I've started reading
The Normal Christian Life, a book written by the Chinese preacher, writer, and martyr Watchman Nee. This paragraph is one that I think God wants me to pause and "absorb" a bit. A bad habit of mine is to read these things, sense God prompting my heart to stop and listen to His Spirit speak through the author, but move on too quickly.
"If we give ourselves unreservedly to God, many adjustments may have to be made: in family, or business, or church relationships, or in the matter of our personal views. God will not let anything of ourselves remain. His finger will touch, point by point, everything that is not of Him, and will say "This must go." Are you willing? It is foolish to resist God, and always wise to submit to Him. We admit that many of us still have controversies with the Lord. He wants something, while we want something else. Many things we dare not look into, dare not pray about, dare not even think about, lest we lose our peace. We can evade the issue in that way, but to do so will bring us out of the will of God. It is always an easy matter to get out of His will, but it is a blessed thing just to hand ourselves over to Him and let Him have His way with us.
How good it is to have the consciousness that we belong to the Lord and are not our own! There is nothing more precious in the world. It is that which brings the awareness of His continual presence, and the reason is obvious. I must first have the sense of God's possession of me before I can have the sense of His presence with me."
I know you are leaving this weekend. I pray that God will richly bless you as you move to Alaska. It is a rather wonderful paragraph to sit and ponder. Continue to be sensitive to God's calling. Sometimes God does
ReplyDeleteask us to make adjustments that we don't understand but in order to grow closer to Him we adhere to them as He wills us to. Good luck. Keep up your blog. It is such a joy to read. Love You.
Dear Dani,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great paragraph you quoted from this book!! I love this sentence....."it is a blessed thing just to hand ourselves over to Him and let Him have His way with us." WOW!! Again, I will miss you, friend, but my prayers go with you!! Keep encouraged in Jesus!! Love you lots, Shiek :o)) Mrs. Pastor
love this post....dani, will you please take the mug apart and color copy it for me and put the copy in?? it is sooooooo bugging me! i will pay you for the copy cost. if you decide to do this, when you take out the original will you please flatten down the bent edges before copying? if they look white on the edge you could use a black marker. i think once copied all of the bent edges will not even show. of course this is in your spare alaska time..... ;o) or, just bring it back with you if you guys come to ohio for car's surgery and I WILL FIX IT!! i just want her present to be nice.
ReplyDeleteEsp. like that last sentence. How we need His presence! I'm so glad to know you're back in Alaska. What a precious sister you are!! Blessings.
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