Thoughts for Life: WHEN IS IT UNLIKELY that YOU'LL MISS GOD'S WILL?

WHEN IS IT UNLIKELY that YOU'LL MISS GOD'S WILL?

Wesley L. Duewel

"It is unlikely that you will miss God's will-

When your will is wholly surrendered to God.
When you are filled and controlled by the Spirit.
When you walk in God's light as fully as you understand it.
When you are reading God's Word extensively and endeavoring to conform your life to it.
When you have been actively seeking to develop the mind of Christ in all your atitudes.
When you seek to maintain a listening ear toward God.
When you gladly take time waiting on God for His guidance.
When you are teachable and always ready to listen to or consider what mature and spiritual counselors say.
When you seek to maintain a tender conscience.
When you keep alert to providential circumstances and open to any step of faith and obedience that God makes clear."

Let's pray-

Father, we are learning to submit to Your Spirit's directions, to conform our lives to listen to what is Your will for us. Help us maintain a listening ear and take time to wait upon Your Spirit to make clear what Your will is.
May we be teachable and ready to listen to good counselors who advise us with their wisdom and experience. May we maintain a tender conscience, being willing to obey what You make clear is Your will.
We pray this to honor Christ, and for our own good too. Amen.

#77 Testimony- Without a Scratch

The power of Jesus' blood was vividly demonstrated one day when we were traveling in Canada. We had as passengers a young married couple whom we were bringing back to Toronto with us.

We had told them about the wonderful truths concerning pleading the blood of Jesus. Little did we know, as we drove along in the rain, that God had a plan whereby we were going to demonstrate this truth to save our lives.

Coming over a rise on the road, we hit some bad potholes. The back wheels, which were under coiled springs, went into a bounce. The car literally jigged and skidded to the wrong side of the road, completely out of control.

Before us we could see three cars approaching at about 60 M.P.H., and we were powerless to avoid a terrible crash. Immedieately we started to plead the blood of Jesus out loud.

Our friends in the backseat, who had been sound asleep, suddenly awoke, realizing that something was wrong. It seemed that an angel of the Lord then took over. The back wheels suddenly gripped and stopped bouncing, and the car returned to the right side of the road and went off the pavement with the front wheels down in a grassy ditch.

We thought we could possible pull out of the ditch and back onto the road. But the grass was too soft due to the rain, and we found that we were stuck. What now? We were safe, we were alive, but we were stuck.

So God still had more to do on behalf of His servants. He had said, "Call upon me on the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me" (Psalm 50:15). So we did this, and almost immediately two men drove up in an old car.

We said nothing, but one of them said, "We will pull you out." They put action to their words and pulled us safely out of the ditch. We were safely delivered from death, without a scratch on our bodies or our car. Why? The blood of Jesus covered us because we put it there by faith! (pp. 72-74 of H.A. Maxwell Whyte's book, The Power of the Blood)

1411- 1415 One-line Scriptures for those of you who want to learn some more verses this week- or to review them from when they were first posted-

1411- Pro. 20:15 "There is gold, and a multitude of rubies: but the lips of knowledge

are a precious jewel."

1412- Ecc. 9:18a "Wisdom is better than weapons of war."

1413- Luke 21:27 "And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with

power and great glory."

1414- Jer. 6:27 "I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people."

1415- Pro. 29:22a "An angry man stirreth up strife."

#77 Hymn- Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus

The information about this song, is taken from the book by Robert J. Morgan, THEN SINGS MY SOUL (p. 211)

How fitting that a missionary should write this hymn about faith and trust. Lousia M. R. Stead was born about 1850 in Dover, England, and became a Christian at age nine. She felt a burden to become a missionary in her teenage years.

When she was 21 or so, she immigrated to the United States and attended a revival meeting in Urbana, Ohio. There the Lord deeply impressed her with a ringing missionary call.

She married a man named Stead. He drowned off the coast of Long Island, saving his daughter, Lily. Shortly afterward, taking little Lily, Lousia went to South Africa as a missionary, and it was there during those days she wrote, "Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus."

Inspirational notes from INTO HIS PRESENCE

Dr. Fancis J. Sizer:

"Each person has an eternal value and worth that goes beyod whatever else is in creation.

The sacredness of why we are here must impregnate our relationship with God, each other, and our earth.

For our prayers to be answered by God, we must be in a proper relationship with God.

The change to our character emerges when we spend time in the Holy Place.

Character must be developed on the journey in order to carry the presence of the Lord's power.

We must die to the flesh and its fallen nature of sin in order to be transformed in the power of His resurrection. The leap of faith sets our feet on a journey directed toward a relationship with God.

It is the presence of God that makes the difference in the life of a believer."

(pp. of INTO HIS PRESENCE, by Dr. Francis J. Sizer)

Some encouraging words-

"Desire for things always leads to desire for more things. Praise to God leads to faith in Him and to happiness that money can never buy. Praise leads to solutions that work. Praise leads to a way of life that builds on a firm foundation that cannot be blown over by adversity." (Merlin Carothers)

Upcoming posts:

22nd- AMAZING GRACE- Mary Southerland

29th- NEW YEAR, NEW YOU- Lilka Raphael

4/5- GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD- Jacie Conley