English Standard Version (ESV)
7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success[a] wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
If things were easy, how else would my faith grow?
I pray for faith and don’t want the trials.
Jen, you are so silly! haha.
Time and time again Christ’s dearest associates on this earth doubted His love
for them. Think of the disciples in a storm-tossed boat that was taking on
water. Jesus was in the stern of the boat, sound asleep. Fearing for their
lives, His followers shook Him awake and then accused Him of outright
unconcern. “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” (Mark 4:38). How their
accusation must have grieved the Lord! That was God Almighty in their boat! How
could He not care? But whenever men take their eyes off the Lord and concentrate
instead on their circumstances, doubt always takes over. Jesus was astounded!
“How can you be afraid when I am with you? How can you question My love and
care?”
Christians today grieve the Lord in this matter even more. Our unbelief is a
greater affront to Him than the unbelief of Mary, Martha, and all the
disciples, for our sin is committed against greater light. We stand on a higher
mountain and see more than they could ever see. We have a completed Bible with a
full and detailed record of God’s trustworthiness. We have the written
testimonies of almost twenty centuries of Christians, generation after
generation of godly fathers who have passed down to us unshakable proofs of
God’s love. And we have countless personal experiences that testify to God’s
tender love and affection for us.
Let us look for His exceeding mercy and love, admit the sinfulness of our
unbelief, and recognize who He is!
-David Wilkerson
Grace reclaims those the world disowns
All the saints and angels bow before Your throne
All the elders cast their crowns before the Lamb of God and sing
You are worthy of it all, You are worthy of it all
For from You are all things, and to You are all things, You deserve the glory
Day and night, night and day, let incense arise.
The apostle was often in bonds, imprisonments, and necessities; but in all, he learned to be content, to bring his mind to his condition, and make the best of it. Pride, unbelief, vain hankering after something we have not got, and fickle disrelish of present things, make men discontented even under favourable circumstances. Let us pray for patient submission and hope when we are abased; for humility and a heavenly mind when exalted. It is a special grace to have an equal temper of mind always. And in a low state not to lose our comfort in God, nor distrust his providence, nor take any wrong course for our own supply. In a prosperous condition not to be proud, or secure, or worldly. This is a harder lesson than the other; for the temptations of fulness and prosperity are more than those of affliction and want. The apostle had no design to urge them to give more, but to encourage such kindness as will meet a glorious reward hereafter. Through Christ we have grace to do what is good, and through him we must expect the reward; and as we have all things by him, let us do all things for him, and to his glory.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Philippians 4:11
If you’re alive, you’re gonna have to work hard and swim against the prevailing tide that is becoming increasingly, increasingly more severe. If you wanna grow weeds, you don’t have to work very hard. But if you wanna tend a garden it’s going to take a lot of diligence. - Mark Driscoll
“If she’s amazing, she won’t be easy, If she’s easy, she won’t be amazing. If she’s worth it, you won’t give up, If you give up, you’re not worthy… Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.”
- Bob Marley
“If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”
Psalm 139:11-12
“From Adam’s sin, all humans are born with inherited guilt resulting in fear of condemnation. Furthermore, all are born with inherited corruption re- sulting in shame or the awareness of one’s corruption.11
Combining Paul with the Genesis account of the Fall and observation of human behavior in general, the disposition of the human heart born in guilt and corruption seems to take after our first parents in the following ways:
1. by hiding from God and defending against personal guilt due to fear of judgment and condemnation, and
2. by covering human shame and the awareness of our corruption by means of something that appears to be adequate to deflect being truly seen by others and oneself.
Inherited corruption and guilt certainly lead to immoral living. However, shame also moves persons to use morality as a fallen, human attempt to cover one’s corruption and hide from God, often by being moral at least in part. In that sense, the human attempt to “be moral” apart from God iron- ically is also a form of sin, a kind of immorality.12
Simple observation of human nature, particularly in more refined and advanced cultures, reveals that natural morality or moralism seems to be the primary way that unbelievers hide from God and guilt and cover their badness as a way to not experience shame. In that sense, morality has be- come a monolithic defense against seeing oneself truly and opening to one’s need for God. Moralism reaps natural benefits and enables one, at least for a time, to keep at bay feelings of guilt and shame. It is interesting how Christians often take note of the immorality of secular society when, in fact, most unbelievers are not as blatantly bad as they could be. More to the point, they do not think they are bad at all. And just try to convince them otherwise!
It seems that humans generally have a deep seated need to not feel guilty, evident in their insistence on their own goodness, that they are not as bad as the criminal, and that their efforts at being good is evidence that that they do not need a savior. As Dallas Willard once said, we are all born legal- ists. What a waste of a life to spend it trying to be good just to keep from seeing the truth of oneself. The price tag to all of this is that we develop habits of the heart of hiding and covering, unable to fully and truly see our- selves as we are and unable to find full freedom within ourselves, God and others.The relevance of this discussion of original sin to the temptation of moral formation should be clear. For the believer, sin and flesh habits of the heart die hard and can come right into the Christian life. Thus, the believer can be tempted (unknowingly) to use obedience, regimens of spiritual for- mation, spiritual disciplines, religious experience and ministry as a way
1. to hide from feelings of failure and guilt by repression of the truth of oneself (or even by quick confessions) and
2. to cover deep feelings of shame over one’s sins and failures by trying to be good.”
“Resisting the Temptation of
MORAL Formation: Opening to SPIRITUAL
Formation in the Cross and the Spirit” By John Coe
How amazing it is to be loved by the father. He knows my name.
How can I honor you more, my Lord? Show me what it looks like to live a life fitting for you, my God.
