew 6:5-7).

    Growth in prayer is indicated by growth in simplicity and steadiness in attitude. Our communion with God becomes a simple and familiar union, far beyond the need for words. Simplicity is a rightness of the soul. Sincerity is actually a virtue below simplicity. Simplicity consists of a middle ground in which we are neither giddy nor too composed. God wants us child-like, not childish.

  • Under The Pruning Shears

    The great Francois Fenelon (1651-1715) came to believe strongly that God is a living, active presence in a Christian’s life. He believed that more often than not, God is speaking to us in the so-called circumstance of life. If we look at them on a merely human plane, we may become confused, discouraged and or totally disillusioned with life; elf-pity and accusation of others may be our daily bread. But if we look to them as being part of God’s loving dealings with us, weaning us away from what is false and binding us more firmly to what is eternal, we begin to “hear God’s Word coming through these conditions.

    We must yield ourselves to God and do according to His light what, at that time, seems best. But without hesitation, because hesitation would be confusing. First we must make our decision, then even if we have made a wrong decision, wrong will be turned to right by our right intention. God can do that! God will never blame us for what we have done for lack of advice as long as we are yielding ourselves to the simplicity of His Spirit.

    God does not leave the soul at rest until He has made it supple and pliable by bending it from all sides. Flexibility and promptness in yielding to these stirrings is what advances the soul the most.

    God does not allow our inner light to go any further than our strength for sacrifice. We would be frightened if we could see to how many things we still cling! We try to discover all our weaknesses, and God directs us in this search. But He refuses us a vision beyond our state of acceptance. He does not allow us to see in our hearts what it is not yet time to take away from them.

    Let us then be content to follow without looking ahead, or judging others on their journeys. All the light which is given us from one moment to another, this is our daily bread… Let us be content to be faithful to the light of the present moment. It carries with it all that we need to prepare us for the light of the moment to follow. And this sequence of blessings – which connects one moment with another, like links of a chain – prepares us consciously for the further sacrifices which we have not even glimpsed.

    Let us submit to God’s way with us, for He is the only one to make us beautiful.

  • Eternity vs. Time

    Eternity is not “a long time” but the “absence of time”. All that God has destined for you has been planned out in heaven.

    Surely You have granted me eternal blessings and made me glad with the joy of Your presence (Psalm 21:6). God… called you to His eternal glory (1 Pet 5:10), for the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:23). He has set eternity in the hearts of men (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

    Remember God is eternal and that He operates in an eternal time frame. You are neither eternal nor divine, but you are eternally united to Christ’s divinity. Praise Him for that.

    His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord (Ephesians 3:10-11)

    This is not our home. We were made to shine forth a better world.

  • Be Perfect

    Seek to take each assignment as God’s gift given by the One who loves you and knows you the best.  Some spiritual leaders define progress to mean:

    • To will nothing of self and everything of God
    • Cheerfully performing each day’s round as God appoints it for us
    • Seeking nothing
    • Refusing nothing
    • Finding everything in the present moment
    • Allowing God, who does everything, to do His pleasure in and by us without the slightest resistance on our part.

    I haven’t quite gotten there yet, but am working on it. I must try to reason little and to do much. I know I should be extremely distrustful of my intellect and my own ideas of perfection, for that will be a great step toward becoming perfect in God’s eyes.

    Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).

    Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on (Philippians 3:12).

    God tells me: My grace is sufficient… My power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).

    No, I cannot reach perfection, but I can strive to be like Him more and more. All I need to worry about is striving to following in His footsteps. For Jesus already sees me as perfect. My job now is to allow Him to work in me to make me holy.

    By one sacrifice [that of Christ Jesus Himself] He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy (Hebrews 10:14).

    Let us follow the path of holiness, for that makes us beautiful in God’s eyes.

  • Listen For the Lord

    O, how rare it is that the soul is sufficiently stilled to let God speak! God does not cease speaking, but the noise of the creatures without and of our passions within deafen us and stop up our hearing. God’s sole desire is to impart Himself. He cannot find where to set His foot in souls so full of themselves. I was once as wise as any; thinking I saw everything. But when we have silenced everything within us in order to listen to God, we sense that we know everything without really knowing anything. Then we perceive that before this took place we were utterly ignorant of everything we thought we understood. Now we feel that we see nothing, can do nothing, and are nothing in ourselves. But in this state we find everything we need from moment to moment in the infinity of God. There we find the daily bread of knowledge and of everything else, without storing it up.

    “Be still, and know that I am God…” The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress (Psalm 46:10-11).

    Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes (Psalm 37:7).

    I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name (Isaiah 45:3).

    God would choose to see in us a single heartedness that can contain as much more of His wisdom as it contains less of our own. He desires to create in our heart the childlike disposition so distasteful to the spirit of fallen man. The great point is to renounce our own wisdom, and to be ready to give up approval of everyone around us whenever the path in which God leads requires it.

    For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who did believe (1 Corinthians 1:21)… Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).

    His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord (Ephesians 3:10-11).

    The Lord is a lifeline – if we place our trust in Him, He will be faithful to lift us out of dark places and set us fully in the Light. While we knowingly spend time on the relationship with God, our life will go well.

    Let us be still in body, soul, and spirit; and know that God sustains us.

  • Praise The Lord!

    Praise is the recognition that life – all of it – needs to be accepted with gratitude.

