“On Mine arm shall they trust.” Isaiah 51:5
“Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” 2 Corinthians 1:9
“O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh faints for You, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Psalm 63:1
“Blessed are those whose strength is in You, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage…They go from strength to strength.” Psalm 84:5, 7
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:5-8
“Learn the divine skill of making God all things to thee. He can supply thee with all, or better still, He can be to thee instead of all.” C.H. Spurgeon
Father, forbid that I should go through this year relying on the god of mustered willpower and self-sufficiency, rather than on You. Have mercy, dear Lord, and save me from myself…if an easy year where everything goes smoothly would cause my heart to turn away from full and humble reliance upon You, then please, dear God, don’t give me an easy year. I surrender myself to whatever trial You may bring, and all I ask is that if You send storms, let them wreck me on the rock of my God; and if You send hurricanes, let them drive me to You and You alone. Don’t let me, or my team, be so at ease that we cannot pray with urgency or passion…if we must be tried and tested and burdened beyond our ability to bear in order to learn to pray individually and together, then so be it.
“Now that thou has only thy God to trust to, see that thou puttest thy full confidence in Him. Dishonour not thy Lord and Master by unworthy doubts and fears; but be strong in faith, giving glory to God. Show the world that thy God is worth ten thousand worlds to thee. Show rich men how rich thou art in thy poverty when the Lord God is thy helper. Show the strong man how strong thou art in thy weakness when underneath are the everlasting arms. Now is the time for feats of faith and valiant exploits. Be strong and very courageous, and the Lord thy God shall certainly, as surely as He built the heavens and the earth, glorify Himself in thy weakness, and magnify His might in the midst of thy distress. The grandeur of the arch of heaven would be spoiled if the sky were supported by a single visible column, and your faith would lose its glory if it rested on anything discernible by the carnal eye” (from this morning’s Morning and Evening by Spurgeon)
O God, forbid that I should be known to the world or my team or people around me as a strong, capable person. Let them not say that I am a rock that can’t be moved. Let them see me as a weak person whose God is strong, as a lacking person whose God is all-sufficient. Let them see that my God is the Rock, and let them see that I have nothing, and am nothing, without Him.
yes. exactly what i prayed for you when i read morning and evening that day. i love you.
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