Prodigal: It is worthwhile, and that person will appreciate it with a heart of thanksgiving.
This is from the book Defeating Dark Angels by Charles H. Kraft
The freedom that Jesus brings to others and the exciting enrichment He brings into our lives through this ministry make it a thousand times worthwhile. To be allowed to work in the power of God is an incomparable privilege. This is a power far beyond our power, enabling us to do the things Jesus promised we would do (John 14:12). I never plan to quit. It is to too much fun to see freed people smile!
Not by might nor by power, but by me Spirit says the Lord Almighty. Zechariah 4:6 NIV
The work of feeding and tending sheep is hard work, arduous work, and love for the sheep alone will not do it; you must have a consuming love for the Great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. Then He will flow through you in a passion of love and draw men to Himself.
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)
Prodigal: Yes, because we can easily become focused on other things.
To yield anything means simply to give that thing to the care and keeping of another. To yield ourselves to the Lord, therefore, is to give ourselves to Him, giving Him the entire possession and control of our whole being. It means to abandon ourselves, to take hands off of ourselves. The word consecration is often used to express this yielding, but I hardly think it is good substitute. With many people, to consecrate themselves seems to convey the idea of doing something very self-sacrificing, and very good and grand; and it therefore admits of a subtle form of self-glorification. But “yielding” conveys a far more humbling idea; it implies helplessness and weakness, and the glorification of another rather than of ourselves.
Yielding is not the idea of sacrifice, in the sense we usually give to that word, namely, as of a great cross taken up; but it is the sense of surrender, of abandonment, of giving up the control and keeping and use of ourselves unto the Lord. To yield to God means to belong to God, and to belong to God means to have all His infinite power and infinite love engaged on our side. Therefore, when I invite you to yield yourselves to Him, I am inviting you to avail yourselves of an inexpressible and most amazing privilege.
Hannah Whitall Smith
Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.
Prodigal: I think this might be self image instead of really the truth.
This is from the book The Evangelical’s Guide to Spiritual Warfare by Charles Kraft
Several aspect of Western society are very helpful to our enemy in enabling him to put us down. Individualism and a competitive spirit cut us off from relationships with others. We are taught to define ourselves in comparison with others according to what we do, how we look, how we feel we are accepted and how much we have achieved, rather than in terms of who we are. Our normal standards of comparison with others are usually based on such ephermeral things as possessions, physical attractiveness (especially for women), the number of friendships that we have and how well we have assimilated and can regurgitate what is often irrelevant information.
In all of this, there is a great opportunity to discover and focus on those areas that we fall short in comparison to others. Many of us live our days constantly falling short of our own standards and feeling we are unacceptable to ourselves, others and God. We seem to neither know our standards are unattainable nor that God’s standard’s are quite different.
Romans 12:21
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
This is from the book No Man Is an Island by Thomas Merton
Your life is hidden with Christ in God. The discovery of ourselves in God, and of God in ourselves, by a charity that also finds all other men in God with ourselves is, therefore, not the discovery of ourselves but of Christ. First of all, it is the realization that I live now not I but Christ liveth in me.
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
Prodigal: It is not about perfection. It is about the journey.
This is from the book When God Says Wait by Elizabeth Laing Thompson
We are not going to do the “does God test people” topic complete justice here because it’s complicated, but a fair, brief summary would be this: Yes, God sometimes test us (Deuteronomy 13:3; 1 Chronicles 29:17). But by God tests us, we don’t mean He puts us through trials to see if we fail (even secretly hoping we will fail). No, when God tests us, He is looking to find out what is in our hearts. He is looking to expose strength and weakness, to show us where we are and where we need to grow. His tests are not so much like a driver’s license exam–you pass or fail–but like the diagnostic tests a car manufacturer does on the cars themselves before releasing them into the world. The manufacturer needs to know if the vehicles are safe and ready for the road or if they need more work before they leave the factory.
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9
This is from the book God Works The Night Shift by Ron Mehl
When you think about it, no one comes to salvation until he or she admits to being a hopeless sinner, completely lost, and unable to lift one finger in his or her own help or defense. It’s at that very point that God offers His blinding, shining righteousness in exchange for our sin and shame. How could we believe it would be any different as we live out our life in Him? How could we turn back to our self-sufficiency?
Are you foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
