Its easy to want our lives to be all beauty & no cost, all gain & no loss. When a difficulty mars the scene, we find ourselves focusing on our disappointment rather than treasuring lifes delights. Job asked, Shall we indeed accept good from GOD & not accept adversity? ( 2:10 NASB). GOD wants us to receive both good & adversity with open hands & a trusting heart. Meditating on the first CHRIST-mas, though BEAUTIFUL, was costly. Oh, GOD gave special revelations & privileges, & HE provided for & preserved JESUS, Mary, & Joseph in exciting ways. But in no sense did HE coddle them. The cost included the arduous seven-day journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the far-from-glamorous birthplace, the hurried flight to Egypt to escape Herod. & for JESUS, much more: HE left the heavenly hills above, To die on Calvarys mountain, Left the eternal springs of love To taste earths bitter fountain. . . If our FATHER did not pamper HIS beloved SON, should we expect HIM to pamper us? JESUS HIMSELF assures us in John 16:33, In this world you will have trouble [pressures, trials, tribulations, hardships, sorrows]. But take heart! I have overcome the world. We can choose to take heart, to cheer up, & therefore to experience HIS peace in the midst of the pressures & costly trials. Or we can dissipate our energies through negative attitudes & pockets of inner resistance. Often when my feelings cry, Oh, if only life would get easier, a quotation from Philip Brooks, an Episcopal bishop in the late 1800s, motivates me to choose a different attitude---to open my arms wide & receive what GOD gives me to do, along with the sufficiency to accomplish it: Do not pray for easier lives; Pray to become stronger men/women. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then your life shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at that which is wrought in you by the grace of GOD. ~ Ruth Meyers, The Satisfied Heart :) Amen :) ~
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 15:08:48 +0000
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