{elizabeth elliot}
Philippians 3:10: "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" (NIV).
Those last six words embody, I think, what Jesus meant when He said His followers must take up the cross. Other translations: "growing conformity with his death," "reproducing the pattern of his death," "even to die as He died." How did He die? In utter self-abandonment to the Father's will. Valerie was also comforted, she told me, by the reading for that day, December 5, in Joy and Strength (World Wide Publications, Minneapolis, 1986):
"Whatever thy grief or trouble be, take every drop in thy cup from the hand of Almighty God. He with whom 'the hairs of thy head are all numbered,' knoweth every throb of thy brow, each hardly drawn breath, each shoot of pain, each beating of the fevered pulse, each sinking of the aching heart. Receive, then, what are trials to thee, not in the main only, but one by one, from His all-loving hands; thank His love for each; unite each with the sufferings of thy Redeemer; pray that He will thereby hallow them to thee. Thou wilt not know now what He thereby will work in thee; yet, day by day, shalt thou receive the impress of the likeness of the ever-blessed Son, and in thee, too, while thou knowest it not, God shall be glorified."
--E. B. Pusey
Paul's Contrast: Babes and Grownups
1 Corinthians 2:15-3:4 and Hebrews 5:13-14
Were you able to pick out the differences between grownup Christians and babies?
Babes are so dominated by fleshly desires that they have trouble thinking biblically.
They’re unstable and easily discouraged.
Their immaturity is most apparent in their divisive behavior: Babes love a fight and have to have their way in a church.
Grownups are dominated by the Spirit’s desires so that they develop discernment, based on God’s Word.
Their confidence in God is unshakeable.
They demonstrate their maturity in a church by giving up their rights.
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studying james 1:2-4 made me excitedly ask the Lord for trials. because i wanted my faith to be strengthened. i still want this. i want it to be 'perfected' - i want to reach spiritual maturity. there's a saying i heard in a sermon when studying this passage in james: "the acid of grief tests the coin of belief". so i asked for trials to test my faith and make it more real... to bring me to Christlike maturity. that must have been another 'point of no return' - i had already reached the point where i knew i wanted this life i have on this earth to matter. and it won't really matter if i'm living for me. so, yeah, i want to live for Christ. i want my faith to be authentic. i want it to be a faith that is so personal to me because it has been tested and tried through fires - because i have seen first hand the goodness of God, His faithfulness to me in my specific life situations and trials, because i have learned to live out my faith by clinging desperately to Him to get me through it all. i want a real story, my own story to tell my kids and grandkids about the God we follow, the Savior we serve. i want to be able to say, 'yes i went through the fire, but i did not go through it alone. in fact, i did not even walk through it myself... it was all the Lord. He carried me through it. i could not go it alone, i was too weak. but His strength... it's made perfect in weakness. His power was made perfect in my weakness. please don't think i did it by myself by some vain notion of willpower. lift your eyes to Christ, please don't look at me - it was the Savior who brought me through the fire that refined me and purified my faith so i would cling to Him all the more.'
{praying for deliverance today}
Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; And let those who love Your salvation say continually, “Let God be magnified!” But I am poor and needy; Make haste to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay. (Psalms 70:4, 5 NKJV)
{praying for mercy today}
this morning i woke up early bc lovebug had to work at 6am. it was earlier than i usually wake up and as usual, there's a temptation to go back to sleep after i get his food ready. but this morning... it's an important one. i only have so many hours left this day to pray for a miracle. to pray for deliverance. to pray for what would seem to us as a huge act of mercy on God's part to bring healing in such a profound way. and as i'm reading through various devotions, searching for encouragement from Scripture and the reflections of those folks who, though i do not know personally, have come to be comforters to me in the last year or two... i'm brought to many different places in Scripture... many different, seemingly unrelated, truths that i'm trying to string together and make some cohesive sense out of. what do you want me to realize today, Lord?
so i'm praying for mercy... and day 2 that's what i got on my knees to pray for. and on day 2, i remember the words, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" from Luke 18. the tax collector begging for mercy from our merciful God. and here i am, this morning, on Blue Letter Bible reading the Day by Day Grace devotional and it's those same words that are the focus of the day's devotion. God works in some amazing ways.
