Plans for Us, Plans for Him

“A goal without a plan is just a dream.” ~ Dave Ramsey

“God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible. What a pity when we plan only the things we can do by ourselves.” ~ A.W. Tozer

"I'll fight when children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight. I'll fight when men go to prison, in and out, as they do now. I'll fight while there is a drunkard left. While there is a lost girl upon the streets. While there remains one dark soul without the love of God, I'll fight. I'll fight to the very end." ~ William Booth

Being a Mother Without Expectations

"How can it be a large career to tell other people about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone and narrow to be everything to someone? No, a woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute." ~ G.K. Chesterton

“Gratitude is the key to happiness and anything that undermines gratitude must undermine happiness. And nothing undermines gratitude as much as expectations. The more expectations you have, the less gratitude you will have.” ~ Dennis Prager

*Sorry, I missed a few days as I was on vacation without access to my computer...

Lord, Is It I?

“‘One of you will betray me,’ Jesus said. They were shocked. Each of the disciples responded with the question, ‘Lord, is it I?’ (Matthew 26:20-2). Their inquiry reveals three important truths:

(1) The possibility of evil in our hearts. Everyone recognized it. When we hear of the moral collapse of another never say, ‘I couldn’t do that.’ The potential of every sin lies in our own heart. In the white light of God’s Word we’ve all yielded to temptation and responded to the appeal of the devil.

(2) Our ignorance of ourselves. ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?’ (Jeremiah 17:9). And finally…

(3) The wisdom of self-examination. Peter didn’t say, ‘I’ve never been too sure about Thomas; he’s skeptical.’ John didn’t say, ‘You know, I’ve never been too happy about that tax collector Matthew!’ Each person turned the question in on himself.

It wasn’t a morbid introspection. It was just a healthy look and an honest enquiry.

Maybe it’s time for each of us to look up into His face and ask –

‘Lord, is it I?’”

~ Bill Bathman, How’d You Hurt Your Hand?

Making Frantic Efforts

“If the enemy can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy.” ~ Unknown

"He that believeth shall not make haste. There is plenty of time. You must not imagine that the result depends on you, or that a single human soul can be lost because you may fail. The question, as far as you are concerned, is whether you are to be honored in having a hand in the work that God is doing, and will do, whether you help him or not. Some will be honored: shall it be me? And this honor gained excludes no one: there is work, as there is bread in his house, enough and to spare. It shows no faith in God to make frantic efforts or frantic lamentations." ~ George MacDonald

Free from the Deadly D's

“[The] deadly D’s of discontentment, disappointment, discouragement, and despair all thrive in a prideful heart.” ~ Susan Hunt

“Freedom from pride does not come from thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less!” ~ Marliss Bombardier

Laying Hold of God's Willingness

“Many of us fail to call on God because we don’t understand the need to pray about something God has already promised to do.” ~ Jim Cymbala

“Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. It is laying hold of God’s willingness.” ~ George Muëller

Inconsistent with Myself

"God is not a belief to which you give your assent. God becomes a reality whom you know intimately, meet everyday, one whose strength becomes your strength, whose love, your love. Live this life of the presence of God long enough and when someone asks you, 'Do you believe there is a God?' you may find yourself answering, 'No, I do not believe there is a God. I know there is a God.'” ~ Ernest Boyer, Jr.

“My love of consistency with my own doctrinal views is not great enough to allow me knowingly to alter a single text of Scripture. I have great respect for orthodoxy, but my reverence for inspiration is far greater. I would sooner a hundred times over appear to be inconsistent with myself than be inconsistent with the word of God.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

How It's Done

“You only know how to give thanks always when you know how to give thanks anyway.” ~ Ann Voskamp

"I can give without love — and I have done it — but can anyone say they love and not give?" ~ Amy Carmichael

The Book Still Lives

“If this book [the Bible] had not been the book of God, men would have destroyed it long ago. Emperors and popes, kings and priests, princes and rulers have all tried their hand at it; they die and the book still lives.” ~ Dr. H. L. Hastings

