SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 08-20-03
My
Worship Time Focus: An
example of a surrendered will
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: James 1:9-11
1. Message of the verses: “9 But let the brother of humble
circumstances glory in his high position; 10 and let the rich man glory in his
humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with a scorching wind,
and withers the grass; and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its
appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will
fade away.” (NASB) “Christians who are poor should be glad, for
God has honored them. And those who are
rich should be glad, for God humbled them.
They will fade away like a flower in the field. The hot sun rises and dries up the grass; the
flower withers, and its beauty fades away.
So also, wealthy people will fade away with all of their
achievements.” (NLT)
The reason
for skipping to verses 9-11 is because that is the outline the Dr. Wiersbe has
in his book on James, “Be Mature.”
Yesterday when doing verse 4 I learned from Dr. Wiersbe’s book that one
of the most difficult stages of maturing is weaning and he sites a verse
in the Psalms where David dealt with this principle of weaning. “2 Surely I have composed and quieted my
soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned
child within me.” A weaned child is a
sign of a maturing child, for it does give liberty to the child, but at times
it is difficult for the child. God weans
the believer in order to bring maturity to him and He does it through trials
and in verses 91-11 James gives and example of this by writing about a poor
believer and a rich believer. The poor
believer can rejoice when realizing that his true riches are in the Lord tests
him. The rich man can rejoice in the
Lord when testing comes knowing that some day all of his riches will fade away
any way. One point that needs to be made
about testing that comes from the Lord and that if believers do not surrender to
the Lord then these believers will become even more immature.
2. Spiritual meaning for my life today: I can say that in the standards of many
people around the world my family would be considered rich, and I can say with
a sincere heart that the Lord has blessed my family with an abundance of
material blessing, along with more than an abundance of spiritual blessing, of
neither do we deserve. God is certainly testing us with the uncertainty of our
investments, and I can thankfully say that He has given me the grace to deal
with this testing, and I hope that I can say that I have surrendered to His
will as to what He will do concerning the returning of our investments, for He
owns it all, and even though I have made some mistakes investing the funds that
He has trusted me with I am learning what these mistakes are and by His grace
will never make them again. But it is
the joy of knowing that the Lord cares for me so much that He has allowed these
things to happen to me in order to take me further along in the maturing
process of becoming more like the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Word of God has been a challenge to my heart as I read
it this morning.
My
Steps of Faith Today: To
continue to surrender to the Lord in this testing that He is putting me through. I do count it all joy because I know that the
Lord is in control of my life and also He will not do things to harm me, only
doing things for my good and His glory.
Memory verses for the week:
Psalm 121:1-8
1.
I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From whence shall
my help come?
2.
My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
3.
He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will
not slumber.
4.
Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5.
The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade on your
right hand.
6.
The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night.
7.
The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your
soul.
8.
The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in from
this time forth and forevermore.
No comments:
Post a Comment