The road behind, the road beneath and the road beyond.
God wants to use me-stumbling and all - but He won't do so if I refuse to get up.
We are misfits like Jephthah ( Judges 11:1-3), but God in His grace loved us just the way He found us. He chose to reveal Jephthah's life to everyone who read His word but He chooses to hide ours so none would ever know what colossal misfit we are.
The people who succeed is not the one who holds back, fearing failure, nor the one who never fails but rather the one who moves on in spite of failure. Not failure but low aim is crime.
God asks that we believe Him regardless of the risk-in spite of the danger-ignoring the odds. Ancient Jericho was defeated because Joshua and his troops defied the "normal procedure" of battle. Paul and a few companions kept getting back up after being knocked down. Peter's two letters are in the book because he refuses to live in the shadow of his bad track record. Great accomplishment are often attempted but only occasionally reached. What is interesting (and encouraging) is that those who reach them are usually those who missed many times before. Failures are only temporary taste to prepare us for permanent triumphs.
"We all stumble in many ways." James 3:2
Stumblers who give up are a dime and a dozen. In fact they are useless.
Stumblers who get up are as rare as rubies. In fact they are priceless.
If finding God's way in the suddenness of storm makes our faith grow broad, then trusting God's wisdom in the dailyness of living makes it grow deep.
The way of the Lord is in the whirlwind and in the storm…..Nahum 1:3
Life too has its storm. The whirlwind of disease, disaster and death! Storms of interruption, irritation and ill treatment! The director of the Heaven & Earth oversees every act, every scene and every line.
Life is literally filled with God -appointed storms. But two things should comfort us.
1. This squalls surges across everyone's horizon. God has no favorite actors who always get the leading role.
2. We all need them. God has no other method more effective. The massive blows and shattering blasts smooth us, humble us and compel us to submit to His script and His chosen, role for our lives.
God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable mines of never-failing skills. He treasures up his bright designs, and works His sovereign will.
Life is very daily. The tests that comes like a flash and last no longer than a dash seldom do more than bring a brief crash. But the marathons -the relentless, incessant, persistent continual tests that won't go away- these are the ones that bruise but built character.
Since virtue is not hereditary, God dispenses His test of manna to each saint in each generation, watching to see if there will be a heavenly appetite to accept a heavenly food. If finding God's way in the suddenness of storms makes our faith grows broad, then trusting God's wisdom in the "daily ness" of living makes it grows deeper and stronger.
Whatever may be your circumstances - how long it may have lasted - where ever you may be today, remember, the stronger the winds, the deeper the roots and the longer the winds, the more beautiful the tree.
God is pleased with our wise management of time and intelligent planning from day to day. He is particularly concerned with the development of inner character. He charts growth towards maturity concerning Himself with the cultivation of priceless, attractive qualities that make us Christlike down deep within. One of His preferred methods of training us is through adjustment to irritation.
Pearls are the product of pain. For some unknown reason, the shell of the oyster gets pierced and an alien substances - a grain of sand - steps inside. On the entry of that foreign irritant, all the resources within the tiny, sensitive oyster rush to the spot and begin to release healing fluids that otherwise would have remained dormant. By and by the irritant is covered and the wound is healed-by a pearl. No other gem has so fascinating a history. It is the symbol of stress-a healed wound -a precious, tiny jewel conceived through irritation, born of adversity, nursed by adjustment. Had there been no wounding, no irritating interruption, there could have been no pearl. Some oysters are never wounded….and those who seek for gems toss them aside, fit only for stew.
It is this love that arranges our tomorrows and we may be certain that whatever it brings, His love sent it our way.
In the book of James : Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.
What is perspective? It is related to the way we view something. One who views life through perspective lenses has the capacity to see things in their true relations or relative importance. He scopes in on the big picture. He distinguishes the incidental from the essential, the temporary from the eternal, the partial from the whole, the tree from the forest. In many ways what we see in our past and visualize in our future determines how we view ourselves today, right now and the present.
Life is short. Psalm 90 flashes the truth again and again.
Life is uncertain. Our lives are merely vapor that appears then vanish. So looking to the present, we discover "life is challenging, because it is short." Every moment presents challenging possibilities. This is the perspective that keeps people young. It is also the path leads to optimism and motivation. Don't ever stop living and learning in life.
One of the marks of spiritual maturity is the quiet confidence that God is in control, without the need to understand why He does what He does.
