Lean

"Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?"- Song of Songs 8:5

Some one gained a good lesson from a Southern prayer meeting. A brother asked the Lord for various blessings--as you and I do, and thanked the Lord for many already received--as you and I do; but he closed with this unusual petition: "And, O Lord, support us! Yes support us Lord on every leanin' side!" Have you any leaning sides? This humble man's prayer pictures them in a new way and shows the Great Supporter in a new light also. He is always walking by the Christian, ready to extend His mighty arm and steady the weak one on "every leanin' side."

"Child of My love, lean hard,
And let Me feel the pressure of thy care;
I know thy burden, child. I shaped it;
Poised it in Mine Own hand; made no proportion
In its weight to thine unaided strength,
For even as I laid it on, I said,
'I shall be near, and while she leans on Me,
This burden shall be Mine, not hers;
So shall I keep My child within the circling arms
Of My Own love.'
Here lay it down, nor fear
To impose it on a shoulder which upholds the government of worlds.
Yet closer come: Thou art not near enough.
I would embrace thy care;
So I might feel My child reposing on My breast.
Thou lovest Me? I knew it.
Doubt not then;
But Loving Me, lean hard."

Excerpt from 'Streams in the Desert.'

Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.

I Wouldn't Have Chosen This, But ...

If you love pain, raise your hand.

Disappointment? Rejection? Loss?

What! No takers? Yeah. Me neither.

No one likes to go through hard times, rough patches, or difficult circumstances. None of us would choose pain, suffering, rejection, or loss.

But ...

God is in the business of taking those things that we would never choose and turning them into something for our good. Here are some examples.

Joseph wouldn't have chosen to be sold into slavery by his brothers (Gen. 37). Or to be wrongfully accused and thrown into prison (Gen. 39). But ... God used it to feed a hungry nation (Gen. 41).

Daniel wouldn't have chosen to have his country taken over (Dan. 1:1) or to be forced to live in the palace of the invading king (Dan. 1:6–7). He wouldn't have chosen to be betrayed by his coworkers or to have to choose between his faith and his life (Dan. 6). I am sure that if Daniel was writing his own story, he wouldn't have picked to be thrown into a den of hungry lions (Dan. 6:16–18). But ... God used it to turn the heart of a pagan king and to show a nation God's power and mercy (Dan. 6:25–27).

Mary wouldn't have chosen the public humiliation of becoming pregnant out of wedlock. She wouldn't have picked to risk losing her fiancé either (Matt. 1). Later in life, she never would have chosen to watch her son die on a cross. But ... God used it to offer redemption to sinners, hope for the hopeless, home for the lost.

These stories aren't just stories. They are hard evidence that God means what He says when He promises He can redeem any disappointment, challenge, or difficult circumstance.

Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

God's promise is that He is able to work all things—including hard things, painful things, sad things, uncomfortable things, and scary things—to our good.

This doesn't mean that God causes things to "teach us a lesson" or that we will always be able to see the purpose for a trial. It also doesn't mean that God is reactionary, waiting to see what happens and then scrambling to make something good out of it. Even when we can't understand why something is happening, God's promise is that we can rest in knowing that He is busy working so that the end result will be for our good.

I've seen this promise hold true in my life many times. For example:

I wouldn't have chosen for my parents to divorce. But ... God has used it to give me a passion for strengthening my own marriage and the marriages of those around me.

I wouldn't have chosen to have a baby with serious health problems in the womb. But ... God has used it to strengthen my faith in him and to allow me to minister to others with serious health scares.

I wouldn't have chosen to suffer with chronic headaches. But ... God has used it to increase my dependence on Him, to press me into prayer, and to remind me that when I am weak, He is very, very strong.

What about you? Are their circumstances in your life that you wouldn't have chosen? Have you seen God working them for your good?

