“If Jesus gives us a task or assigns us to a difficult season,
every ounce of our experience
is meant for our instruction and completion
if only we’ll let Him finish the work.
I fear, however, that we are so attention-deficit
that we settle for bearable
when beauty is just around the corner.”
-Beth Moore
this is the season of my life when i am waiting on Him to make all things beautiful. it may take a while. it may take years. but it is right around the corner. He has promised that to me. to you.
ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in His time.
and i love the lyrics that i am listening to this morning
from an audrey assad song... ought to be.
And it may not be clear as the morning yet
It may not be wide as a restless sea but
Love given freely becomes what it ought to be
It may not be clear as the morning yet
It may not be wide as a restless sea
And it may not be red as the roses yet
It may not be strong as the old oak trees but
Love planted deeply becomes what it ought to and
Hearts given freely becomes what they ought to
Love planted deeply becomes what it ought to be
What it ought to be
i could write a lot of words but here are a couple of other words from a couple of old guys that i read this week that are rustling around in my brain so i think they should rustle around in your brain (anything in parenthesis like this are my own additions to these old guys’ words)...
from charles spurgeon...
“One thing more, and it is this. Let us, dear brethren, try to get saturated with the gospel. I always find that I can preach best (or in my case i can LIVE best) when I can manage to lie a-soak in my text. I like to get a text, and find out its meaning and bearings (which is surely easier nowadays with lifeway.com and its strong’s concordance feature), and so on; and then, after I have bathed in it, I delight to lie down in it, and let it soak into me. It softens me, or hardens me, or does whatever it ought to do to me, and then I can talk about itstill i can’t quite bring myself to say that i hope my path drips fatness). Dwell in the truth, and let the truth dwell in you. Be baptized into its spirit and influence, that you may impart thereof to others. If you do not believe the gospel, do not preach it, for you lack an essential qualification; but even if you do believe it, do not preach it until you have taken it up into yourself as the wick takes up the oil. So only can you be a burning and a shining light.” (or blog about it). You need not be very particular about the words and phrases if the spirit of the text has filled you; thoughts will leap out, and find raiment for themselves. Become saturated with spices, and you will smell of them; a sweet perfume will distill from you, and spread itself in every direction; — we call it unction. Do you not love to listen to a brother who abides in fellowship with the Lord Jesus? Even a few minutes with such a man is refreshing, for, like his Master, his paths drop fatness (which might be the only time i have seen the word “fatness” used to indicate anything profitable.
and from john newton (who wrote amazing grace, so i think he knows a thing or two...)
“The Christian calling, like many others, is easy and clear in theory, but not without much care and difficulty to be reduced to practice. Things appear quite otherwise, when felt experimentally, to what they do, when only read in a book. Many learn the art of navigation (as it is called), by the fire-side at home; but when they come to sea, with their heads full of rules, and without experience, they find that the art is only to be thoroughly learnt upon the spot (i feel like i am doing a lot of the “on the spot” learning these days). So, to renounce self, to live upon Jesus, to walk with God, to overcome the world, to hope against hope, to trust the Lord when we cannot trace him, and to know that our duty and privilege consist in these things, may be readily acknowledged or quickly learned; but, upon repeated trial, we find that saying and doing are two things. We think at setting out that we sit down and count the cost; but alas! our views are so superficial at first, that we have occasion to correct our estimate daily. For every day shows us some new thing in the heart, or some new turn in the management of the war against us which we were not aware of; and upon these accounts, discouragements may arise so high as to bring us (I speak for myself) to the very point of throwing down our arms, and making either a tame surrender or a shameful flight (my two favorite ways out: a tame surrender or a shameful fight. ugh). Thus it would be with us at last, if the Lord of hosts were not on our side.... But if He is the Captain of our salvation, if his eye is upon us, his arm stretched out around us, and his ear open to our cry, and if He has engaged to teach our hands to war and our fingers to fight, and to cover our heads in the day of battle, then we need not fear, though a host rise up against us; but, lifting up our banner in his name, let us go forth conquering and to conquer; Rom. 16:20.”
Romans 16:20
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
now that will be so much more than bearable... that will be beautiful. in His time. in His way. for His purposes. for eternity...
Father,
I wait thy daily will,
Thou shalt divide my portion still,
Grant me on earth what seems thee best,
Till death and heaven reveal the rest.
Isaac Watts