Thank God for Difficulties – Part 3

If you recall the last time we looked at

2. Thank God for His strength in our weakness!

“Enter you in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in there at: 14) Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it”. Matthews 7:13-14

      "If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. Do we so appreciate the marvelous salvation of Jesus Christ that we are our utmost for His highest?

       "God saves men by His sovereign grace through the Atonement of Jesus; He works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure; but we have to work out that salvation in practical living. If once we start on the basis of His Redemption to do what He commands, we find that we can do it. If we fail, it is because we have not practiced. The crisis will reveal whether we have been practicing or not.

       "If we obey the Spirit of God and practice in our physical life what God has put in us by His Spirit, then when the crisis comes, we shall find that our own nature as well as the grace of God will stand by us. Thank God He does give us difficult things to do! ... Jesus is bringing many 'sons unto glory,' and God will not shield us from the requirements of a son. ...  It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to live the noble life of a disciple of Jesus in actual things."

Next Time we will look at:

4. Thank God we belong to Him!

In Everything Give Thanks – Part 2

 "Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."   1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

      Only by His wonderful grace can we see from His perspective, rejoice always, and continually give thanks. Only by His life in us can we walk in humility and live together in the victory of His cross.  Only by His Spirit in us can we obey His Word and follow His ways. Therefore we can thank Him -- not only for the sunny days and happy moments -- but even more for those things that show us our need and draw us closer to Him:

If you recall the last time we looked at
 1. Thank God For Salvation.

Today we look at:

2. Thank God for His strength in our weakness! 

"All my fresh springs shall be in You." Psalm 87:7

     "Our Lord never patches up our natural virtues; He remakes the whole man on the inside. ... The life God plants in us develop its own virtues, not the virtues of Adam but of Jesus Christ. Watch how God will wither up your confidence in natural virtues after sanctification, and in any power you have, until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus.

     "Thank God if you are going through a drying-up experience! The sign that God is at work in us is that He corrupts confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but remnants of what God created man to be. We will cling to the natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us into contact with the life of Jesus Christ which can never be described in terms of the natural virtues.

      "It is the saddest thing to see people in the service of God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them, depending on what they have by the accident of heredity. God does not build up our natural virtues and transfigure them, because our natural virtues can never come anywhere near what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every bit of our bodily life into harmony with the new life which God has put in us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that are characteristic of the Lord Jesus."

Next Time we will look at:

3. Thank God for difficulties!

In Everything Give Thanks

"Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."   1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

        

Only by His wonderful grace can we see from His perspective, rejoice always, and continually give thanks. Only by His life in us can we walk in humility and live together in the victory of His cross.  Only by His Spirit in us can we obey His Word and follow His ways. Therefore we can thank Him -- not only for the sunny days and happy moments -- but even more for those things that show us our need and draw us closer to Him:

1. Thank God for our Salvation

"By the grace of God I am what I am His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain."

1 Corinthians 15: 10

      "The way we continually talk about our own inability is an insult to the Creator. ... Get into the habit of examining in the sight of God the things that sound humble before men, and you will be amazed at how staggeringly impertinent they are. ‘Oh, I shouldn’t like to say I am sanctified; I’m not a saint.’ Say that before God; and it means—‘No, Lord, it is impossible for You to save and sanctify me; there are chances I have not had; so many imperfections in my brain and body; no, Lord, it isn’t possible.’ That may sound wonderfully humble before men, but before God it is an attitude of defiance.

      "Again, the things that sound humble before God may sound the opposite before men. To say—‘Thank God, I know I am saved and sanctified,’ is in the sight of God the acme of humility, it means you have so completely abandoned yourself to God that you know He is true. Never bother your head as to whether what you say sounds humble before men or not, but always be humble before God, and let Him be all in all."

Next Time we will look at:

2. Thanking God for His Strength in our Weakness!