Written by Erin Davis, http://www.liesyoungwomenbelieve.com/

Fearless

If that's the way you love 
you've got to learn so much  
If that's the way you say goodbye  
Then this is how it ends 
and I'm alright with it  
You're never gonna see me cry 
'cause I've cried
 
So go on,
go on and break my heart  
I'll be okay, 
there's nothing you can do to me  
That's ever gonna bury me
 
So go on, 
go on and leave, my love  
Out on the street, 
I'm fearless  
Better believe I'm fearless, 
fearless
 
If this is how it hurts
it couldn't get much worse  
If this is how it feels to fall  
Then that's the way it is, 
we live with what we miss  
We learn to build another wall 
till it falls
So go on, 
go on and break my heart
I'll be okay, 
there's nothing you can do to me  
That's ever gonna bury me
 
So go on,
go on and leave, my love  
Out on the street, 
I'm fearless  
Better believe I'm fearless, 
fearless
If it's between love and losing
And to never have known the feeling,
I'd still side with love
And if I end up lonely
at least I will be there knowing
I believe in love
Go on,
go on and break my heart
I'll be okay,
I'm fearless
Better believe I'm fearless,
fearless
Go on,
go on and break my heart
I'll be okay,
there's nothing you can do to me
That's ever gonna bury me
So go on,
go on and leave, my love
Out on the street,
I'm fearless
Better believe I'm fearless,
fearless
I'm fearless
So go on and leave, my love
Go on and leave, my love
Go on and leave, my love
Better believe I'm fearless,
fearless
Fearless,
fearless

Lyrics by Colbie Cailatt

Colbie Caillat - Fearless - Live Walmart Soundcheck

Promises, Promises

I recently finished reading the book 'The Shelter of God's Promises,' by Sheila Walsh. This is an excerpt from the first chapter.

"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God." - II Corinthians 1:20

Do God's promises hold true in the darkest nights?

When everything falls apart - do God's promises hold true?

What does He promise us?

Can we trust God to keep His promises?

This is the shelter of all God's promises: God not only keeps His promises but He longs to keep us in them.

God does not change nor do the glories of His person and the salvation engineered for us. God's promises are as dependable as He is, because they are Him.

Numbers 23:19 says, "God is not man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind."

God cannot lie. When God makes a promise, He can never break it.

This is the primal struggle on earth before we are able to move on to receive God's promises. We have to separate promises that may never be kept from God's promises, which will never be broken.

We have a lifetime of experiencing deception, corruptions and embellishment on one side of the scale and a simple profound promise on the other: God cannot lie.

Our human experience does not sync up with this heavenly truth.

I wonder if we have such a hard time believing this, resting in God's promises, because we have been lied to so many times, because so many earthly promises are broken. Culture has driven us to think of promises as personal fulfillment, when God's promises are not about us, but about Him and being saved by Him. God's promises are an expression of His holiness.

Though we break God's heart at times, He loves us and says, "You can shatter me like My Word on the stone tablets. You can leave me in pieces, and I will still love you. I will hold onto you. I will create a place, a cleft in the rock for you, to keep you and on which you can steady yourself and stand." 

God keeps us not only to give us a future, but also to reflect His glory. He keeps His promises to us because He cannot help Himself, He cannot lie, and He is full of love for His creation.

Our faithlessness does nothing to diminish God's faithfulness. Whatever God says, we can stake our lives on. Christ came to show us who our Father is. In Christ all promises of God are fulfilled, for no matter how many promises God has made they are "yes" in Him. (II Corinthians 1:20)

The Father is truly the only Promise Maker who is an earnest Promise Keeper.

A promise from God is a promise kept.

There are His promises and His unbreakable commitment to keep them.

There is Christ.

There is yes.


Psalm 119:50 - My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promises preserves my life.

