The Power of Prayer in a Believer's Life

Greetings All,

I didn't get a chance to post a "thought" last week, so I wanted to rectify that this week!   This one is by Charles H. Spurgeon and has to do with prayer.  Actually, it has to do with the Bible's command for us to pray.  Many see prayer as an optional practice one can engage in if, or when, they choose.  But the Bible sees it differently.  Thus, I offer you Spurgeon's insights on the matter, which come from the book, "The Power of Prayer in a Believer's Life," compiled and edited by Robert Hall.   Enjoy!

Prayer is Commanded 

     "We are not merely counselled or advised to pray, we are commanded to pray. This is a great condescension to our needs, weaknesses, and struggles. When a hospital is built, it is considered sufficient that the doors are open for the sick when they need help.  But no order is given that the sick must enter the hospital's care.  It is thought to be enough to offer its services without issuing a mandate that people must take advantage of them.  It seems somewhat strange, therefore, that where prayer is concerned, people need to be commanded to be merciful to their own souls.

     So marvelous is the condescension of our gracious God that He issues a command of love without which the sons of Adam would rather starve (or remain sick) than come and partake of the Gospel feast or services to help cure their soul.  God's own people need -- or else they would not have been given it -- a command to pray. Why?  Because we are very subject to periods of worldliness.  We do not forget to eat, or go to work, or go to our beds to sleep, but we do often forget to wrestle with God in prayer and spend long periods in consecrated fellowship with our Father and our God.  With many believers, the worldly ledger is so large and bulky that you cannot move it, and the Bible -- representing their devotion -- is so small that you could fit it in the pocket of their coat. Hours for the world, minutes for Christ! The world gets the best, while prayer gets the leftovers of our time.  We give our strength and freshness to the ways of making money and our tiredness to the ways of God.

     Hence it is that we need to be commanded to attend that that very act that should be our greatest joy and happiness and highest privilege to perform -- to meet with our God.  "Call upon me," He says, for He knows we are prone to forget.  "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your God!"(Jonah 1:6) is an exhortation we need to hear as much as Jonah did in the storm...

     It may be helpful for some of you to find out how often in Scripture you are told to pray. "Call on me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you" (Psalm 50:15). "Trust in Him at all times, you people, pour out your hearts to Him" (Psalm 62:8).  "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near" (Isaiah 55:6).  "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and the door will be opened to you" (Matt. 7:7).  "Watch and pray, that you do not fall into temptation" (Matt. 26:41).  "Pray without ceasing" (I Thess 5:7). "Let us therefore come boldly before the throne of grace" (Heb. 4:16).  "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you" (James 4:8).  "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful" (Col. 4:2). I need not multiply texts on the need for prayer when I could not exhaust them.  I have picked only a few from this great bag of pearls...

     There are also times when God commands His people to pray not only in the Bible, but directly in their hearts by the motions of His Holy Spirit. You who know the inner life understand my meaning. You suddenly feel the pressing sense that you must pray.  It may be that you do not at first take particular notice of the inclination, but it comes again, and again, and again -- "Pray!"  I find that in the matter of prayer I am like a water wheel that runs well when there is plenty of water pouring over it, but turns with very little force when the brook grows shallow. Whenever our Lord gives us the special inclination to pray, we should double our diligence. Scripture says we should pray always and never give up" (Luke 18:1), yet when God gives us the special longing and compulsion to pray, you have another command that should compel you to cheerful obedience...  See to it that you use the golden hour and reap a harvest while the sun shines. When we enjoy visitations from on high, we should be particularly constant in prayer.  If some other pressing duty comes our way, let it pass.  When God in a special way bids us to pray by the motions of His Holy Spirit, we should obey and pray." 

     It may come as a surprise to hear that God commanding us to pray is part of His condescension (in a good sense) to our struggles and weaknesses. He knows we struggle to pray. He knows we are distracted. He knows other things nudge it out. He knows we have sinful inclinations that encourage us not to pray. Therefore, out of a grace that pushes us to do those things that are good for us, He commands us to pray.  And He does so not only through the written and recorded Word in Scripture, but even more personally in our hearts by His Spirit. Spurgeon is right. Those who know the Lord know that He frequently moves us internally to pray, or want to pray, or feel we must pray, and that if we don't we will be defying Him!

Just some thoughts to ponder, Pastor Jeff 

The Practice of the Presence of God

Greetings!

