“Dependent on God’s Presence”

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Good News Times

Weekly Newsletter of Puno United Methodist Church

“Those who wait on the Lord… shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31)

There is on thrill for us in walking, yet it is the test for all of our steady and enduring qualities. To “walk and not faint” is the highest stretch possible as a measure of strength. The word walk is used in the Bible to express the character of a person – “…John … looking at Jesus as he walked… said, ‘Behold the lamb of God!’” (John 1:35-36). There is nothing abstract or obscure in the Bible; everything is vivid and real. God does not say “Be spiritual,” but He says, ‘Walk before me…” (Genesis 17:1)

When we are in an unhealthy condition either physically or emotionally, we always look for thrills in life. In our physical life this leads to our efforts to counterfeit the work of the Holy Spirit; in our emotional life it leads to obsessions and to the destruction of our morality; and in our spiritual life, if we insist on pursuing only thrills, it will result in the destruction of our spirituality.

Having the reality of God’s presence is not dependent on our being in a particular circumstance or place, but is only dependent on ur determination to keep the Lord before us continually. Our problems arise when we refuse to place our trust in the reality of His presence. The experience what the psalmist speaks of – “We will not fear, even though…” 9Psalm 46:2) – will be ours once we are grounded on the truth of the reality of God’s presence, not just a simple awareness of it, but an understanding of the reality of it. Then we will exclaim, “He has been here all the time! At critical moments in our live it is necessary to ask God for guidance, but it should be unnecessary to be constantly saying “Oh, Lord, direct me in this and in that.” If our everyday decisions are not according to His will, He will press through them, bringing restraint to our spirit. Then we must be quiet and wait for the direction of His presence.

"The Holy Suffering of the Saint"

From the church I'm attending
Good News Times
Weekly Newsletter of Puno United Methodist Church

Another food for the soul.

"Let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him n doing good..." (1Peter 4:19)

Choosing to suffer means that there must be something wrong with you, but choosing god’s will – even if it means you will suffer – is something very different. No normal, healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he simply chooses God’s will, just as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not. And no saint should ever dare to interfere with the lesson of suffering being taught in another saint’s life.

The saint who satisfies the heart of Jesus will make other saints strong and mature for God. But the people used to strengthen us are never those who sympathize with us: in fact, we are hindered by those who give us their sympathy, because sympathy only serves to weaken us. No one better understands a saint than the saint who is as close and as intimate with Jesus as possible. If we accept the sympathy of another saint, our spontaneous feeling is, “God is dealing too harshly with me and making my life too difficult.” That is why Jesus said that self-pity was of the devil (Matthew 16:21-23). We must be merciful to God’s character because He never argues back; He never tries to defend or vindicate Himself. Beware of thinking that Jesus needed sympathy during His life on earth. He refused the sympathy of people because in His great wisdom He knew that no one on earth understood His purpose. He accepted only the sympathy of His Father and the angels. (Luke 15:10)

Look at God’s incredible waste of His saints, according to the world’s judgment. God seems to plant His saints in the most useless places. And then we say, “God intends for me to be here because I am so useful to Him.” Yet Jesus never measured His like by how or where he was of the greatest use. God places His saints where they will bring the most glory to Him, and we are totally incapable of judging where that may be.