The Source of Abundant Joy

In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us —Romans 8:37

Paul was speaking here of the things that might seem likely to separate a saint from the love of God. But the remarkable thing is that nothing can come between the love of God and a saint. The things Paul mentioned in this passage can and do disrupt the close fellowship of our soul with God and separate our natural life from Him. But none of them is able to come between the love of God and the soul of a saint on the spiritual level. The underlying foundation of the Christian faith is the undeserved, limitless miracle of the love of God that was exhibited on the Cross of Calvary; a love that is not earned and can never be. Paul said this is the reason that “in all these things we are more than conquerors.” We are super-victors with a joy that comes from experiencing the very things which look as if they are going to overwhelm us.

Huge waves that would frighten an ordinary swimmer produce a tremendous thrill for the surfer who has ridden them. Let’s apply that to our own circumstances. The things we try to avoid and fight against— tribulation, suffering, and persecution— are the very things that produce abundant joy in us. “We are more than conquerors through Him” “in all these things”; not in spite of them, but in the midst of them. A saint doesn’t know the joy of the Lord in spite of tribulation, but because of it. Paul said, “I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation” (2 Corinthians 7:4).

The undiminished radiance, which is the result of abundant joy, is not built on anything passing, but on the love of God that nothing can change. And the experiences of life, whether they are everyday events or terrifying ones, are powerless to “separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

Excerpt from 'My Utmost for His Highest,' by Oswald Chambers

Four Friends Every Girl Needs

Excerpt from 'Lies Young Women Believe,' Written by Erin Davis

On Tuesday I fessed up to my feelings of loneliness and detachment stemming from a lack of deep,
intimate friendships. So many of you responded that you feel lonely, too, even if you have many
people who you would describe as "friends."

Should we accept our lonely state or do something about it? I vote for option B. In fact, I want to encourage you to do the hard work (and it is hard work to find new friends) to create an inner circle with each of these four types of friends.

The Intercessor
My friend, Dree, is this person for me. I know that I can call Dree any time, day or night, and ask her to pray and she will do it, and she won't stop praying until I call off the dogs. The number one thing that has sealed my friendship with Dree has been the fact that I know when Dree says, "I will pray for you," she means it. That has been like finding a pot of friendship gold in my life.

The Challenger
It doesn't always feel like fuzzy friend stuff ... but it is a good thing to have a friend in your life who is more concerned about seeing you be all that God wants you to be than she is about saying what she thinks you want to hear.

In the Christian life, accountability is not optional. James 5:16 tells us we are to confess our sins to
each other. Keep reading and you'll find that James 5:19–20 says, "My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins." Friends who let you continue in your sin aren't doing you any favors, but a friend who brings you back to the truth ... now that is a friend worth having.


The Kindred Spirit
C.S. Lewis says that you know you've made a friend when you can say to the other,
"What! You, too?"

This is that friend who has shared experiences with you. This is the friend who is the most fun to spend time with because you like the same things, have conversations the same way, and have lots of shared experiences to draw from.

But the thing about this friendship is that usually it is seasonal. Girls, I think you have a tendency to only look for kindred spirit friends. I think it's great for you to have friends who are like you, but our same age friends aren't likely to hold us accountable because they are struggling with the exact same stuff.

Which is why you need the fourth type of friend ...

The Mentor
Titus 2:3–5 says, Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.These are important lessons:

How to love our families (current or in the future).
How to be self-controlled.
How to be pure.
How to be kind.
How to respond to authority.

And who should be the teachers? Other women. That means you need an older woman in your life
to help you live out your Christian faith in really practical ways.

Part of the reason so many of us feel lonely is because we have traded in deep friendships with a
few in favor of shallow friendships with many, and frankly the return on our investment stinks.

Will you join me in seeking out the kind of friends who you can do more than spend time with, but
Part of the reason so many of us feel lonely is because we have traded in deep friendships with a
few in favor of shallow friendships with many, and frankly the return on our investment stinks.