This past weekend the men at my church got away on a "Men's Recon"  to a couple cabins in the Pocono Mountains to spend time in quiet contemplation with God.  In doing so we read Brother Lawrence's classic work, "The Practice of the Presence of God."  It was revitalizing time.   I had my own copy of the book which I bought many years ago, so I brought it with me - fragile as it is from being loaned out and read so many times. Over the years I have copied quotes into the many blank pages and spaces in it.  So today I wanted to share some of those quotes with you.  And if you have just a moment, let me know which one(s) hit home the most. Enjoy.

"Whatever we are doing, even if we are reading the Word or praying, we should stop for a few minutes -- as often as possible -- to praise God from the depths of our hearts, to enjoy Him there in secret. Since you believe that God is always with you no matter what you may be doing, why shouldn't you stop for a while to adore Him, to praise Him, to petition Him, to offer Him your heart, and to thank Him?"

Brother Lawrence

"There is nothing but God's grace. We walk upon it. We breathe it. We live by it and we die in it."

Robert Louis Stevenson

"You have no strength but what God gives you, and you can have all the strength that God can give." 

Andrew Murray

"Wonder is the basis of worship."

Thomas Carlyle

"Faith is not an effort, a striving, a ceaseless seeking, as so many earnest souls suppose, but rather, a letting go, an abandonment, an abiding rest in God that nothing, not even the soul's shortcomings can disturb." 

Unknown

"God never asks us to give up anything unless He intends to replace it with something better."

George Mueller

"He who would not die for Jesus will never truly live for Jesus; for to earnestly live for Him requires dying daily to the self-will that we may do His will."

"God insists that we ask, not because He needs to know our situation, but because we need the spiritual discipline of asking."

Catherine Marshall

"When God wants to do His great works, He trains somebody to be quiet enough and little enough, then uses that person."

Hudson Taylor

"Enter into the inner chamber of your mind, shut out all things except God and whatever might aid you in seeking God, and having barred the door of your inner chamber, seek Him." 

St. Anselm of Canterbury

"God creates out of nothing. Therefore, until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him." 

Martin Luther

"Joy is not happiness as much as it is gladness; it is the ecstasy of eternity in a soul that has made peace with God and is ready to do His will."

Unknown

"Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation."

Elton Trueblood

"Be patient with each other, there are no shortcuts to spirituality. The growing of fruit takes time."

Unknown

"The greatness of a man is not measured by his power or ability, but by the measure of his surrender to God."

Unknown

"The person who insists on seeing with perfect clarity before he follows Christ in the way, will never obey God's call to walk by faith. To Abraham God said, 'Leave your country and your people and your father's household, and go to the place I will (that is, in the future, far down the road) show you." 

"When, as a husband or wife, you are confronted with a very difficult choice, do what is best for your spouse and your children and God will honor it." 

"If you'd ever really gotten inside the mind of Jesus, ever had a single taste of His burning love, considerations of your own loss or gain would mean nothing."

Thomas A'Kempis

"It is possible to give without loving, but it is impossible to love without giving."

Richard Braumstein

"Though we do not have our Lord Jesus with us in bodily presence, we have our neighbor, who, for the ends of love and loving service, is as good as our Lord Himself."

Teresa of Avila

"To do so no more is the best repentance."

Martin Luther

"No one gives himself freely and willingly to God's service unless, having tasted His Fatherly love, he is drawn to love and worship Him in return." 

John Calvin

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Spiritual Inebriation

Greetings All!

     I have always contended that who we become in life has to do, not only (of course) with the direct input of God into our lives through His Word and His Spirit, but the guidance, influences, and input of other people whose wisdom and counsel and insights we have sought out. This is one of the reasons I always check out the libraries of other people!  I want to see who they have turned to for guidance and inspiration, and have thus, in some way, helped form them.  James Stuart Bell also understands this principle. And therefore he sought to inquire who the authors were that influenced the life of someone he admired -- A. W. Tozer.

     This selection, therefore, comes from his book, "From the Library of A. W. Tozer -- Selections from Writers Who Influenced his Spiritual Journey."   This particular excerpt (only one of hundreds in his book) is from a book in Tozer's library by Jan Van Ruysbroeck's (or John of Ruusbroec, born in 1293 A.D. near Brussels, Belgium) called, "The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage."  In this selection he speaks of one of the joys of being the Bride of Christ -- "Spiritual Inebriation."  Enjoy.

Spiritual Inebriation

"The joy of the Lord is our strength."