Lord, be merciful to me... have mercy on us this day... give us a miracle we don't deserve, but in your mercy would you look upon us with compassion and grant us this desire of our hearts? just let it be gone? they go in, do the scan, and all is well? still time to pray... to hope and believe in the power of Almighty God to do anything... to do the "impossible" - for nothing is impossible with God...
yet in reflecting on the Gospel... God has already shown so much mercy to us as sinners who have been redeemed by our Savior, Christ Jesus. let me not take for granted the priceless gift of salvation... freely given by the grace of God... let me remember that God has already shown mercy to me, to my love, by saving us. let me remember that even if this life, the days, weeks, ahead prove to be full of trials and hardship... we still have a blessed hope that awaits us in eternity. the glory of our Savior that we will one day behold... glorified, incorruptible bodies... we will no longer face the possibility of a grim diagnosis - of physical pain and deterioration... oh how i long for Heaven...! the ultimate deliverance from the sorrows and difficulties of this life in this fallen world, the constant struggle with my sin nature, the failures in obedience to my Lord Master... but it shall be according to His will, in God's perfect timing. we press on, taking up our cross and following after Christ. not staring at the cross we have been required to bear and complaining about how heavy, how ugly, how hard it is to carry... let me just pick it up and keep moving - staying near to my Savior, my Lord, my God in whom i trust.
so, right now... let's just do the next thing. we can't see what's going to happen even past this afternoon. i'm just gonna pray and keep praying for a miracle. until we get the results and then we do the next thing. one step at a time. one test at a time. one day at a time. if more gets piled onto that cross... if it grows and gets heavier with each next thing... well, that is our cross to bear. but God gives us strength. He has a purpose. but i think above mercy i pray for grace and faith. grace and faith to accept what He gives/allows... and to count it all joy... knowing that He will not give us anything we cannot bear. if He brings us to it, He'll bring us through it. yes, i'm confident in this. so while i'm praying for mercy -- "Lord, will you just please take this cup from us? just make it go away? i know You can... You are Almighty God. nothing is too hard for You. You created us - every inner working, every amazing and intricate process of our bodies - You designed that. and You can fix it and alter it any way You want at any time. i believe that, Lord! so, would you please? have mercy? i know our lives are but vapors... vanishing without a trace... but would you please... be merciful to us even in this, Lord..."
yet i know He is good even if it's not in His plan to show us mercy in this, in the way i'm asking for it. i can't see the big picture, i know that... i accept that my mind is finite, that His ways and thoughts are higher than mine. as wise and intelligent and insightful as i may proudly think of myself, the fact of the matter is that i am nothing - less than nothing - next to my perfect, holy, infinitely wise God. and while that is so humbling... it brings with it so much peace. because when i look at life with the right perspective of how big God is, of who He is and what He is able to do (exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think) and i make the decision to place these burdens in His hands -- the weight lifts and i am free. i don't have to try to control and manage everything on my own. it wasn't mine to control to begin with. it's never really been in my hands, but so many times i fight to have a piece of it, probably so i can step back and selfishly take some of the credit. sin manifests itself so sneakily and deeply, doesn't it? so much of what i once considered 'righteous' about myself, the Lord has revealed in one way or another how deeply it's rooted in 'self'. but praise be to God for little by little answering my prayer to show me how my sin nature has manifested itself in my life - what it really looks like, what's really underneath, peeling off the layers little by little to expose all that gross filth... making me realize how fallen and sinful i am and how desperately i need my Savior.
thank You Lord, for how You've shown Yourself faithful to me on this 21-year journey with you - a journey that really only started to get crazy real in the last 2 years. thank You for answers to prayer. thank You especially for the ones that i never stopped to realize that You did answer. thank You that You promise peace to those who trust in You. thank You that i can ask, ask, ask - that You've commanded it - and that i can rest in whatever answer You give because i know it's ultimately going to work together for the good... for Your perfect will and purpose... and that if i'm on that path with You, i'm exactly where i need to be. i am safe when i'm with You. my shelter is under the wings of the Almighty. oh what peace that brings! one last thing, i ask, Lord... that You would be glorified in this storm. that whatever may come - and You know what's coming - that we would respond in faith, with faith - looking at the circumstance through the eyes of one who has faith in the Sovereign One, Creator of all things, the Great I Am. Be glorified, be exalted... work in us what is well-pleasing in Your sight. You know what we want in our hearts - You know we're praying for mercy and deliverance, a miracle... that You take this cup from us... but Your will be done, Lord. You have a purpose, You have a plan. i trust in that. i trust in You. You are good. from everlasting to everlasting... You are God.
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