God Does Not Fail You

I needed this reminder and encouragement tonight. Maybe you do, too.


“Why yield to gloomy anticipations? Who told you that the night would never end in day?.... Who told you that the winter of your discontent would proceed from frost to frost, from snow and ice and hail to deeper snow and yet more heavy tempest of despair? Don’t you know that day follows night, that flood comes after ebb, that spring and summer succeed winter? Be full of hope! Hope forever! For God does not fail you. Do you know that God loves you in the midst of all this?.... You will yet, midst the splendors of eternity, forget the trials of time, or only remember them to bless the God who led you through them and works your lasting good by them. Come, sing in the midst of tribulation. Rejoice even while passing through the furnace. Cause the desert to ring with your exulting joys, for these light afflictions will soon be over, and then forever with the Lord, your bliss shall never wane.”
~Charles Spurgeon, Morning & Evening revised and edited by Alistair Begg, July 21, evening.

(via girltalk blog)

Wednesday Worship

"Waiting on God isn't about the suspension of meaning and purpose. It's part of the meaning and purpose that God has brought into my life.  Waiting on God isn't to be viewed as an obstruction in the way of the plan.  Waiting is an essential part of the plan. For the child of God, waiting isn't simply about what I'll receive at the end of my wait.  No, waiting is much more purposeful, efficient, and practical than that. Waiting is fundamentally about what I'll become as I wait.  God is using the wait to do in and through me exactly what He's promised. Through the wait He's changing me.  By means of the wait He's altering the fabric of my thoughts and desires.  Through the wait He's causing me to see and experience new things about Him and His kingdom.  And all of this sharpens me, enabling me to be a more useful tool in His redemptive hands" (emphasis mine).  Paul Tripp


Posted by Nicole Whitacre on the girltalk blog

Wednesday Worship

How to Obey When the Feelings Aren't There

| by Josh Etter | 

Pastor John writes:

I am often asked what a Christian should do if the cheerfulness of obedience is not there. It is a good question. My answer is not to simply get on with your duty because feelings are irrelevant! My answer has three steps.

First, confess the sin of joylessness. Acknowledge the culpable coldness of your heart. Don't say it doesn't matter how you feel.

Second, pray earnestly that God would restore the joy of obedience.

Third, go ahead and do the outward dimension of your duty in the hope that the doing will rekindle the delight.

Desiring God, 25th Anniversary Reference Edition, (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah, 2011), 301. Paragraphing mine.

Monday Musings

This past weekend was filled with drama. Between a man who calls himself a prophet saying the world was going to end on Saturday to the severe weather that wrecked havoc in Missouri and here in Minneapolis. I am so glad that God is on the throne and in control of it all!

Matthew 24:35-36 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone."

Psalm 107:29 He caused the storm to be still, so that the waves of the sea were hushed.

(And then God gave us this beautiful rainbow outside of our car window last night! Isn't He so good?!)