George Mueller was a man with great faith…… Or was He? I think if he were here and we could ask him what he thought of himself, this is what he would probably say… or something like it.
” I am just an ordinary man, a sinner saved by grace. It’s not that I have a corner on the faith market- I just take God at His word, trusting that He will do what He says. If He truly is who He says He is- that He is Love, that He never changes, that He is in control, that all resources are at His disposal, that He will provide for my needs, that He will direct my steps and on and on. See, it’s not that my faith is so great- it’s that I have faith in a Great God! Absolutely Nothing is too small or too big for Him! He desires that I trust Him with everything. This, my friend, is what I have tried to daily live out. It’s really quite simple. I trust and He provides. I come as a child asking his father for good gifts. That’s all there is to it. I think the key is in the coming, then the asking, and then the trusting. Oh, I almost forgot the most important part. The Praise and Thanksgiving! Thanking Him for His love and provision and the peace that comes with knowing that I can trust Him completely. Ah, Yes! The Peace that passeth all understanding! Now that is priceless!- Sincerely, George Mueller ”
Ah that we, you and me, would truly- deep down and on the surface- KNOW THIS! For when we, his children, know this… Then His Kingdom will come and His will, will be done.. On earth as it is in Heaven. Peace Jon
In Everything
“In nothing be anxious” (Phil. 4:6).
No anxiety ought to be found in a believer. Great, many and varied may be our trials, our afflictions, our difficulties, and yet there should be no anxiety under any circumstances, because we have a Father in Heaven who is almighty, who loves His children as He loves His only-begotten Son, and whose very joy and delight it is to succor and help them at all times and under all circumstances. We should attend to the Word, “In nothing be anxious, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
“In everything,” that is not merely when the house is on fire, not merely when the beloved wife and children are on the brink of the grime, but in the smallest matters of life, bring everything before God, the little things, the very little things, what the world calls trifling things — everything — living in holy communion with our Heavenly Father, arid with our precious Lord Jesus all day long. And when we awake at night, by a kind of spiritual instinct again turning to Him, and speaking to Him, bringing our various little matters before Him in the sleepless night, the difficulties in connection with the family, our trade, our profession. Whatever tries us in any way, speak to the Lord about it.
“By prayer and supplication,” taking the place of beggars, with earnestness, with perseverance, going on and waiting, waiting, waiting on God.
“With thanksgiving.” We should at all times lay a good foundation with thanksgiving. If everything else were wanting, this is always present, that He has saved us from hell. Then, that He has given us His Holy Word — His Son, His choicest gift — and the Holy Spirit. Therefore we have abundant reason for thanksgiving. O let us aim at this!
“And the peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” And this is so great a blessing, so real a blessing, so precious a blessing, that it must be known experimentally to be entered into, for it passeth understanding. O let us lay these things to heart, and the result will be, if we habitually walk in this spirit, we shall far more abundantly glorify God, than as yet we have done. –George Mueller, in Life of Trust.
***
Twice or thrice a day, look to see if your heart is not disquieted about something; and if you find that it is, take care forthwith to restore it to calm.–Francis De Sales
Everyone loves an adventure! I think I am safe to make that statement. I think there are two camps of people… those that like to read about adventures and those that want to take them. I fall in the later category… I can really relate to how the Apostles lived. Jesus would call them to “drop everything” and follow Him! To follow Him on The Great Adventure! In Matthew 6, He is telling us to do the same….To seek Him and His Kingdom first. To follow His leading into the Adventure He has for us.
Matthew 6:25-34
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Impressions
“The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them” (Num. 10:33).
God does give us impressions, but not that we should act on them as impressions. If the impression be from God, He will Himself give sufficient evidence to establish it beyond the possibility of a doubt. How beautiful is the story of Jeremiah, of the impression that came to him respecting the purchase of the field of Anathoth. But Jeremiah did not act upon this impression until after the following day, when his uncle’s son came to him and brought him external evidence by making a proposal for the purchase. Then Jeremiah said: “I knew this was the word of the Lord.” He waited until God seconded the impression by a providence, and then he acted in full view of the open facts, which could bring conviction unto others as well as to himself. God wants us to act according to His mind. We are not to ignore the Shepherd’s personal voice but, like Paul and his companions at Troas, we are to listen to all the voices that speak and “gather” from all the circumstances, as they did, the full mind of the Lord. –Dr. Simpson *** “Where God’s finger points, there God’s hand will make the way.” Do not say in thine heart what thou wilt or wilt not do, but wait upon God until He makes known His way. So long as that way is hidden it is clear that there is no need of action, and that He accounts Himself responsible for all the results of keeping thee where thou art. –Selected *** “For God through ways we have not known, Will lead His own.”
