Oh, how He longs to Gather

It is pathetic the number of people who are piously trying to make their poor human hearts love God! The Holy Spirit sheds abroad in my heart, not the power to love God, but the very nature of God; A saint is not a human being who is trying to be good, trying by effort and prayer and longing and obedience to attain as many saintly characteristics as possible; a saint  is a being who has been re-created. “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.” -Oswald Chambers, Biblical Psychology

After much deliberation, I think I have maybe understood a fraction of what Mr. Chambers is here saying. We do not love God by trying; it is through our knowledge of who He is and the understanding of what He has done for us that makes us love Him. Isn’t it 1 John 4:19- “We love [Him] because He first loved us,” and so it is our realization, and our dependence upon the fact, that grows in us a love for the Savior. If we just sit and twiddle our thumbs and pray that the love for God would move mightily in us I have a suspicion that God laughs. We have to seek His face. And if we seek His face with all our heart, He will come to us – He will rejoice and gather us like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! -Matthew 23:37

The Stirring of this Summer Wind

No one can do the things that God does; within His hand and His love are mercies overflowing. He never has forced His love upon human hearts, and He never will; salvation was given as a gift, and it will always stay a gift. There are times when my heart is not satisfied with the life that I’m living; it’s not satisfied with the house I live in, or the clothes I wear, or the place that I’m in; but, you see, those are all material things – I’m not focused on His face, and His love. All these good things He’s given me – all these beautiful moments and secret joys; all these still twilights and robin’s songs. And then I think – it flashed across my mind’s eye like lightning – like the gentle, cool stirring of this summer wind, of the grace and love He has so richly lavished upon me; of this peace and joy, like a tiny plant, emerging from the soil of my heart. His arms carry me when my legs are too weak to stand; His body shields me when the storms rage around me. I’m so thankful; how can I not be happy?

I Will Not Fear

→Psalm 3
↓v. 3-6: But you, oh Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head…I lay down and slept; I awoke again, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
→there will be people in your life who seek to do you harm- seek to make you stumble and seek to watch you fall- but Jesus, who is my glory, will lift my head with His precious hand and say to me, “Daughter, you are Mine; I will be with you.” I have no need to be afraid. Man is merely dust- his life is but a brief breath of God.