Nehemiah 8:10

"Do not be drunk with wine, with leads to debauchery, 

but instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit."

Ephesians 5:18

     "Spiritual inebriation is this: that a man receives more sensible joy and sweetness than his heart can either contain or desire.  Spiritual inebriation brings forth many strange gestures in men. It makes some sing and praise God because of the fullness of joy, and some weep with great tears because of the sweetness of heart.  It makes one restless in his in all his limbs, so that he must run, jump, and dance, and so excites another that he must move and clap his hands.  Another cries out with a loud voice and so shows forth the plenitude his soul feels within, and another must be silent and melt away because of the rapture which he feels with all his senses.

     At times he thinks that all the world must feel what he feels; at times he thinks that none can taste what he has attained. Often he thinks that he never could, nor ever shall, lose this sense of well-being; at times he wonders why all men do not become God-desiring.  At one time he thinks that God is for him alone, or none other as much as him; at another time he asks himself with amazement of what nature these delights can be, and whence they come, and what happened to him.

     This is the most rapturous life (as regards our bodily feelings) which man may attain upon earth.  Sometimes the excess of joy becomes so great the man thinks that his heart must burst. And for all these manifold gifts and miraculous works, he shall, with a humble heart, thank and praise and honor and reverence the Lord, who can do all this, and thank Him with fervent devotion because it is His will to do all this.  And the man shall always keep in his heart and speak through his mouth with sincere intention: "Lord, I am not worthy of this. Yet I have need of Your boundless goodness and of Your support." In such humility he may grow and rise into higher virtues." 

     On the day of Pentecost unbelievers accused the disciples of being drunk (Acts 2:15).  Why?  Surely it was because of the sheer joy they felt, and the glow on their faces that attested to it (similar to what is described above) when the Holy Spirit came and fell upon them on that day.  After all, it was only 9:00 o'clock in the morning and they were obviously full of intense joy and energy (or the Spirit's "power" - Acts 1:8 - or dunamis in the Greek, the same word from which we get our English word "dynamite").  Of course, speaking in tongues (or languages they had not learned) may have played into it as well!

     Though some fear the intense emotions that can often attend centered prayer, joyful worship, or the experience of the Holy Spirit, it did seem to be part of the experience of the early disciples and apostles. Have you experienced such times? Have you ever found your heart so full of joy it was hard to contain?  Ever been moved to sing, praise, clap, cry or dance, touched as you were by the overwhelming sense of God's grace, goodness and love?  Ever sensed the presence of God's holiness and complete otherness in such a way that it moved you to feel that to even speak a word, or simply move, would have been inappropriate and irreverent?   Have you ever become so conscious of the reality and presence of God that it altered the way you viewed everything happening around you, and made even the most common things beautiful and sacred?

     Such experiences are not uncommon in Scripture. And dare I suggest that if we pursued God with the intensity of many of those in Scripture, we might find such experiences more commonplace too? 

Living in the grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

A Short Summary of the Life of John Newton, Author of the Well-known Hymn Amazing Grace

Greetings All!

     I hope you are not tired of seeing entries from L. B. Cowman's devotional book, "Streams in the Desert." Because I have one more for you today -- the last in a while -- before moving on in the next few weeks to other authors!  I wanted to pass it on to you because I found it encouraging. Many measure the influence or effect they've had on the world by the things they do directly.  Things they've said, events they've planned, things they've written, or deeds they've done.  And because they do, they can often minimize the effect their influence or ministry to others has had. I say that because there is often fruit we will know nothing about until eternity reveals it to us.
     That was the case with the mother of John Newton, and John Newton himself, author of the well-known hymn "Amazing Grace."  Few will ever know her name, but she has had a profound impact even to this day -- as this entry seeks to show. The devotion by Cowman is at the end, and rather short, but I wanted to share a little about Elizabeth Newton and her son John's life, to help you understand it. I know it's a wee bit long, but please take the time to go through it.  It will be worth your time.  Enjoy.

A Short Summary of the Life of John Newton, Author of the Well-known Hymn Amazing Grace.

