God's Mysteries ~ Our Discipline and Direction

I was encouraged by reading this piece this morning.  The Lord has clear plans for our lives - blessings, growing experiences, and the exact purpose He created each of us to serve Him in.  We must trust Him always in and for all things.

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

~ Proverbs 3:5-6 ~

"Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known."

- Psalm 77:19 -

"And the sea appears to be the most trackless of worlds!  The sea is the very symbol of mystery, the grim dwelling-house of innumerable things that have been lost.  But God's way moves here and there across this trackless wild.  God is never lost among our mysteries.  He knows His way about.  When we are bewildered He sees the road, and He sees the end even from the beginning.  Even the sea, in every part of it, is the Lord's highway.  When His way is in the sea we cannot trace it.  Mystery is part of our appointed discipline.  Uncertainty is to prepare us for a deeper assurance.  The spirit of questioning is one of the ordained means of growth.  And so the bewildering sea is our friend, as some day we shall understand.  We love to 'lie down in green pastures,' and to be led 'beside the still waters,' and God gives us our share of this nourishing rest.  But we need the mysterious sea, the overwhelming experience, the floods of sorrows which we cannot explain.  If we had no sea we should never become robust.  We should remain weaklings to the end of our days.
God takes us out into the deeps.  But His way is in the sea.  He knows the haven, He knows the track, and we shall arrive!"  - J. H. Jowett (from My Daily Meditation, 1914)

"In his early days of learning the ways of the sea an old seaman tells this story on himself.  When out in a boat by himself, he got lost several times.  He was told to use his compass.  Out into the water he went again.  He soon got lost and lay overnight as usual.  Upon being found he was asked why he did not use his compass.  He said he did not dare to.  He wished to go north, and he "Tried hard to make the thing go north, but it wasn't any use; 'twould shake, shake, right around, and point southeast every time."  Many people fail to go the right direction on the sea of life for the very same reason of the mishap which befell our seaman - thy are afraid to take the Captain at His Word and follow the direction in which He points." - M. Taylor
~Streams in the Desert, Volume 2, May 24th

~Brittany

Yielding... to Gain the Only Thing Worth Having

" Man has a claim on God, a divine claim for any pain, want, disappointment, or misery that will help to make him what he ought to be.  He has a claim to be punished, and to be spared not one pang that may urge him toward repentance; yea, he has a claim to be compelled to repent; to be hedged in on every side, to have one after another of the strong, sharp-toothed sheep-dogs of the Great Shepherd sent after him, to thwart him in any desire, foil him in any plan, frustrate him of any hope, until he comes to see at length that nothing will ease his pain, nothing make life a thing worth having, but the presence of the living God within him; that nothing is good but the will of God; nothing noble enough for the desire of the heart of man but oneness with the eternal.  For this God must make him yield his very being, that He himself may enter in and dwell with him"

George MacDonald

As I read quotes like this one and read the Scriptures, I am so thankful that I can see the hand of the Lord in my life - teaching, taking away, growing, stretching, strengthening me, orchestrating everything in my life for me to become more Christ like, to be conformed to His image.  When we have the perspective that everything is for our good and growth spiritually, and is sent from the loving hand of our Father, it really helps to change our outlook on everything that comes up and helps us to have a meek, moldable spirit and allows us to rejoice in the loving working hand of our gracious Lord.

"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy."

1 Peter 4:12-13

"Rejoice evermore.  Pray without ceasing.  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.  But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering...

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him."

James 1:2-6,12

~Brittany

Of trials, storms and hope...

Before the winds that blow do cease,
Teach me to dwell within Thy calm;
Before the pain has passed in peace,
Give me, my God, to sing a psalm;
Let me not lose the chance to prove
The fullness of enabling love.
~Amy Carmichael

Thou art the Lord who slept upon the pillow,

Thou art the Lord who soothed the furious sea,

What matter beating wind and tossing billow

If only we are in the boat with Thee?

Hold us in quiet through the age-long minute

While Thou art silent, and the wind is shrill:

Can the boat sink while Thou, dear Lord, art in it?

Can the heart faint that waiteth on Thy will?

~Amy Carmichael

Song: He Already Sees

~Breanna

The master-strokes of the Divine Artist!

I was so blessed by this when I read it!  What a good reminder!  ~Breanna

(Charles Spurgeon, "Flowers from a Puritan's Garden" 1883)

"We would have speedy riddance of trouble--but God does not think it fit to grant our request. Showers that come by drops and soak into the earth, are better than those which come in a tempest and hurricane!"

The gradualness and long continuance of a trial, which are its sharpness and bitterness--are also, to a large extent, the causes of its usefulness. If the sharp affliction came and departed with a rush--we would be rather swept away by it, than softened and saturated by its influence. To push a crucible among the glowing coals and snatch it out again, would answer no purpose in refining--the metal must tarry in the furnace until the fire has done its work.

