“God can use everything that’s going on with you.”
“Be alert to what God is doing with what’s happening.“
“Life’s trinkets distract us from God’s gold.” (Mmm? I wonder what I should view as a trinket today and what is God’s gold I might miss by the distraction?)
The following thought comes from the April 13 reading in Vance Havner’s devotional book. He quotes Jeremiah 12:15. “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses?” Havner then writes, “Letting trivial troubles get us down is poor preparation for real adversity.” I’m going to commit to taking this advice today, to keep from letting the little annoyances of life get at me.
“When we love those who love us, our brethren, our nation, our friends, yes, and even our own congregation, we are no better than the heathen and the publicans. Such love is ordinary and natural, and not distinctively Christian. We can love our kith and kin, our fellow countrymen and our friends, whether we are Christians or not, and there is no need for Jesus to teach us that. But he takes that kind of love for granted, and in contrast asserts that we must love our enemies. Thus he shows us what he means by love, and the attitude we must display toward it.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer (A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, March 22, quoted from A Testament to Freedom, p.320
Author Stuart McAllister makes the observation that God is not with us in spite of pain and troubles but that He makes His presence known in and through pain and troubles! Good thought!
A worm and an angel have more in common than do an angel and God, that’s how great God is. Dave
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