True faith in him who loved us, and gave himself for us, also seeks direction of the Lord as to the sphere of its action, and waits upon him to be guided by him in the choice of a calling. Some people are trying to do what they were never made for, ambitious beyond their line. This is a grievous evil. There should, therefore, be a seeking unto God for guidance and direction; and faith leads us to such seeking.
”The woman who loves the Savior avoids immodesty because she refuses to distract from or misrepresent the purity of the gospel.” – CJ Mahaney
Grace withers without adversity. The devil is little more than God’s drill sergeant, teaching us to handle our weapons.
I am most gladly content that Christ breaketh all my idols in pieces: it hath put a new edge upon my blunted love to Christ. I see He is jealous of my love, and will have all to Himself.
Samuel Rutherford
But it is neither shame nor pride for a drowning man to swim to a rock, nor for a ship-broken soul to run himself ashore upon Christ.
“Because of the triumph of God’s goodness in all things, He is able to bring good for us out of the bad. He turns our tragedies into supreme blessings.” – R.C. Sproul
“When a man is his own ruler, he has all the responsibility of what he does—but when he implicitly obeys Christ’s command, he is not responsi- ble for the result of his actions—that rests with Him who gave the command.”—1902, Sermon #2760
Spurgeon
There are no crown-wearers in heaven who were not cross-bearers here below.- Charles Haddon Spurgeon
When I am consumed by my problems – stressed out by my life, my family, my job – I actually convey the belief that I think the circumstances are more important than God’s command to always rejoice. In other words, that I have a “right” to disobey God because of the magnitude of my responsibilities.
Worry implies that we don’t quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what is happening in our lives.
Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control.
Basically, these two behaviors communicate that it’s ok to sin and not trust God because the stuff in my life is somehow exceptional. Both worry and stress reek of arrogance. They declare our tendency to forget that we’ve been forgiven, that our lives here are brief, that we are headed to a place where we won’t be lonely, afraid, or hurt ever again, and that in the context of God’s strength, our problems are small, indeed.
Why are we so quick to forget God? Who do we think we are?
[Crazy Love, chapter 2, pp 41-42]
