Living Life for Christ Alone

"Much-Afraid shrank back. 'I am afraid,' she said. 'I have been told that if you really love someone you give that loved one the power to hurt and pain you in a way nothing else can.' "'That is true,' agreed the Shepherd. 'To love does mean to put yourself into the power of the loved one and to become very vulnerable to pain, and you are very Much-Afraid of pain, are you not?' "She nodded miserably and then said shamefacedly, 'yes, very much afraid of it.' "'But it is so happy to love,' said the Shepherd quietly. 'It is happy to love even if you are not loved in return. There is pain too, certainly, but Love does not think that very significant.' ... "'...Love and Pain go together, for a time at least. If you would know Love, you must know pain too.'"  -Hinds Feet on High places // "...If you would know love, you must know pain too." How close to home this phrase hits.  It is painful...

“God is our Refuge and Strength; a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1) “For what great Nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him?” Deut 4:7   Is there anyone outside the people of God who has Him so near as we do? What Godless, Christless person has God so near as the child of God? This is what makes followers of Christ stand out from the rest of the world –God is available to us for the most minute of need. God is as near to us as each breath of air we breathe.   "Why," You ask? Have you never thought of the fact that a true, loving earthly father cannot forsake his children? How much more then can a heavenly, perfect Father who is better than the best father we can imagine or know on this earth be unshakably faithful to those He has bought and adopted as His own? He bought us with a high price, and He did not buy us in order to throw us away or forsake us.   Oh soul, He is always closer...

“Princes also sit and speak against me, but Your servant meditates on Your statutes. Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.” -Psalm 119:23-24   How do we cultivate inner calm when circumstances bully us? Meditating on God’s word, delighting in it, listening to the wisdom of it, recognizing that it was God who spoke it, thus it is His heart we hear when we pay attention to it... this is how we steer our souls into our peaceful Refuge that can’t be shaken by life’s circumstances. God desires to be to His children a secret haven where our souls take shelter in the middle of life’s worst difficulties. While princes speak evil of us, while life turns upside down, while wind and the waves beat against us, we hide in this Haven and delight in the words He speaks. While we experience the worst of this fallen world, our souls can taste the best of what heaven has- God Himself breathing heavenly life into us by means of His word. Can it get any better? We have a strong, secu...

"Oh God, do you even love me?" The question escaped my lips before I could even begin to think how "unchristian" it was. The darkness seemed to envelop my vision and I could not see the One I was speaking to... was He even there? How could He be when I felt so far from Him?  ...No, He couldn't be. Desperately, I looked around me, looking for solace, but the wind kept blowing, the waves kept beating against me, threatening to knock me down.  "What is He doing?" I asked myself. 

This morning in my time with the Lord, my eye caught a couple of verses that always touch me, I had underlined them, but I knew it was time to return to them again and take up meditating on them again... Psalm 91:1-2 (NLT) "Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God, and I trust in Him."  I had to look at it in KJV too: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust."   I knew it was for me this morning. God wanted to tell me something, so I went to writing in my notebook what He began to show me as I meditated on it: