Encouragement

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(written 10-14-97)

I do not have anything that did not first pass through the Lord's hands. All that I am with my talents, gifts, assets, time and energy were given by Him. What I am is because He is. Many things in me do not please Him, yet in His patience they are allowed but not condoned.

I exist because He exists. If I cease to exist tears may be shed for me, and yet tears would only be shed because of the good that the Lord chose to place in me. If I did not exist the Lord and His world would go on being. People would be saved or condemned, ministries would flourish, saints would be encouraged and would grow still.

There is me and there is the Lord in me. The temple and the God within. Take away the temple and the God remains. Take away the Lord and what remains is the temple-me-cold, hard, lifeless. With the Lord within the temple is sanctified, exalted. But the temple must decrease that the Lord within may increase.

All the good in me must be attributed to God because He is purely good. All that I have is His and I am just a steward.

Therefore I am responsible for all that is entrusted to me. I am thankful and yet wary for what I choose to do with what He has given me.

I am humbled by my Lord and His gracious giving ways. I have a sense of my smallness and His greatness. I see my position before Him. What I have is little compared to the Giver yet what I have is sufficient because He is sufficient. This gives me contentment.

What I have is not mine to keep but mine to give away (Oddly enough, as I give it away it becomes mine all the more.) This because of His sufficiency and He is always giving away that which is His. For this I see my desperate need of Him. I am excited at the endless possibilities. All I have to do is ask, believe and receive what He wants me to have. God's desire is to give me that which will benefit others as well as myself and will emulate and exalt the One True Giver.

This truth only hurts because of the pride in me. I am brought down because the truth exalts my Lord. Still it is best for me to receive the truth because truth gives life. He is Truth and He is Life!

As I receive the truth willingly the burden to be something I am not is lifted from me. The burden is His and I am to trust Him for His provision. Confident of His love in giving my eyes go off of me and onto Him. This brings me peace.

He gives to me that which is His and my heart is touched. My desire then is to grow closer to my giving Lord. He gives and my cup is overflowing. I find then in myself something to give to others. In this I am blessed. I find in me His design to make in me a channel, a vessel to give that which is His to others. In this I find purpose, I find completeness, I find wholeness. I am His and He is mine. I am in Him and He is in me.

Praise the Lord for His monumental provision! His magnanimous salvation!

( Acts 17:28; Rom. 5:1-5; Eph. 3:14-21; Phil. 3:7-15; 4:13; James 1-17-18)

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