This Is Not the End, But It Is the Road

Reading the Letter, Thomas Bennington Kensington, 1884

This encouragement came through the mail yesterday, but was just opened today, on such a morning as I needed it most. Part of a bulk mailing, but a balm to my spirit as I've felt my shortcomings weighing heavily the past couple of days. I share it in hopes that perhaps it will be a balm to your own spirit as well. Keep looking heavenward and homeward, dear one.

This life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be but we are growing toward it. The process is not yet finished but it is going on. This is not the end but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory but all is being purified. ~ Martin Luther

Keep Silence, O My Soul

If I cannot keep silence over a disappointing soul 

(unless for the sake of that soul's good 

or for the good of others it be necessary to speak), 

then I know nothing of Calvary love.

~ Amy Carmichael

(from her little book If, based on her meditations on 1 Corinthians 13)

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me and know my anxious thoughts;

And see if there be any hurtful way in me,

And lead me in the everlasting way.

~ Psalm 139:23-24

Looking Out the Window

It seems that when God has His finger on an area of my life that I come up against it pretty consistently. I've been discouraged lately about something that I'd thought had been conquered. Not so. Disappointment struck again, and I've been dwelling on it far too much--which digs a deeper disappointment ditch.

I read Lost in the Middle / Midlife and the Grace of God by Paul David Tripp not long ago, and God used it to lift me to much higher ground. But I have much further to go.  He uses His Word over and over again to give me more understanding of His grace and comfort. How to respond to disappointments and deferred hope?

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,...  Proverbs 13:12a

How do we find encouragement in discouragement? How do we keep from turning inward and missing God's grace? First, we draw closer to God. Instead of pulling away because we don't feel His presence, we need to draw closer to Him so we can walk through trials with Him. We need to pursue Him. We also need to follow Paul's example in his distress. He turned his eyes away from his personal affliction and rejoiced in the evidence of the faith of those he loved.

But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always think kindly of us, longing to see us just as we also long to see you; for this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith; ....  For what thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God on your account, as we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face, and may complete what is lacking in your faith? Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you.      ~ 1 Thessalonians 3:6-11

As I heard it expressed some time ago, I need to stop looking in the mirror and start looking out the window. In other words, stop focusing on myself and look more intently on others, rejoicing in the evidence of their faith and love. Let them be reminders that God is actively working in the lives of His children. I may not see Him at work in my own situation at the moment, but that doesn't mean He isn't at work. It just means that I don't see it. My sight may be impaired for whatever reason--sin, discouragement, or God's choice. For whatever reason, He wants me to trust His heart even though I don't see His hand.

There's another phrase in this passage that strikes me as well-- that you always think kindly of us, longing to see us just as we also long to see you. We can encourage others by letting them know that we think kindly of them and long to see them, that there's something about them that we appreciate.

There's a third aspect of encouragement and joy here as well... "as we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face, and may complete what is lacking in your faith? Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you."  It's important to be together, so much so that the Apostle Paul says he prays day and night for it--most earnestly prays. But hope deferred makes the heart sick. Yes, but Proverbs go on to say

... but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12b

So, I ask myself--Am I showing my care and concern about others? Do I let them know that I think kindly of them? (Just thinking it doesn't count.) Do I let them know what I appreciate about them? Do I let people know that I'm truly glad to see them? Do I let them know that I've missed them when they're gone? Do I even notice when they're gone? Am I allowing the evidence of their faith to encourage me in mine? Am I getting my care and concern off myself? Do I pray--day and night-- that we'll eventually be together? Which do I do more often--gaze in the mirror or look out the window?

Painting ~ Waiting By The Window, Carl Holsoe 1863-1935
via Wikimedia Commons public domain

Once Again

Beginning afresh. The intention of my blogging is to bring glory to God through sharing how His mercy and grace endureth forever....as He leads me homeward and upward....and perhaps to encourage another soul. So ... a new blog today to begin the new year.

