Here are grace and regard that distinguish, for some people are made the special objects of divine affection. Don’t be afraid to contemplate this high doctrine of election. When your mind is most heavy and depressed, you will find it to be a rich restorative. Those who doubt the doctrines of grace or push them into the shadows miss the best grape clusters of Eshcol (see Numbers 13:23); they lose their “banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines” (Isaiah 25:6). There is no balm in Gilead comparable to it. If the honey Jonathan tasted brightened his eyes (1 Samuel 14:27), this honey will enlighten your heart to love and learn the mysteries of the kingdom of God. Feed on this verse, and don’t fear overeating; live on this choice food as part of your regular diet. Meat from the King’s table will never harm His servants. Pray to have your mind enlarged, so you might comprehend more and more the eternal, everlasting, distinguishing love of God. When you have climbed as high as election, linger on its sister mountain, the covenant of grace. Covenant engagements are the bulwarks of stupendous rock that protect us; covenant engagements with the guarantee, Christ Jesus, are the quiet resting places of fearful spirits. His oath, His covenant, His blood, Support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay. “My Hope Is Built,” Edward Mote (1834) If Jesus set out to bring me to glory, and if the Father promised that He would give me to the Son as part of the infinite reward for His suffering, then until God himself is unfaithful and Jesus stops being the truth, I am safe. When David danced before the ark, he told his wife Michal that election made him do it—come, my soul, rejoice and leap before the God of grace. - C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening
Our circumstances in life will always change. Things always will go differently than we expect, most of the time. We think one way and God thinks another.
Often we consider ourselves failures because our best laid plans were destroyed. We thought things out. Things were going so well! Then the bottom fell out.
God has not stopped being God.
Even Martin Luther was hit with this upside the head. His Wife called him out on his mood and behavior. Acting all the world like God had died. God's not man that He can truly perish like him. Oh? What about Jesus? Jesus laid down His life. He willing let go of it, and He is the only one who was ever given the authority to take it up again.
But look at the state of this world! The chaos! We need a Leader who will bring order to chaos! That's the cry of the world, and in time, they will indeed receive that. Read Revelation. When the Antichrist is revealed he will be the world leader. In time he will turn on humanity. Besides the billions that will die from the judgments of God, he will demand to be worshipped.
But why do I feel like such a failure?
Isn't that evidence that God has left me?
God can no more leave His children than the sun can stop shining. That the Earth can stop turning.
Scripture says that His ways are higher than ours. His thoughts are higher than ours. What you see as failing is a course correction to where He wants to take you.
I had a neighbor who was easily on track for a basketball scholarship. Oh was he good. Yet a simple accident in a gym class derailed that. His basketball career was over. Yet it didn't end there. His career that God wanted him for was just beginning.
It's important to note that our plans are not paramount to God's in our lives. We came to Christ to trust and...OBEY. To FOLLOW where He leads. To DO what He wants us to. We were not saved to go live as we pleased.
God has a Plan that is, to this very second, working itself out in this world. There is no surprising events to Him. Nobody is derailing a single thought of His. Nobody is strong enough to stay His hands.
You aren't powerful enough to stop God's plans for you. You may delay it but God's will WILL be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
The temptations of the world are immense. Subtle but immense. They are everywhere. Just get this credit card and you can enjoy... Just go ahead...you deserve... Oh, don't you feel like this? Try this...it will make your life easier and better. What? You don't have the latest model? Here, we'll finance you...you deserve the best.
We deserve Hell. We are given grace and mercy because God is still God. He is still saving people and still forgiving sin. We are still to trust and obey.
God is still God in this pandemic. He wasn't caught by surprise. Quite the opposite. It wouldn't be happening if He hadn't permitted it. Satan cannot arbitrarily do whatever he wants. He has to have permission and even he is subject to the truth of the Bible. He cannot do anything that is going to prevent one jot or tittle from being true. He can try to twist our understanding of it be he isn't strong enough to stop it from being what it is.
Read the beginning of the book of Job. He has to show up as all others, before Jesus.
You might be disappointed and discouraged by your own actions or that of family and friends. Your life might not be the way you hoped. But God is still God. He is still concerned about you. He still works in your life. He still has a Plan for you. Let go of your pain and sorrow. It's about His will being done.
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