"Drown your small suffering in the vast ocean of pain." ~ Richard Wurmbrand

Step One to Transforming

“No, I’m thinking about another kind of commercialization that says, ‘I’ll give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin.’ It’s not that I want Him. It’s that I want something from Him. It’s like saying, ‘No Lord, I don’t want You. I want myself, but I want myself clean and full of the Holy Spirit. I want to put myself on display in Your showroom, so others can see 'this is what God has done for me.'” ~ Bill Bathman

"This life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it; the process is not yet finished but it is going on; this is not the end but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory but all is being purified." ~ Martin Luther

Activity Doesn't Do It

"Many Christians who love the Lord are up and down in their Christian experience because they have no definite time with God. Beware of the barrenness of an overactive life." ~ George Sweeting

"I found that believers are ready to get involved in almost any activity that looks spiritual but allows them to escape their responsibility to the Gospel." ~ K.P. Yohannan

Who to Talk to First

"The prayer closet is the arena which produces the overcomer." ~ Paul Billheimer

“After you have met God in the secret place you are ready to meet men in the market place. Keep the order straight: speak to God about men, and then speak to men about God.” ~ Bill Bathman

Elevating Self

"If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself." ~ Oswald Chambers

“What is being depicted to individuals is a ‘user-friendly’ God who will smile benignly down upon their lifestyles of choice, as they continue to live as they like.” ~ Greg Laurie

How To Be Content (Even Though...)

"A soul occupied with great ideas best performs small duties." ~ Harriet Martineau

"The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one has to do." ~ J.M. Barrie

I Need A Band-Aid

“Pure Christian humility is silent about the sins of others, or speaks of them with grief and pity. The spiritually proud person finds fault with other saints for their lack of progress in grace, while the humble Christian sees so much evil in his own heart, and is so concerned about it, that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts.

One under the influence of spiritual pride is more apt to instruct others than to ask questions. Such a person naturally puts on the airs of a master. The eminently humble Christian thinks he needs help from everybody, whereas the spiritually proud person thinks everybody needs his help. Christian humility entreats and
beseeches, spiritual pride commands and warns with authority.”

~ Jonathon Edwards

Pride, especially spiritual pride, has really been on my heart and mind lately. I wanted to write about it more, but this thought says it all. No extra words necessary, except... OUCH!

The Determinator

"God is God. I dethrone Him in my heart if I demand that He act in ways that satisfy my idea of justice." ~ Elisabeth Elliot

"Right is still right even if no one is doing it, and wrong is still wrong even if everyone is doing it." ~ Chuck Swindoll

Grace and Needs Collide

This thought is not my own, but John Piper brought it to my attention. I had never noticed or thought about it before, but it pertains to some verses in Philippians 4. Since I memorized that chapter, insight into verses I chew on all day long highly interests me!

It’s the same as the other biblical promise: “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). This promise is clarified in the preceding words: “In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:12-13).

It says we can do “all things” through Christ. But notice “all things” includes “hungering” and “needing.” God will meet every real need, including the ability to rejoice in suffering when many felt needs do not get met. God will meet every real need, including the need for grace to hunger when the felt need for food is not met. The suffering and death of Christ guarantee that God will give us all things that we need to do his will and to give him glory and to attain everlasting joy.

This is eye-opening for me! I have always thought that verse 19 referred to all my felt needs, too. I never thought to look back earlier in the chapter for clarification. And just yesterday I read about a missionary starving to death, while reveling in the goodness of God.

Again: God will give us all things that we need to do his will.

Grace covers me.

Get An Edge

“No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.” ~ Atwood H. Townsend

“The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” ~ Mark Twain

Knowing Jesus

I love quotes – don’t you? Short, thought-provoking, and to-the-point.

So, on Wednesdays, I will share one or two that impacted me over the past week.

“[In Egypt], our theology is the theology of pain. It is not a theology of prosperity. We don’t know the theology of prosperity, but we know Jesus.” ~ Egyptian Believer

“The promises of the little kingdom [our agenda, our desires] will always fail. They will always leave me coming up short, because the spiritual oxygen that my heart needs to breathe can only be found in the Lord. Achievement, acceptance, appearance, and possessions may give you identity, meaning, and purpose for awhile. But they will enslave you in the process and disappoint you in the end.” ~ Paul David Tripp