THANKSGIVING -- AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” Psa: 118:24. “Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say rejoice” Phil. 4:4.

As I sit down at my computer this morning, I am going to bare my heart as God directs, trusting that He will bless your heart as He has mine during these past three weeks while I have been on a spiritual roller coaster.

Too many times we hide our feelings, our emotions, and our thoughts because we are afraid that people will judge our spiritual tenor if they find out. If we first go to others instead of the Lord, we have gone to the wrong source. God’s Word assures us that He has the answer. My many years of walking with Him assure me of that also. We must evaluate our motives. Is it pride that keeps us from baring our heart, or are we taking our need to our heavenly Father because we know that there is no one who knows just how we feel? Because we are convinced that God has the answers? That God will help us through?

The last three weeks have been different from any that I have ever experienced. My husband has been in the ER three times and has had surgery for an abdominal aortic aneurysm. I stayed with him in the hospital for five nights. My weariness affected my emotions. I knew that my Father was where He always is -- on His Throne, caring for me, aware of my need, and that He would restore me in His own perfect time and way. Each morning I told Him that I was claiming His promise, “As thy day so shall they strength be.” There is a verse on our kitchen door that confronts me every time I go to our garage -- “Be still and know that I am God” Psa. 46:10. That was all I could do and that was all that I needed to do. “Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desire of thine heart” Psa. 37:4 My desire, my desperate need,was joyful peace. In the meantime, I clung to fact, not to feeling. I knew He would restore me in His own perfect time. And He did! Oh, how great is our God! He will restore our soul.  

Why am I telling this to you? Reason: perhaps you need to be restored, encouraged, assured. The nights are dark and long. Your days and night flow into one long muddle. Your bones ache from weariness. Your heart is downcast. You are discouraged and in despair. Don’t allow yourself to stay there. Read the Word whether you understand it or not. Pray to your heavenly Father even if   you feel like it or not. Even if you think He is not listening. He has not left His Throne. He has not forgotten you. He is ready and waiting to work His perfect work in you. Believe His promise that He will never leave you or forsake you. He will restore you to gladness and rejoicing in His own perfect time and way. You will have a new song to sing and a strong testimony of victory that only He can give. Other troubled ones need to hear you.

PRAISE HIM FOR HIS CARING, MIGHTY POWER. HE IS ON HIS THRONE.

P.S. My dear husband is growing stronger each day. Praise the Lord.

HIGH AND LOFTY THOUGHTS

“For thus saith the high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isa. 57:15).

It was while my husband, Robert, and I were missionaries in the Philippines with the China Inland Mission (now Overseas Missionary Fellowship) that we received this letter from our director, J. Oswald Sanders. It is rich and needy today. I want to share it with you.

“This spacious text which expresses the attitudes that are compatible with the greatness of our God, tells us four things about Him. His Transcendence. ‘The high and lofty one.’ What had surprised Isaiah was the elevation of His throne, infinitely higher than any earthly throne. He learned that God is greater than our highest conception of Him, greater than all majesty. ‘He is ABOVE all,’ said John. ‘God OVER all,’ said Paul. His Holiness ‘whose name is Holy’ and His name is His nature. His throne is the blazing centre of all moral purity. His is a holiness that dazzles and blinds and prostrates. Perhaps the reason that we are not dazzled is that cataracts may be growing over the eyes of our soul. His holiness should awe us, and will certainly reveal the tawdriness of our highest attainments in that realm. His crystal purity is in startling contrast to our dinginess. The glory of His absolute holiness, meditated upon and presented to our hearts with power by the Holy Spirit, cannot but make us humble and contrite. His Eternity ‘which inhabiteth eternity’ ‘I fill heaven and earth.’ These claims are infinitely more intelligible to us than to any previous generation -- a universe vast beyond all imagining.

A recent authority wrote: ‘The stars and planets exceed in number all grains of sand on all seashores.’ How insignificant is man! How great is God! Man, a prisoner of time and space. God, the uncreated Master of eternity. His condescension. Our God who is great beyond all imagining, deigns to take up His abode in a humble and contrite heart. ‘God has two thrones,’ said the old Puritan, ‘one in the highest heaven and one in the humblest heart.’ The Infinite condescends to become the intimate, terrible and yet tender. The immensity of His stoop staggers the imagination but warms the heart. Let us love, and sing, and wonder that the Transcendent God who fills eternity makes Himself small enough to fill my heart when it is humble and contrite. ‘Contrite’ means ‘pulverized, shattered’ -- self-reliance broken. ‘Humble’ means that all illusions about self are gone. Are we longing to see God work? He tells us the type through whom He delights to achieve His purposes. ‘TO THIS MAN will I look, even to him that is of a humble and contrite heart, who trembleth at my Word.’ Lord make me a man [woman] like that!

“Why does the high and lofty One dwell in the humble and contrite heart? ‘to restore ... to revive.’ Is this our need? Here is the panacea.”’

Have you been smitten by this Self-portrait and Self-revelation of God before you as I have been? Have you lost yourself in wonder, love, praise, and thanksgiving? Thanks for responding.

Thought #25

Do you ever feel alone?  You don’t have to feel that way.  If you are a believer, Jesus has promised that He will not leave you comfortless. Turn to John 14:18.  His gift to us is comfort.  It may be natural to be sad and lonely, but it is unscriptural.  His love secures His presence to you.  Open your heart, and your mind to His promises.  The Bible is full of them.

Thought #24

Those of us who are in spiritual leadership carry a heavy responsibility.  Whether we lead a Bible study, teach a church school class, or hold a church office, preparation and prayer may mean a sacrifice of pleasure.  “Whatever you do, do all for the glory of God”  I Cor. 10:31.

Thought #23

Conscience -- “God’s deputy of the soul”  Psalm 17:3.   David was not saying he was sinless. He continually strived to develop a closer relationship with God through repentance and forgiveness.

Thought #22

The crisis buffet has a dessert bar -- peace of Christ, power of the Holy Spirit, and presence of God.  “ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

I WONDER AS I WANDER -- Part 4 Faith in God’s Promised Faithfulness

“And we know that ALL things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

Oh what undeniable assurance from the heart of God, our Father, Himself, to our sometimes quaking emotions. No, we are not to live on emotions, but they sometimes get in the way of producing something beautiful or useful or both.

The night that I stood by the casket of my husband, dear friends in their desperation to say something comforting, would hold my hand and say, “Norma, we don’t know now, but someday when we get to Heaven, God will tell us why.” That episode was more than 40 years ago, so I have had years for God to graciously grow me. That midnight when four people came to my home to tell me that his dead body had been found on the street (evidently by a heart attack) God graciously whispered to my heart, “ I do all things well. I don’t make mistakes.” However, as days followed, reality set in. I’m a widow with sons aged 12 and 14. What is next?

What happens to people when they find it hard to trust God in hard times? In their despair their   first question is “why?” Not a good question -- because it belittles God. God does not owe us an answer. It is as though we are putting Him on the spot. “I need an explanation before I can trust You.” Suffice it to say, He is God Almighty, the great I AM, all sovereign, totally trustworthy, holy. He never makes a mistake. The clay does not ask the potter, “Why are you doing this to me?”  Clay rests in the potter’s hand and the finished product displays the maker’s expertise. The Lord is our rock, fortress, deliverer, our strength, shield, salvation, high tower (cf. Psa. 18:2).

Our church family recently experienced an excruciating tragedy when the church bus of children returning from camp overturned. The youth pastor, his wife, carrying an unborn baby, and a mother of five were killed. Where was God at a time like this? He was where He has always been -- on His Throne! Directing the affairs of His own! That is what Romans 8:28 is shouting out to us. “I do all things well. I make no mistakes.”  Do you believe? Can you take Him at His word?

When we are suffering tragedy, heartache, bereavement, frustration, and disappointment, we wonder how any good can come from it. God uses the deepest experiences to bring us ever closer to Himself and to conform us “into the image of His Son.” The impersonal forces of luck, chance, and fate do not control our lives. Our wonderful Lord, who is “too loving to be unkind and too wise to err,” cares for His own individual children for whom He has individual plans.

Paul, in his instruction to Timothy, gives us a glimpse of the majesty of our God. At the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, God shall display Himself as our Potentate (Tim. 6:15). Oh what a strong word: He is the One who has unlimited authority and influence. Our Sovereign, our Almighty our all-knowing, our all-powerful, God who is “too loving to be unkind and too wise to err.”

Thank you, Father! We will trust you. You do ALL things well!