Perhaps the reader has long lived in the perpetual grip of affliction, and now feels himself to be quite weary of the endless torture. Let him not faint under the lengthened process--the highest degree of benefit is accruing to him, from the continuance of his adversity!

In the later part of a trial, every stroke brings forth a tenfold result, and operates with a greatly increased efficacy. It would be a pity for the Lord to stay His hand, when it is working with such special and marked result. All the preceding affliction has only worked the heart into a fit condition to receive the master-strokes of the Divine Artist! The foundational colors have hitherto been laid on--but the second and finishing touch is now being given! Therefore, do not ask God's hand to cease, but rather pray that its work may be carried on with power, and the Lord's glory be seen in it all.

It will not cease raining yet--and why should it, so long as the soil is being softened, saturated, and fertilized by the falling drops? Let patience have her perfect work--and how can that be, useless the tribulation runs its full time?

Lord, make me ready to tarry for the vision, however long it may be delayed. Your way of trying me is the best. I would not hurry Your hand, if I could!

Separation of Heart and Reserve of Soul

“I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse.”  - Song of Solomon 5:1
The heart of the believer is Christ’s garden. He bought it with his precious blood, and he enters it and claims it as his own. A garden implies separation. It is not the open common; it is not a wilderness; it is walled around, or hedged in. Would that we could see the wall of separation between the church and the world made broader and stronger. It makes one sad to hear Christians saying, “Well, there is no harm in this; there is no harm in that,” thus getting as near to the world as possible. Grace is at a low ebb in that soul which can even raise the question of how far it may go in worldly conformity. A garden is a place of beauty, it far surpasses the wild uncultivated lands. The genuine Christian must seek to be more excellent in his life than the best moralist, because Christ’s garden ought to produce the best flowers in all the world. Even the best is poor compared with Christ’s deservings; let us not put him off with withering and dwarf plants. The rarest, richest, choicest lilies and roses ought to bloom in the place which Jesus calls his own. The garden is a place of growth. The saints are not to remain undeveloped, always mere buds and blossoms. We should grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Growth should be rapid where Jesus is the Husbandman, and the Holy Spirit the dew from above. A garden is a place of retirement. So the Lord Jesus Christ would have us reserve our souls as a place in which he can manifest himself, as he doth not unto the world. O that Christians were more retired, that they kept their hearts more closely shut up for Christ! We often worry and trouble ourselves, like Martha, with much serving, so that we have not the room for Christ that Mary had, and do not sit at his feet as we should. The Lord grant the sweet showers of his grace to water his garden this day.
- Charles Spurgeon's Evening Meditation for June 18th
~Brittany

Relinquishment for Spiritual Growth

I have been very blessed and encouraged as I have been reading Elisabeth Elliot's book, Passion and Purity.  This section really stood out to me last night.

The growth of all living green things wonderfully represents the process of receiving and relinquishing, gaining and losing, living and dying.  The seed falls into the ground, dies as the new shoot springs up.  There must be a splitting and a breaking in order for the bud to form.  The bud “lets go” when the flower forms.  The calyx lets go of the flower.  The petals must curl up and die in order for the fruit to form.  The fruit falls, splits, relinquishes the seed.  The seed falls into the ground…

There is no onging spiritual life without this process of letting go.  At the precise point where we refuse, growth stops.  If we hold tightly to anything given to us, unwilling to let it go when the time comes to let it go or unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used, we stunt the growth of the soul.

It is easy to make a mistake here.  “If God gave it to me,” we say, “it’s mine.  I can do what I want with it.”  No.  The truth is that it is ours to thank Him for and ours to offer back to Him, ours to relinquish, ours to lose, ours to let go of—if we want to find our true selves, if we want real Life, if our hearts are set on glory.

Think of the self that God has given as an acorn.  It is a marvelous little thing, a perfect shape, perfectly designed for its purpose, perfectly functional.  Think of the grand glory of an oak tree.  Gods intention for us is, “…the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”  Many deaths must go into our reaching that measure, many letting-goes.  When you look at the oak tree, you don’t feel that the “loss” of the acorn is a very great loss.  The more you perceive God’s purpose in your life, the less terrible will the losses seem.

There must be relinquishment.  There is no way around it.  The seed does not “know” what will happen.  It only knows what is happening—the falling, the darkness, the dying.  Lilias Trotter wrote those profound words quoted earlier: “The first step into the realm of giving is…not manward but Godward: an utter yielding of our best.  So long as our idea of surrender is limited to the renouncing of unlawful things, we have never grasped its true meaning: that is not worthy of the name for ‘no polluted thing’ can be offered.”

~Brittany

Pruning for Growth

"A Christian, for the sweet fruit he bears to God and men, is compared to the noblest of all plants, the vine.  Now as the most generous vine, if not pruned, runs out into many superfluous stems and grows at last weak and fruitless, so doth the best man, if he be not cut short of his desires and pruned with afflictions.  If it be painful to bleed, it is worse to wither.  Let me be pruned, that I may grow;  rather than cut up, to burn."  -- Joseph Hall

~Brittany