Refiner's Fire

Hi! I've been reading this book called Trust, a godly womens adornment by Lydia Brownback, I find much of it to be very edifying and challenging me to trust in the Lord more. I wanted to share one or two of the short devotionals in it with you all, because I just thought it was so amazing. Hopefully wont take long to type out... lol Its amazing, and what is said really makes me think about my own motives, and thoughts, and how I can better trust the Lord and His loving kindness towards me in ALL circumstances.

No If's (p43,44)

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 3:23,24

What is the basis for our security with God? How do we know that he listens to our prayers and forgives our sins and takes care of us each day? Many of us are anxious about that:

"I made a terrible mistake years ago by marrying an unbeliever. How can I expect God to help me now? I am to blame for the mess I've made, and I just have to figure out how to live with it"

"I just cant conquer my sin of overeating. Im doing okay, and then I have a really bad day, and my resistance just goes right out the window. I just know God wont listen to me about anything until I've mastered this" [there's one more but I left it out from this blog]

We get fearful and anxious because our default thought pattern is that God will do his part if we do ours. The reality is, however, that there is no if. God has already done his part by sending His Son, and in so doing He completed forever our eternal security and adoption into His family. God hates our attempts to earn His favor, not only because they deny the finished work of Jesus, but also because those attempts keep us from enjoying His fellowship.

Attempting to earn God's favor will always lead to weariness in the Christian life, or to fear, because no matter what we do, we will never measure up. Nothing we do is up to God's standards. That's why Christ not only died for us- He lived a perfect life for us as well. Do you know what that means? It means that when we fail to measure up, God looks at how Jesus measured up, and He applies that to us. It means that God exchanges the perfect choices Jesus made in His earthly relationships with our bad choices. The intimate fellowship Jesus had with the Father while He walked this earth is exchanged for our halfhearted quiet times. It means that Jesus' resistance to temptation covers our failures to resist. There are no ifs; Jesus took care of all that.

Self-Salvation? (p45,46)

Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:4

"I've been unemployed for two months now," Lynn told her friend. "I cant figure out what God wants from me before he'll provide me with work. I've turney away from every possible sin I can think of, but maybe there's one I can't put my finger on. Maybe God is waiting for met to figure that out before He gives me a new job. I just wish I knew what more He wants."

Do you think like Lynn? Perhaps right now life is not going the way you'd hoped, and you fear its because you are doing something wrong, or that more God wants more from you than you are giving and doing. You think that if you could just figure out what more God expects from you, then your life would begin to go in the direction you want. But the Bible makes clear what God wants from us. It boils down to one primary thing- to trust in what Christ did on our behalf.

But even though the Bible makes this plain, we feel compelled to earn His favor by our good works and words. What drives us to ignore the simple truth of Scripture is a desire to be in control of our lives. There is something we want or need in a particular way and time, and we think we stand a better change of getting God to accommodate our way if we bring something extra to the table in our dealings with Him. If we are wrestling along these lines, we ought to consider the possibility that hidden within our hearts somewhere is the desire to manage God. Anxiety is an indicator. Whenever we attempt to do something impossible- and managing God is indeed impossible- anxiety is going to be right there.

He knows our situation inside and out. He is totally in control of our employment status, or marital status, our finances, our friendships, and our health. And His control is governed by His kindness and love. Since this is the God to whom we belong and for whom we live, we can leave the ordering of our lives completely in His hands. He will never arrive too late. God doesn't want our efforts at self-improvement. He wants our trust in His kindness toward us in Christ.