First
Things First!
Getting Our Priorities in Order
P - Pray.
R - Review God's priorities for your life.
I - Take Inventory.
O - Order your schedule.
R - Resist the "tyranny of the urgent."
I - Input from others.
T - Take advantage of the time God gives you.
I - Identify "time robbers."
E - Experience this season fully.
S - Sabbaths.
Lord, be near us in our pain and grant us the clear eye of
faith to see it from heaven's perspective. Jesus walked this road. Help us
to follow him gladly.
Title: Exchange
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Exchange
This morning I was thinking of a friend who is gravely ill.
She is greatly loved by many and has had a unique ministry because
of her gifts of friendship and hospitality. Must she suffer?
The answer is yes. For the Lord who loves her suffered and
wants her to fellowship with Himself. The joy of thus knowing Him comes
not in spite of but because of suffering, just as resurrection comes
out of death. I have a Savior because I am a sinner, and beauty is given
the child of God in exchange for ashes.
We want to avoid suffering, death, sin, ashes. But we live
in a world crushed and broken and torn, a world God Himself visited
to redeem. We receive his poured-out life, and being allowed the high
privilege of suffering with Him, may then pour ourselves out for others.
How can one's illness help another? By being offered to Him
who can transform it into blessing.
"You have been granted the privilege not only of believing in Christ but
also of suffering for Him" (Phil
1:29 NEB).
I don't
know God's will or plan for us. I only know that God is in control,
He cares for and protects us, and His word is a lamp on our path
(with darkness around). He is rich enough and is able to carry us
through.
Rich Enough
This morning I was praying about three
very complicated matters for which I have a share of responsibility.
I could not see my way
through them and realized, as I prayed, that
because I could not see a way, I was doubtful that there was
a way. My limitations became, in my mind, God's limitations. Then
my reading fell on Romans 10, where Paul speaks of the same sort
of error (though much more far-reaching than mine)--that of the
Jews having supposed that they must find the way of righteousness by
themselves, and that Gentiles could not possibly find it. The way is
and always has been God's and only God's, open to those who trust Him.
For "the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich enough for the need of
all who invoke Him" (Rom 10:12 NEB).
"Rich enough!" I had been praying as though
my own needs might exhaust God's resources.
Thou art coming to a King,
Large petitions with thee bring,
For His grace and power are such
None can ever ask too much.
(John Newton)
返回主頁