    Thank You, Father, in Jesus’ name, that I am set free from every evil work (Galatians 1:4). I choose to put my hope in my God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God (Psalm 42:5-6). He has put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to my God! “Blessed is the one who makes the Lord his trust.” (Psalm 40:2-4)

    God wanted variety! The love and praise coming from each of us satisfies Him in a different way. Each of us is precious to Him, and will be for all eternity.

    O my Strength, I will sing praises to You for You are my stronghold, my defense, the God who shows me loving-kindness (Psalm 59:17). I love You, O Lord, my strength! You are my [unmoving] Rock, my [surrounding] fortress, and my [ever-present] deliverer. You, my God, are my rock in whom I take refuge [from all my weariness]. You are my shield [from all unpleasantness] and the horn of my salvation [from all my difficulties], my [glorious] stronghold. I call to You, O Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies (Psalm 18:1-3). He is my God and I will praise Him; my Father-God and I will exalt Him. (Exodus 15:2).

    What do praise and thanksgiving accomplish? The world begins to look different. In the atmosphere of worship we see more clearly what we should do, and our work becomes a daily joy instead of the daily grind. Praise is an affirmation of basic truth: God is good all the time. God is ultimate reality. He is the greatest factor in all that is real. When we let this truth about Him nourish us and remold our mind, it can revolutionize our life.

    The joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10).  That’s why so many believers are spiritually wimps.  They haven’t spent enough time in God’s presence to experience the joy of the Lord.

    God, my Father, has given me all things that pertain to life and godliness; I am a partaker of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:3-4).

    Since we are born corrupt, let us praise Him that He knows how to bring about good from evil, and can use even our dislikes as a source of virtue. Here’s a thought! God Himself will receive you up to glory! You — wandering, erring, straying you. Yet He will bring you safe at last to joy! This is your portion. This is why we praise Him.

    Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! (Psalm 150:6)

    Praise the Lord for His multitude of kindness that brighten our lives.

  • Christian Perfection

    Christian perfection cannot and never will be human perfection. Christion perfection is the perfection of a relationship with God that shows itself to be true even amid the seemingly unimportant aspects of human life. I am called to live in such a perfect relationship with God that my life produces a yearning for God in the lives of others not admiration for myself.

    God’s purpose is not to perfect me to make me a trophy in His showcase. He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He wants with me!

    The Lord may not have purposely planned that this situation should overtake me, but He has most certainly permitted it. Therefore, though it were an attack by a friend or enemy, by the time it reaches me it has the Lord’s permission and therefore all is well. God my Father will make it work together with all life’s experiences for my good.

    It is God’s hand that is perfecting me for what He has planned for me.

  • The Wisdom of Kindness

    Wisdom has two parts: having a lot to say and not saying it.

    The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere (James 3:17). If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him (James 1:5). Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom (Colossians 3:16).

    What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?

    Kindness costs nothing yet is the most precious gift.  Kindness has a beautiful way of reaching down into a weary heart and making it shine like the rising sun.

    As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Colossians 3:12). As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: … in purity, understanding, patience and kindness (2 Corinthians 6:4, 6).

    Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone (1 Thessalonians 5:15). The Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone (2 Timothy 2:24). Make every effort to add to your faith … kindness (2 Peter 1:5, 7).

    Kindness is difficult to give away because it keeps coming back. Kindness always pays but it pays best when not done for pay.

    A kind man benefits himself (Proverbs 11:17). Blessed is he who is kind to the needy (Proverbs 14:21), for whoever is kind to the needy honors God (Proverbs 14:31). He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and He will reward him for what he has done (Proverbs 19:17).

    Be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32).

  • God’s Power is Available

    Pain or pleasure – what does it matter as long as we stay in His presence? Nothing is more acceptable to God, nor more beneficial in this world, than being willing to suffer. Mature love is to enter into God’s purposes with no thought of cost.

    His divine power has given us everything we need for life (2 Peter 1:3). That He might display His power in us (Romans 9:17) and that by His power He may fulfill every good purpose (2 Thessalonians 1:11).

    Faith must be tested, because it can only become an intimate possession through conflict. You know that God’s power is very great for us who believe. Our job is to believe God can do His job.

    Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus (Colossians 3:17) according to His power that is at work within us (Ephesians 3:20).

    Whether God asks us to do something difficult or simple, it doesn’t matter because He will do the work behind our faith. The Lord doesn’t reward talent and results as much as motives and faithfulness. In every situation be strong in what God has taught you, and be of good courage knowing He fights with you. “Be all you can be!”

    Join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God (2 Timothy 1:8).

    God always guides those who bloom where they are planted. He who trusts in the Lord has a diploma for Wisdom granted by Inspiration.

    The power of God is there for the asking.

  • Look Beyond the Hurting

    No matter what its source or intensity, there is something about suffering that simplifies life.

    I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:10-11).

    If you’ve never tasted bitterness, sweet is just another pleasant flavor on your tongue. You cannot be blessed without blessing, and in order to bless you must succor, and you cannot succor until you have suffered.

    For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lies, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. You know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings (1 Peter 5:9).

    To grow a crop, you know you need a little manure and digging and weeding – and lots of hard work. Perspective is the value of distance; so step back from the details.

    We rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance (Romans 5:3) for we are co-heirs with Christ Jesus if indeed we share in His sufferings (Romans 8:17). Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18). Rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed (1 Peter 4:13).

    Trials are only designed to bring us to a level of trust and experience with God that we would never have known otherwise. God puts us up against the Red Sea to show His power to us and through us.

    Suffering can offer insight and perspective.