The following from J.R. Miller encourages me to carry on in my brief earthly course, the beginning of my endless existence.

"It is life's largeness which most discourages earnest and conscientious people. As they think deeply of life's meaning and responsibility, they are apt to be overwhelmed by the thought of its vastness. Life has manifold, almost infinite, relations toward God and toward man. Each of these relations has its binding duties. Every life has a divine mission to fulfill—a plan of God to work out.

"Every individual life must be lived amid countless antagonisms, and in the face of countless perils. Battles must be fought, trials encountered, and sorrows endured.

"Also, the brief earthly course—is but the beginning of an endless existence, whose immortal destinies hinge upon fidelity in the present life.

"Looked at in this way, as a whole, there is something almost appalling in the thought of our responsibility in living.

"Many a person who thinks of life in this aspect, and sees it in its wholeness, has not the courage to hope for success and victory—but stands staggered, well-near paralyzed, on the threshold. Despair comes to many a heart when either duty or sorrow or danger is looked at—in the aggregate.

"But this is not the way we should view life. It does not come to us all in one piece. We do not get it even in years—but only in days—day by day. We look on before us, and as we count up the long years with their duties, struggles, and trials—and the bulk is like a mountain which no mortal can carry. But really, we never have more than:
  one day's battles to fight, or
  one day's work to do, or
  one day's burdens to bear, or 
  one day's sorrow to endure,
in any one day.

"It is wonderful how the Bible gives emphasis to this way of viewing life. When for forty years God fed His chosen people with bread from heaven, He never gave them, except on the morning before the Sabbath, more than one day's portion at a time. He positively forbade them gathering more than would suffice for the day; and if they should violate His command, what they gathered above the daily portion, would become corrupt. Thus early, God began to teach His people to live only by the day—and trust Him for tomorrow.

"At the close of the forty years, the promise given to one of the tribes was, 'As your days—so shall your strength be.' Deuteronomy 33:25. Strength was not promised in advance—enough for all of life, or even for a year, or for a month—but the promise was, that for each day, when it came with its own needs, duties, battles and griefs—enough strength would be given. As the burden increased—more strength would be imparted.

"The important thought here is, that strength is not emptied into our hearts in bulk—a supply for years to come—but is kept in reserve, and given day by day, just as the day's needs require.

"When Christ came, He gave still further emphasis to the same method of living. He said, "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today!" Matthew 6:34. He would have us fence off the days by themselves, and never look over the fence to think about tomorrow's cares.

"The thought is, that each day is, in a certain sense—a complete life by itself. It has . . .
  its own duties,
  its own trials,
  its own burdens,
  its own needs.
"It has enough to fill our heart and hands for the one full day. The very best we can do for any day, for the perfecting of our life as a whole—is to live the one day well. We should put all our thought and energy and skill into the duty of each day, wasting no strength—either in grieving over yesterday's failures, or in anxiety about tomorrow's responsibilities.

"Our Lord, also, in the form of prayer which He gave his disciples, taught this lesson of living only by the day. There He has told us to ask for bread—for one day only. "Give us this day our daily bread." He again teaches us that we have to do only with the present day. We do not need tomorrow's bread now. When we need it—it will be soon enough to ask God for it, and get it. It is the 'manna lesson' over again. God is caring for us, and we are to trust Him for the supply of all our needs—as they press upon us. We are to trust Him, content to have only enough in hand for the day.

"If we can but learn to thus live by the day, without anxiety about the future—the burden will not be so crushing. We have nothing to do with life in the aggregate—that great bulk of duties, responsibilities, struggles, and trials—which belong to a course of years. We really have nothing to do even with the nearest of the days before us—tomorrow. Our sole business is with the one little day, now passing. Its burdens will not crush us—we can easily carry them until the sun goes down. We can always get along for one short day. It is the projection of life into the long future, which dismays and appalls us."

   J.R. Miller "Living by the Day" from GraceGems

Painting--Pensive, Roger Joseph Jordan
1845-1918
public domain