     John Newton was born on July 24, 1725, to Elisabeth and John Newton Sr.  His father was a moral man, but not a believer, while his mother Elizabeth was a gentle, caring, and faithful mother whose life was tragically short-lived – dying when John was but 7 years old.  Though Elizabeth was unable to function as she might have wished, due to contracting tuberculosis, she did not waste her days. Knowing that time with her son might be short, she determined to make the most of what remained and took on the role of a teacher, spending hours with John each day.  She was a good teacher and he was an eager and intelligent student.  In fact he progressed so quickly he would later write: “When I was four years old, I could read, (hard names excepted) as well as I can now: and could likewise repeat the answers to the questions in the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism, with the proofs; and all Dr. Watt’s smaller Catechisms, and his Children’s Hymns.”

     From this list of material, we know that Elizabeth consistently trained her son in the theology of the Protestant Reformers. Elizabeth prayed and hoped God would call him to ministry. “My mother observed my early progress with peculiar pleasure, and intended from the first to bring me up with a view to the ministry if the Lord should so incline my heart.”  John later wrote, “As I was her only child, she made it the chief business and pleasure of her life to instruct me, and bring me up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”  Even though she was gravely ill for all of her son’s early life, she did not allow her condition to keep her from fulfilling her God-given duty. She used what strength she had to teach him to know of God’s existence, holiness, and demands on his life and songs that would remain in his mind and heart until his dying day. She taught him to honor the Bible and to turn to it for spiritual knowledge and strength. And she taught him the Good News - that salvation was not by works, but by grace through faith in Christ Jesus.

     In 1733 John Sr. returned from his voyage and learning of his wife’s death, wasted no time in remarrying. John’s step-mother was at first attentive, but she soon bore children of her own and lost interest in John, excluding him from family life. He became distant and rebellious. So, when John Jr. was merely eleven years old, his father took him to sea and he made six voyages with him before his father retired.

     In 1743, at the age of 18, while going to visit friends, Newton was captured (essentially kidnapped) and pressed into the naval service by the Royal Navy, where he became a midshipman. But at one point tried to desert, was captured, and punished in front of the crew of 350 by being stripped to the waist, tied to the grating, and flogged with eight dozen lashes. Following that disgrace and humiliation, Newton initially contemplated murdering the captain and committing suicide by throwing himself overboard, but He recovered, both physically and mentally and eventually convinced his superiors to discharge him to a slave ship.  Espousing freethinking principles, he remained arrogant and insubordinate, and he lived with immoral abandon: "I sinned with a high hand," he later wrote, "and I made it my study to tempt and seduce others [to join with me]."   He gave up all religious convictions, rejected his mother's teachings, and even lead other sailors into a life of unbelief. Sailors were not noted for the refinement of their manners, but Newton had an especially notable reputation for profanity, coarseness, and debauchery, which even shocked many sailors. He became known as, "The Great Blasphemer."  When he writes in his famous hymn that God's amazing grace, "saved a wretch like me," he was not using hyperbole. He had indeed lived a wretched life.

     Finally, at his own request, he was exchanged into service on a slave ship which took him to the coast of Sierra Leone, Africa. Newton did not get along with the crew of that ship and in 1745 they left him in West Africa with Amos Clowe, a slave dealer.  Clowe took Newton to the coast and gave him to his wife, Princess Peye of the Sherbro people, who brutally abused and mistreated him as much as she did her other slaves.  Newton's clothes turned to rags and he was forced to beg for food. He would later say of this period of his life that he was, "once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in West Africa." 

     Early in 1748, he was rescued by a sea captain who had been asked by Newton's father to search for him, returning to England on the merchant ship Greyhound.  The ship encountered a severe storm off the coast of Ireland and almost sank. Newton awoke in the middle of the night and, as the ship filled with water, called out to God. He recorded in his journal that when all seemed lost and the ship would surely sink, he exclaimed, “Lord, have mercy upon us.”  The cargo shifted and plugged up the hole, and the ship drifted to safety.  Newton marked this experience as the beginning of his conversion to Christ. He would later refer to this as his “great deliverance.”  The date was 10 March 1748, an anniversary he marked for the rest of his life as the point of his initial turning to Christ. From that point on, he avoided profanity, gambling, and drinking.

     Although he continued to work in the slave trade, he had gained sympathy for the slaves during his time as a slave in Africa. He later said that his true conversion did not happen until sometime later: "I cannot consider myself to have been a believer in the full sense of the word, until a considerable time afterward."  He would also write in his diary years later: “My dear mother, besides the rains she took with me, often commended me with many prayers and tears to God; and I doubt not but I reap the fruits of these prayers to this hour.”

