From Streams in the Desert, January 18th

If there is a great trial in your life today, do not acknowledge it as defeat. Instead continue by faith to claim the victory through Him who is able to make you "more than conquerors" (Romans 8:37), and a glorious victory will soon be apparent. May we learn that in all the difficult places God takes us (or allows us to go), He is giving us opportunities to exercise our faith in Him that will bring about blessed results and greatly glorify His name.

Only the soul that knows the mighty grief
Can know the mighty rapture. Sorrows come
To stretch out spaces in the heart for joy.

From Streams in the Desert, January 16th

A furious squall came up. (Mark 4:37)

Some of life's storms- a great sorrow, a bitter disappointment, a crushing defeat- suddenly come upon us. Others may come slowly, appearing on the uneven edge of the horizon no larger than a person's hand. But trouble that seems so insignificant spreads until it covers the sky and overwhelms us.

Yet it is in the storms that God equips us for service. When God wants an oak tree, He plants it where the storms will shake it and the rains will beat down upon it. It is in the midnight battle with the elements that the oak develops its rugged fiber and becomes the king of the forest.

When God wants to make a person He puts Him into some storm. The history of humankind has always been rough and rugged. No one is complete until he has been out into the surge of the storm and has found the glorious fulfillment of the prayer "O God, take me, break me, make me."

The beauties of nature come after the storm. The rugged beauty of the mountain is born in a storm, and the heroes of life are the storm-swept and battle-scarred.

You have been in the storms and swept by the raging winds. Have they left you broken, weary, and beaten in the valley or have they lifted you to the sunlit summits of a richer, deeper, more abiding manhood or womanhood? Have they left you with more sympathy for the storm-swept and the battle-scarred?

The oriental shepherd always walked ahead of his sheep. He was always out in front. Any attack upon the sheep had to take him into account first. Now God is out in front. He is in our tomorrows, and it is tomorrow that fills people with fear. Yet God is already there. All the tomorrows of our life have to pass through Him before they can get to us.- F.B. Meyer

God is in every tomorrow,
Therefore I live for today,
Certain of finding at sunrise,
Guidance and strength for my way;
Power for each moment of weakness,
Hope for each moment of pain,
Comfort for every sorrow,
Sunshine and joy after rain.

My Mom

I have missed my mom more in the last few weeks than I have in years. Oh, I miss her. There are times I lament over the fact that I never really knew her. I didn't know her favorite color, or even her eye color for that matter. I have very few pictures of her. I miss that my children have never had a grandmother that picked them up from school, stayed with them when they were sick, took them out and bought them an ice cream. I was 9 when Mom died and I missed a lot of mothering but my kids have never had a doting grandmother.

I question God, why couldn't things be different? Sorrow truly overwhelms me right now. I am desperately sad. But even in this sadness, I know...surely...I know...God has bigger things in store for what is causing me to miss my mom. I can hardly handle the situation. God has and is stripping away many things not of Him. I don't like WHO I am and how I behave because of this situation. It's like everything has turned me upside down and inside out.

I am the type I avoid whatever the situation is causing me so much inner chaos. This particular situation I do not speak of unless I have to. I am filled with such despair over it that I will not even put it out publicly what is going on. It's not a bad thing. To some it's wonderful. To me...I am horrified of the great change coming. And yes, it is coming. To some it's so silly how I am reacting. I know that I am not allowing Jesus to live in and through me.

I miss my mom. Why couldn't my mom and dad have a long married life together? Why couldn't we be celebrating their 40th anniversary this year instead of the 31st anniversary of her death? Why?

I am stronger than this because I have true Strength inside of me. I know I am letting my feelings and emotions overwhelm me. I know I am not fixing my eyes on Jesus but on the circumstance. I know all of that. But right now, I just WANT to mourn and miss my mom and what could have been.

January 10th- Streams in the Desert by L.B. Cowman

Paul and his companions...[were] kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. (Acts 16:16)

It is interesting to study the way God extended His guidance to these early messengers of the Cross. It consisted mainly in prohibiting their movement when they attempted to take a course other than the right one. When they wanted to turn to the left, toward Asia, He stopped them. When they sought to turn to the right, toward Bithynia in Asia Minor, He stopped them again. In his later years, Paul would do some of his greatest work in that very region, yet now the door was closed before him by the Holy Spirit. The time was not yet ripe for the attack of these apparently impregnable bastions of the kingdom of Satan. Apollos needed to go there first to lay the groundwork. Paul and Barnabas were needed more urgently elsewhere and required further training before undertaking this responsible task.

Beloved, whenever you are in doubt as to which way to turn, submit your judgment absolutely to the Spirit of God, asking Him to shut every door but the right one. Say to Him, "Blessed Spirit, I give to You the entire responsibility of closing every road and stopping every step that is not of God. Let me hear Your voice behind me whenever I 'turn aside to the right or to the left' [Deut. 5:32]."

In the meantime, continue along the path you have already been traveling. Persist in your calling until you are clearly told to do something else. O traveler, the Spirit of Jesus is waiting to be to you what He was to Paul. Just be careful to obey even the smallest nudging or warning. Then after you have prayed the prayer of faith and there are no apparent hindrances, go forward with a confident heart. Do not be surprised if your answer comes in doors closing before you. But when doors are shut to the right and to the left, an open road is sure to lead to Troas. Luke waits for you there, and visions will point the way to where vast opportunities remain open, and faithful friends are waiting. from Paul, by F.B. Meyer

Is there some problem in your life to solve,
Some passage seeming full of mystery?
God knows, who brings the hidden things to light.
He keeps the key.

Is there some door closed by the Father's hand
Which widely opened you had hoped to see?
Trust God and wait- for when He shuts the door
He keeps the key.

Is there some earnest prayer unanswered yet,
or answered NOT as you had thought 'twould be?
God will make clear His purposes by and by.
He keeps the key.

Have patience with your God, your patient God,
All wise, all knowing, no long lingerer He,
And of the door of all your future life,
He keeps the key.

Unfailing comfort, sweet and blessed rest.
To know of EVERY door He keeps the key.
That He at last when just HE sees is best,
Will give it THEE.

Anonymous

The "Exchanged" Life

Association of Exchanged Life Ministries
Promoting awareness of the Believer’s Liberated Life in Christ

Did you realize that the "Exchanged Life"...
• is not a new teaching.
• is not sinless perfection.
• is not a life of passivity.
• is not a self-help teaching.
• is not an undisciplined life.
• is not a second work of grace.
• is not a counseling technique.
• is not an improved "old man."
• is not in any way deifying man.
• is not instant change in behavior.
• is not a formula for self to imitate Christ.
• is not peace through changed circumstances.
• is not dying to self (wiping out our personality).
• is not a guarantee that circumstances will improve.
• is not overlooking or approving sinful behavior (promoting license).
• is not a guarantee that emotions will line up consistently with truth.

Entire surrender to Jesus is the secret of perfect rest. Giving up one's whole life to Him, for Him alone to rule and order it; submitting to be led and taught, to learn of Him; abiding in Him, to be and do only what He wills- these are the conditions of discipleship without which there can be no thought of maintaining the rest that was bestowed on first coming to Christ. The rest is in Christ and not something He gives apart from Himself, and so it is only in having Him that the rest can really be kept and enjoyed.-

Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