Drawn To Obey

Come, sit, and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee in the comfort of the Lord:  "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from us, with all malice."  Ephesians  4:31

                                                                    Drawn  To  Obey

                "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
                                                                     Philippians  2:13

     God's promise is that he will work in us to will as well as to do of His good pleasure.  This means, of course that He will take possession of our will, and work it for us; and that His suggestions will come to us, not so much commands from the outside as desires springing up within.  They will originate in our will; we shall feel as though we desired to do so and so, not as though we must.  And this makes it a service of perfect liberty; for it is always easy to do what we desire to do, let the accompanying circumstances be as difficult as they may.  Every mother knows that she could secure perfect and easy obedience in her child if she could only get into that child's will and work it for him, making him want himself to do the things she willed he should.  And this is what our Father, in the new dispensation, does for His children; He "writes his laws on our hearts on our minds," so that our affection and our understanding embrace them, and we are drawn to obey instead of being driven to it.

Sorrow: God's Tool

Come, sit, and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee in the comfort of the Lord:  "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from him, with all malice."  Ephesians  4:31

    "When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path."  Psalm  142:3

                                                        I walked a mile with Pleasure,
                                                           She chatted all the way,
                                                        But left me none the wiser,
                                                            For all she had to say.
                                                         I walked a mile with Sorrow,
                                                            And ne'er a word said she;
                                                         But, oh, the things I learned from her
                                                             When Sorrow walked with me!

     Our greatest difficulties usually turn out to be our greatest opportunities!  Suffering and glory, testing and usefulness are always associated in the Scripture.  Henry Ward Beecher points out discerningly that  "The steel that has suffered most is the best.  It has been in the furnace again and again; it has been on the anvil; it has been tight in the jaws of the vise; it has felt the teeth of the rasp; it has been ground by emery; it has been heated and hammered and filed until it does not know itself, but finally it comes out a splendid knife!  If men only knew it, what are called their 'misfortunes' are God's best blessings, for they are the molding influences which give them shapeliness and edge, and durability and power."

     Are you almost overwhelmed?  Is your spirit gravely troubled?  Do not despair; God knows all about it, and is in his trial.  The path, though dark to you, is plain to Him.  Take courage, trust His good leading, and you will "be enlarged in distress."

"Bread For Each Day"