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     This brings us to the entry by L. B. Cowman:

     "John Newton the drunken sailor became John Newton the sailor-preacher. Among the thousands of men and women he brought to Christ was Thomas Scott, cultured, selfish and self-satisfied. Because of the prayers of Newton's mother, another miracle was worked, and Thomas Scott used both his pen and voice to lead thousands of unbelieving hearts to Christ -- among them a dyspeptic, melancholic young man named William Cowper. He too was washed by the cleansing blood and in a moment of inspiration wrote:

     "There is a fountain filled with blood, 

     Drawn from Immanuel's veins, 

     And sinners plunged beneath that flood, 

     Lose all their guilty stains."

     And this song has brought countless thousands to the man who died on Calvary. Among the thousands was William Wilberforce, who became a great Christian statesman and unfastened the shackles from the feet of thousands of British slaves. Among those whom he led to the Lord was Leigh Richmond, a clergyman of the Established Church in one of the Channel Islands. He wrote a book, "The Dairyman's Daughter," which was translated into forty languages and with the intensity of leaping flame burned the love of Christ into the hearts of thousands."

     All this resulted, notes Cowman, because of a mother's earnest prayers for her son. Her instruction and prayers for a son she never lived to see grow up, bore fruit beyond anything she ever imagined and continues to do so to this day.

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Sacred Pathways

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" comes to you from Gary Thomas in a new book I just picked up the other day. It's called "Sacred Pathways" and is actually very beneficial in helping earnest Christians to understand each other.  He covers nine "sacred pathways" that Christians follow in their pursuit of God and worship of God.  There is the Naturalist, the Sensate, the Traditionalist, the Ascetic, the Activist, the Caregiver, the Enthusiast, the Contemplative, and the Intellectual. And as any good author should, he points out both the blessings, biblical grounds, and also dangers of each path.

     It's helpful in understanding your brothers and sisters in Christ who worship the same Jesus, but do so in various different (not wrong) ways.  In that sense, it not only offers a chance for greater understanding but greater unity among earnest believers in Jesus who differ in their approach to God and their service for Him. This excerpt is from the second chapter, before getting into the nine different pathways.  Enjoy.

Where is your Gethsemane?

     "The Garden of Gethsemane holds a sacred place in faith history. It is the hallowed piece of ground on which Jesus prayed just before he was arrested. Churches don't normally talk about Gethsemane apart from Passion Week, but the reason Gethsemane had such a monumental role in the famous week, is precisely because it had such a huge and formative role in Jesus' life prior to Passion Week.  John 18:2, in speaking of Gethsemane, says: "Now Judas, who betrayed Him, knew the place, because Jesus had OFTEN met there with the disciples."   Luke backs this up: "Jesus went out AS USUAL to the Mount of Olives, and His disciples followed Him."  It wasn't an accident that Judas found Jesus in the garden. The betrayer naturally thought, "Where is Jesus most likely to be found?" He felt certain that Jesus would seek solace in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he was right.

     Jesus had used the garden on numerous occasions to meet with his Father -- to gain spiritual strength and to receive his marching orders... That's why Jesus went there to prepare for what was about to take place...  In fact, Jesus went there every day of Passion Week: "Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night at the hill called the Mount of Olives" (Luke 21:37).  The experience of Gethsemane, of course, is unique to him. None of us will ever have a moment like that.  But in using this sacred space, Jesus leaves us an example to follow. When you need to hear from God, when you need to be strengthened by God, when you need to receive your marching orders from God, where do you go? ... Where is your Gethsemane?  (Is it a garden, a room, a forest, a sanctuary?)

     What I appreciate about using Gethsemane as a metaphor for meeting with God is that it portrays a vivid example of the balance between intimacy and mission, prayer and work. I can't think of Gethsemane without being moved by the intimate communion between Son and Father. On the other hand, this garden is also the scene of intense spiritual preparation for the most important work ever done.  In a healthy Christian life, prayer and ministry go hand in hand. As we build intimacy with God in prayer, he communicates his love for us, but he also gives us our marching orders. In this way, prayer feeds our sense of mission and renews the urgency behind that mission. Likewise, Christian work -- whether it is evangelism, administration, teaching, discipleship, or something else -- reminds us of our need for God's strength and thus drives us further into prayer.