The above Streams in the Desert Devotional came at just the right time. You see, God has given me many impressions of what He has planned for me but yet the “door” has not opened yet. He has painted quite a picture of the works He has for me… A Divine Finger Painting! Yet, I still wait and wonder if I should just step out and leave for Denver on a solo move and trust God to open the doors. To go on ahead and bring my family later. And then… this devotional! Prayer – ” Thank you Lord for confirming that my waiting is in line with your will. As you have confirmed my steps in the past; you will do it again at the appointed time. I trust you completely.”
May we wait with patience, trusting His perfect timing and perfect love. Peace, Jonathan
As we read the scriptures, the counselor- the Wild Goose, illuminates and makes His word and ways plain for us to see and understand. He gives us eyes to see and ears to hear. I am reminded of our part in this Divine Play we find ourselves in… our main part, I believe, is to Sow to the Spirit!
If we will daily come, in all humility, To the Lord through prayer and meditation on His word, we will sow to the Spirit and then living out what the Spirit has shown us, we reap a harvest. A harvest of fruit. So let us be disciplined in the “coming to Him” , trusting that He will provide the illumination. After all. We do not serve a Father God who wants to keep us “in the dark” on matters of life and Godliness. He has given us His Spirit and Word!
Galatians 6:7-9
New International Version (NIV)
7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
2 Timothy 1:9-10
For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. 10 And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News
Praise God! He still gives sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and causes the lame to walk.
For He continues to do this for me!
Peace, Jon
I believe with all my heart and mind…. That the following, when applied to your daily life, will ignite the glory the Lord has given you – radically changing you and the world around you! Caution , applying these truths will place you on Satan’s most wanted list!
If we are discouraged and doubting Christians… Satan’s work is better put to use attacking those who are living vibrant lives of faith, hope and love in action. But don’t live in fear of Satan’s attacks! Just remember the words of Jesus, in the Gospel of John-
John 16
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
| Verb | 1. | take heart – gain courage |
take heart To be confident or courageous
I love that saying! It is my desire and prayer that I will never loose heart again, and that I will always live at the heart level in all I do.
Peace, Jonathan
Date: Friday October 14, 2011
Text: From Streams in the Desert
Satan’s Tools
“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and, let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1). There are weights which are not sins in themselves, but which become distractions and stumbling blocks in our Christian progress. One of the worst of these is despondency. The heavy heart is indeed a weight that will surely drag us down in our holiness and usefulness. The failure of Israel to enter the land of promise began in murmuring, or, as the text in Numbers literally puts it, “as it were murmured.” Just a faint desire to complain and be discontented. This led on until it blossomed and ripened into rebellion and ruin. Let us give ourselves no liberty ever to doubt God or His love and faithfulness to us in everything and forever. We can set our will against doubt just as we do against any other sin; and as we stand firm and refuse to doubt, the Holy Spirit will come to our aid and give us the faith of God and crown us with victory. *** It is very easy to fall into the habit of doubting, fretting, and wondering if God has forsaken us and if after all our hopes are to end in failure. Let us refuse to be discouraged. Let us refuse to be unhappy. Let us “count it all joy” when we cannot feel one emotion of happiness. Let us rejoice by faith, by resolution, by reckoning, and we shall surely find that God will make the reckoning real. –Selected ** The devil has two master tricks. One is to get us discouraged; then for a time at least we can be of no service to others, and so are defeated. The other is to make us doubt, thus breaking the faith link by which we are bound to our Father. Lookout! Do not be tricked either way. –G.E.M.
Romans 8:29&30
Could this be one of the overlooked passages in Scripture? We tend to all focus on verse 28 – “And we know that God causes everything to work together* for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”
But what about vs 29 and 30?
Does anything jump out at you as you focus past vs 28? in brief, what hit me was the last 5 words! ….HE GAVE THEM HIS GLORY.
29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn* among many brothers and sisters. 30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
Remember what St Irenaeus said, “The Glory of God is man fully alive”
Know this. We were ALL created in His image and our purpose was and still is to have relationship with our creator. To reflect The Glory He Has given each of us. Now your glory is unique to you and mine to me. No two are alike! As we walk with the Father our glory will bubble forth! We can’t shine on our own. We were not created that way. Walk w Him = shine bright. Walk alone = your lamp is covered. The choice is ours each day. Accept His gift of relationship today through Jesus.
Oh that we will shine bright today! Peace. Jon
