One reason we suffer is because God is pruning us (the Greek word used for "prune" also means "to clean") (John 15). He is leading us to a place of deeper trust in Him, meaning there's no room for idols (anything else that we put our trust in that's not Him).
Read Psalm 16.
He wants us to surrender. He is leading us to rest =)
At the same time, He wants us not to be ashamed of our struggles. He wants us to stop feeling ashamed for how we struggle and fail to let go of our idols, how we fail to surrender, how we fail to trust Him. We are human, we are weak.
He is saying: there's no shame, no shame, no condemnation. He wants to help us surrender. So don't strive to surrender, you will fail. It's not about strife (your own strength), its about rest (rest in His power over sin and His ability to set us free).
(Hebrews 4:14-16) "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." ♥
We are safe in His arms so we can trust Him. Let us approach Him in confidence (not shame) and find rest in His love and grace =)
***Also, let's renew our mind with His Word (He has lots of promises for us!) coz like the Mexican Pastor said, "You defeat the enemy with the Word of God." So let's take up our sword! (Ephesians 6) =)
(Message I shared with InterVarsity on Oct. 26th, 2011)
Listen to these powerful songs:
"I Love You" by Misty Edwards:
"One of us" by Paula Bowers:
wow!..just exactly wot i had for devotions this morning :-)
ReplyDeleteHaha cool! God is awesome like that!
ReplyDeleteAre you done with exams?