     When we get too caught up in ministry and cut corners in our devotional time, the results can be disastrous. We begin to minister with the wrong motivations, risk losing our passion, and often are tempted to make it all about us instead of all about God.  Dr. Wayne Grudem experienced a glimpse of this while working on the final translation of the ESV (English Standard Version) of the Bible. A dozen scholars from around the world gathered in Cambridge, England, to do the final polish of the translation. They worked nine hour days discussing the remaining tricky passages, voting on final word choices, and completing the project. Informal discussions often stretched into the evening as scholars contemplated the next day's work. Wayne said he started getting up a little later each day, taking away time from prayer.

     Many people might not see the danger in this. After all, Wayne was spending the entire day studying and discussing the Bible! What was the big deal if, for a rather short season, he allowed his prayer life to drift a little?  According to Wayne, it became a very big deal.  After God convicted him for not giving prayer its due, Wayne wrote in his journal about the spiritual sickness that followed from not tending to his heart: "pride, talking about myself a lot, inwardly hoping people would praise me, lack of love for friends, irritability, a general inward feeling of unease, self-reliance, and no peace." These are the classic signs of drifting from God.

     Wayne was devoted to a very pleasing work -- translating the Bible -- but even the act of translating the Bible can leave us spiritually empty if we ignore building intimacy with God through prayer. The image of Gethsemane reminds me that I need to tend to my heart.  When I give God the opportunity to speak into my heart, he motivates me to work -- for the RIGHT reasons. Working diligently, I'm reminded of my need to receive acceptance, favor, and strength from God. In this way, prayer and ministry together become a spiraling upward staircase of devotion."

     In my time on the mission field in Honduras, I met with many missionaries who came to speak with me because they had lost all affectional connection to God. Call it burnout, call it depression, call it a phase, after speaking with them it became clear that for most, they were so busy serving God that they lost touch with God. They skipped their prayer time, devotional time, and other times of contemplation and private worship, and it resulted in the need to step back and set those things as a daily priority.

     As one of my professors at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary once told us in his class: "Don't ever think that as pastors, just because you are in the Bible, studying Scripture, and preparing lessons and sermons on Gospel truth, that you can count that as your personal time with God.  No, you need to nurture your own soul for you, and not in your time of preparing material for others."  I didn't understand the difference then.  I do now.  He was right.  As Corrie Ten Boom once rightly pointed out, "If the devil cannot make us bad, he will make us busy." Too busy to set aside personal quiet time with our God.

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

The Gift and Grace of Weakness

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" comes to you from Charles Spurgeon.  It is found in the devotional I have recommended before (one that I consider a gem) - "Beside Still Waters - Words of Comfort for the Soul." This particular entry has to do with the gift and grace of weakness.  It's a concept that's hard for those raised in our "strength worshiping" culture to understand, but he true believer will grasp what he says.  In fact, the true believer may be the only one who grasps what he says.  Enjoy.

     
     "Your faith will never be weak when you are weak, but when you are strong your faith cannot be strong. To the apostle Paul, Jesus said, "My strength is made perfect in weakness" (II Corinthians 12:9). The only way to increase your faith is through great trouble.  We do not grow strong in faith on sunny days; only in stormy weather do we obtain it. Strong faith does not drop from heaven in a gentle dew; generally, it comes in the whirlwind and the storm.

     Look at the old oaks. How did they become so deeply rooted?  The March winds will tell you. It was not the April showers or the sweet May sunshine that caused the roots to wrap around the rock.  It was the rough, blustering, north winds of March shaking the trees.  The weakest of trees are those grown in the shelter of the greenhouse.

     Life in the barracks does not produce good soldiers. Great soldiers are made amid flying shot and thundering cannons.  Nor are good sailors made on calm seas. Good sailors are made on the deep, where the wild wind howls, the thunder rolls like drums, and the waves smash in repeated succession against the hull.  Storms and tempests make tough and hardy sailors.

     It is that way with Christians. We must expect great troubles before we attain great faith."

     In times of plenty and ease it is questionable whether faith is even necessary, and the longer or more extended those periods of ease and plenty are, the weaker faith becomes.  So also in the Lord's work, it is better to have a man who knows his weakness and casts himself wholly upon the Lord in utter and desperate dependence on Him and His grace, than a confident man who thinks he is strong and completely capable of doing anything, and thus depends on himself alone. 

     Spiritual work is not like physical work, and worldly success is far different from eternal fruit borne for the kingdom of God.  Faith in God must not be confused with confidence in self.  If we were more attuned to the ways of God and what He was up to in permitting our struggles and trials, we would be far less anxious and far more willing that His power might be made perfect in us through our weakness.

In the sufficiency of His grace, Pastor Jeff