WE'VE ALL KNOWN PEOPLE......

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

We've all known people who claimed they'd be happy if only they were married, had children, had a big house, or had the right job.  But most people who are banking on circumstantial contentment  will find themselves in emotional bankruptcy sooner or later.

Unhappy people are not made happy by marriage, by children, or by any other possession they don't have at the moment.  An unhappy person usually needs a change of heart more than a change of circumstances.  I don't believe God will allow surrendered hearts to continue to long for things He will not ultimately grant in one way or another.

"Breaking Free - Day by Day"  Beth Moore

Getting In Shape

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 you with all malice."  Ephesians  4:31

     "For which cause we faint not;....though our outward man perish."  2 Corinthians  4:16

     A well-known evangelist is quoted in an English publication as having told the following true story in one of his campaigns.  He said:  "I have a friend who during the depression lost a job, a fortune, a wife, and a home, but tenaciously held to his faith - the only thing he had left.  One day he stopped to watch some men doing stone work on a huge church.  One of them was chiseling a triangular piece of rock.  'What are you going to do with that?' asked my friend.  The workman said,  'Do you see that little opening way up there near the spire?  Well, I am shaping this down here so that it will fit in up there.'  Tears filled his eyes as he walked away, for it seemed that God had spoken through the workman to explain the ordeal through which he was passing."  Some of you who are reading this devotional are also going through difficult times.  Perhaps you are experiencing a great deal of pain and physical disability.  The outward man seems to be "perishing."  Yet if you are a child of God you should not despair nor "faint" ;for all these things are from the loving hand of your Heavenly Father who is "shaping you down here so you will fit in up there."

     All of us live in houses of clay which will soon return to dust; yet it is blessed to know that as God works upon the pliable putty of our human frailty, it can result for us in "an eternal weight of glory" if, through the process, our inward man is renewed and shaped more perfectly according to His divine will.  The chisel of trial may hurt, but remember, it is "shaping you down here so you will fit in up there!"

"Bread For Each Day"