My, what fun. I pasted some text from last week's Piper entry into Wordle, a fun little site to play with sent to me by a friend. I keep getting distracted by the tacky capital G, but don't let it bother you. You can change fonts, colors, and layout at will. I'm finding that just about anything that distracts me from my daily worries is welcome right now! I keep turning to a good book that I stole from my husband entitled Pure Joy. Here's a little bit that encourages me this week:
If...it is a greater anointing I truly want, and I wake up with one big enormous trial before me, I should grasp it with both hands! I must consider this trial pure joy! This is because the trial is a fairly strong hint from the Lord Jesus that I am going to receive the anointing for which I long. He knows what I want more than anything, so if he sends a trial or testing my way, then I have every reason to believe that the anointing I long for is coming if I dignify the trial at hand...
You may be disappointed at first that only perseverance seems to be the immediate goal of dignifying the trial. "I wanted more than that out of all I've been going through," you may honestly say or feel. I understand this. But perseverance is the gateway to what is right and achievable. It is the next step forward—the link to a brilliant future. God does not lead us from A to Z, but from A to B. During the trial, the immediate need is perseverance, or patience...it is not the main goal. It is not the ultimate goal. But it is what enables you to reach the goal that James envisiages: "Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." This means a peace and contentment so vast and so profound that you no longer crave what you once thought was so important to you. James sees a time ahead for the person who dignifies the trial that will mean indescribable peace, the highest level of anointing, the soul uncluttered by greed, and a heart filled with the very presence of God.
1 comment:
Wow. This is so good. We can be so short-sighted! I don't want the trial, just the ultimate goal...and right now. :) I was reading in Joshua recently where God tells Joshua exactly how he's going to vanquish his enemies and I was so jealous. Why doesn't God do that for me? But I guess that's what He's done in His word and my wants are so superficial that I can't see that He's already accomplished the only work that matters!
Andrea F.
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