From Recent Quiet Times

"You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You." (Isaiah 26:3)

"The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to go to the heights." (Habakkuk 3:19)

"The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him in song." (Psalm 28:7)

"But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever; the purposes of His heart through all generations." (Psalm 33:11)

Growing to be More Like Christ

"You cannot despise becoming what you enjoy about God. Joy in the God who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for undeserving sinners cannot return evil for evil. That joy will love being merciful. 'He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.' (Micah 6:8). Joy in the God who is slow to anger cannot coexist with its own impatience. It will fight for the triumph of what it admires in God. Joy in the God who spends eternity showing 'the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us.' (Eph. 2:7) delights to be generous and looks for ways to give."
~from John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life

More from John Piper

"We measure the worth of a hidden treasure by what we will gladly sell to buy it. If we will sell all, then we measure the worth as supreme. If we will not, what we have is treasured more. 'The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.' (Matt. 13:44). The extent of his sacrifice and the depth of his joy display the worth he puts on the treasure of God. Loss and suffering, joyfully accepted for the kingdom of God, show the supremacy of God's worth more clearly in the world than all worship and prayer."

from "Don't Waste Your Life" by john piper

"... it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Phil.1:20,21)

Notice verse 20: "It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed." Stop here just a moment. Shame is that horrible feeling of guilt or failure when you don't measure up before people whose approval you want very much. It's what the little child feels in the Christmas program when he forgets his lines, and the tears well up, and the silence seems eternal, and the other kids snicker brutally. I remember these horrible times...
What then is the opposite of shame? It's when the child remembers the lines and hears the applause... The opposite of being shamed is being honored. Yes, usually. But Paul was a very unusual person. And Christians ought to be very unusual people. For Paul, the opposite of being shamed was not his being honored, but Christ's being honored through him. "It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that... Christ will be honored in my body."
What you love determines what you feel shame about. If you love for men to make much of you, you will feel shame when they don't. But if you love for men to make much of Christ, then you will feel shame when He is belittled on your account. And Paul loved Christ more than anything or anyone. "Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." (Phil.3:7-8).
Whenever something is of tremendous value to you, and you cherish its beauty or power or uniqueness, you want to draw others' attention to it and waken in them the same joy. That is why Paul's all-consuming goal in life was for Christ to be magnified. Christ was of infinite value to Paul, and so Paul longed for others to see and savor this value. That is what it means to magnify Christ - to show the magnitude of His value.

Patience

George Matheson, stricken with blindness and disappointed in love, wrote a prayer in which he asked for ability to accept God's will, "not with dumb resignation, but with holy joy; not only with the absence of murmur, but with a song of praise."

Waiting builds expectation. Waiting is not negative, neither is it passive; it can be charged with anticipation! "My soul, wait thou only upon God." (Ps. 62:5)

The Questions of Guilt and Grace

Every moment of your life, your accuser is filing charges against you. He has noticed every error and marked each slip. Neglect your priorities, and he'll jot it down. Abandon your promises, and he'll make a note. Try to forget your past; he'll remind you. Try to undo your mistakes; he'll thwart you.
This expert witness has no higher goal than to take you to court and press charges. Even his name, Diabolos, means "slanderer". Who is he? The devil.
He is "the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accused them day and night before our God" (Rev. 12:10). Can't you see him? Pacing back and forth before God's bench. Can't you hear him? Calling your name, listing your faults.
He rails: "This one you call your child, God. He is not worthy. Greed lingers within. When he speaks, he thinks often of himself. He'll go days without and honest prayer. Why, even this morning he chose to sleep rather than spend time with you. I accuse him of laziness, egotism, worry, distrust."
As he speaks, you hang your head. You have no defense. His charges are fair. "I plead guilty, your Honor," you mumble.
"The sentence?" Satan asks.
"The wages of sin is death," explains the Judge, "but in this case the death has already occured. "For this one died with Christ."

A Name Only God Knows ~ by Max Lucado

"Can't say I've given a lot of thought to my given name. Never figured it made much difference. I do recall a kid in elementary school wondering if I were German. I said no. 'Then why do you have a German name?' I didn't even know Max was German. He assured me it was. So I decided to find out.
'Why did you name me Max?' I asked Mom when I got home. She looked up from the sink and replied, 'You just looked like one.'
Like I say, I haven't given much thought to my name. But there is one name that has caught my interest lately. A name only God knows. A name only God gives. A unique, one-of-a-kind, once-to-be-given name.
What am I talking about? Well, you may not have known it, but God has a new name for you. When you get home, he won't call you Jamie or Stephanie or Carlos of Juanita. The name you've always heard won't be the one he uses. When God says he'll make all things new, he means it. You will have a new home, a new body, a new life, and you guessed it, a new name.
'I will give some of the hidden manna to everyone who wins the victory. I will also give to each one who wins the victory a white stone with a new name written on it. No one knows this new name except the one who receives it.' (Rev. 2:17)
Isn't it incredible to think that God has saved a name just for you? One you don't even know? We've always assumed that the name we got is the name we will keep. Not so. Imagine what that implies. Apparently your future is so promising it warrants a new title. The road ahead is so bright a fresh name is needed. Your eternity is so special no common name will do.
So God has one reserved just for you. There is more to your life than you ever thought. There's more to your story than what you've read. There's more to your song than what you've sung. A good author saves the best for last. A great composer keeps his finest for the finish. And God, the author of life and composer of hope, has done the same for you.
The best is yet to be."

Our Lord is Indeed Almighty!

"God's ability to perform is beyond our prayers - even our greatest prayers! I have asked for a cupful, while He owns the entire ocean! I have asked for one simple ray of light, while He holds the sun! My best asking falls immeasurably short of my Father's ability to give, which is far beyond what we could ever ask."
~ John Henry Jowett


I found this quote on another young lady's blog, and it was so meaningful to my heart that I thought I'd share it with you all. May your lives be filled with purpose as you strive to follow in the steps of the Master, my dear friends!
Always,
Me