Will you join me in seeking out the kind of friends who you can do more than spend time with, but
who you can pray with, learn from, and be challenged by?

http://www.liesyoungwomenbelieve.com

The Surrendered Life

I have been crucified with Christ . . . —Galatians 2:20

To become one with Jesus Christ, a person must be willing not only to give up sin, but also to surrender his whole way of looking at things. Being born again by the Spirit of God means that we must first be willing to let go before we can grasp something else. The first thing we must surrender is all of our pretense or deceit. What our Lord wants us to present to Him is not our goodness, honesty, or our efforts to do better, but real solid sin. Actually, that is all He can take from us. And what He gives us in exchange for our sin is real solid righteousness. But we must surrender all pretense that we are anything, and give up all our claims of even being worthy of God’s consideration.

Once we have done that, the Spirit of God will show us what we need to surrender next. Along each step of this process, we will have to give up our claims to our rights to ourselves. Are we willing to surrender our grasp on all that we possess, our desires, and everything else in our lives? Are we ready to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ?

We will suffer a sharp painful disillusionment before we fully surrender. When people really see themselves as the Lord sees them, it is not the terribly offensive sins of the flesh that shock them, but the awful nature of the pride of their own hearts opposing Jesus Christ. When they see themselves in the light of the Lord, the shame, horror, and desperate conviction hit home for them.

If you are faced with the question of whether or not to surrender, make a determination to go on through the crisis, surrendering all that you have and all that you are to Him. And God will then equip you to do all that He requires of you.

Excerpt from My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers

Unmet Longings

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)

Have you ever wanted something so badly your heart ached with each thought of it? It seems life would be so much better if you had that. There would be more happiness.


More contentment.

More fulfillment.

More satisfaction.

More peace.


We can envision ourself with this thing, this person, this opportunity. And all things are better. So, why doesn’t God give us this longing of our heart?


Because He wants us to willingly release it to Him.


Ouch.


Not the answer we want. Why would God let the aching desire linger and not make things happen? He could. He’s certainly able. But when He doesn’t it seems unfair. Not good. Confusing.


It’s easy to get down when we’re constantly let down.


We hope this thing will happen… we’ll meet this right person… we’ll get this job… we’ll finally be healed… we’ll get that chance… we’ll see that family member turn their life around. Time and again it doesn’t happen. That’s when it’s easy to slip.


We can so easily slip into feeling a little distant from God because we feel hurt by God.


That’s what happened when the man I thought I was going to marry told me he met someone else. That’s what happened when I didn’t get the job I was so certain was going to be the answer to all my financial problems. That’s what happened when my son didn’t get into the charter school we were so certain would have been perfect for him.


But, in each of these things, I eventually had to make a choice. I could either become consumed with my unmet longing or comforted by trusting God.


As an offering of trust, we must give up that which could so easily bring us down.

Not give up as in discouraged surrender. But give up as in placing this desire in the hand of God and saying, “Either way, I will see Your answer as the good answer and walk in trust.”


Remember the Scriptures promise, He rewards those who honestly seek Him: “And without faith is it impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6 NIV)


Sometimes I get so consumed with seeking my unmet longings, I don’t earnestly seek Him. But then I miss out on His reward. And His reward is the only thing that will fill the void in my heart.


Yes, I still struggle with unmet desires.
But not as much today as I did yesterday.
And that is good. Not easy. But good.

Written by Lysa Terkeurst, Proverbs 31 Ministries, www.Proverbs31.org

Perfect Peace

Stay close by My side
Keep your eyes on Me
Though this life is hard
I will give you perfect peace

In this time of trial
Pain that no one sees
Trust me when I say
That I will give you perfect peace

And you'll never walk alone
And you'll never be in need
Though I may not calm the storms around you
You can hide in Me

Burdens that you bear
Offer no relief
Let Me bear your load
'Cause I will give you perfect peace

Stay close by My side
And you'll never walk alone
Keep your eyes on Me
And you'll never be in need
Though this life is hard
Know that I will always give you perfect peace
I will give you perfect peace

Perfect Peace song lyrics by Laura Story

Isaiah 26: 3-4 - You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal.