Archive for February, 2008
“Each step is mapped, arranged, and provided for…”
I was deeply encouraged recently by reading a devotion by Octavius Winslow based on our Sovereign Lord’s plans, active guidance and consistent love. What a joy it is to serve the faithful Shepherd!
“Untried, untrodden, and unknown as your future path may be, each step is mapped, arranged, and provided for in the everlasting and unchangeable covenant of God. To Him who leads us, who accepts us in the Son of His love, who knows the end from the beginning, it is no new, or uncertain, or hidden way. We thank Him that while He wisely and kindly veils all the future from our knowledge, all that future-its minutest event-is as transparent and visible to Him as the past. Our Shepherd knows the windings along which He skillfully, gently, and safely leads His flock…Then, too, the infinite forethought, wisdom, and goodness, which have marked each line of our new path, have also provided for its every necessity. Each exigency in the history of the new year has been anticipated. Each need will bring its appropriate and adequate supply, each perplexity will have its guidance, each sorrow its comfort, each temptation its shield, each cloud its light. Each affliction will suggest its lesson, each correction will impart its teaching, and each mercy will convey its message of love. The promise will be fulfilled to the letter, ‘As thy days, so shall thy strength be.’ (Deut. 33:25)”
“thoughts of our rest”
As we face the uncertainties and difficulties that life brings, continual meditation on the promised land is sure to bring you joy and peace. Because our hope is sure we can live abundant lives despite our circumstances.
Richard Baxter seemed to understand the weight of the Christian’s hope when he said, “Our liveliness in all duties, our enduring of tribulation, our honoring of God, the vigor of our love, thankfulness, and all our graces, yea, the very being of our religion and Christianity, depend on the believing, serious thoughts of our rest [heaven].”
1 Peter 1:3-5 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”
2 Peter 3:13 “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”
Revelation 21:1-4 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.”
Hope
This quote by Charles Spurgeon is a great reminder that as Christians we should always be full of hope. “ Hope as much as ever a man can hope; for when your hope is in God you cannot hope too much.”
Psalm 62:5-8 “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.”
Romans 5:1-5 “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Psalm 147:10-11 “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.”
