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Thursday, November 25, 2010

To Him whom my soul loves...









There are many people, things, places, and blessings that I'm eternally thankful for. However, when I think upon this past year, the emphasis of my gratitude is placed on my King, my Beloved.

My heart cries thanks....
...that the Lord reproves those whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights (Prov 3:12, Heb 12:6) and learning to embrace the rod of His discipline with a tearful smile.

...that He has led me to embrace and know Him as my Husband, my Maker, my Redeemer (Isaiah 54:5).

...that He has enabled me to truly hate my life in this world and seek to become the seed that dies to bear fruit (John 12:24-25).

...that it is His spirit who gives life and that the flesh availeth nothing (John 6:63).

...that I belong to Christ and my flesh is crucified (Gal. 5:24) and I now walk in the freedom of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17).

...for the pressure and weight of the Holy Spirit upon and within my soul; stripping, surrendering, releasing.

...that He has been building within me a 'tensile strength' of soul.

...that He has shared His burdens with me for the lost, the oppressed, the afflicted.

...that He has been teaching me to pray, quite literally, until break of day as well as learning to stand upon His promises and live/feed upon His Living Word.

...that He has led me into tasting the riches of the glory of the great mystery hidden for ages and generations (Col 1:27).

...that He made me willing to become the like man who, in joy, sells all he has to purchase the field with the hidden treasure (Matt 13:44).

...that in stripping everything from me, He's given me an insatiable thirst every day for more of Him.

...that I am decreasing and He is increasing (John 3:30)

...that although the season of trials is long and wearisome, the joy that He's given me in Him only continues to abound (Psalm 16:11). The joy of the Lord as my strength has truly become a reality in my life!

...that the past two hardest years of my life have become the sweetest, most fulfilling years I've known thus far - all working for my good and His glory (Rom 8:28)!

...that by His grace, He has entered me into the "endless frontier" of the true victorious Christian-life, which is Christ in me, the hope of glory (Col 1:27).

...that He is forever, eternally, and always mine and I am His: my treasure, my portion, my Beloved.

I will leave it to an old father in the faith to place into words the kind of life that the Lord brought me into this year:

"I was converted in November of 1825, but I only came into the full surrender of the heart four years later, in July 1829. The love of money was gone, the love of place was gone, the love of position was gone, and the love of worldly pleasures and engagements was gone. God, God alone became my portion. I found my all in Him; I wanted nothing else. And by the grace of God this has remained, and has made me a happy man, an exceedingly happy man, and it led me to care only about the things of God. I ask affectionately, my beloved brethren, have you fully surrendered the heart to God, or is there this thing or that thing with which you have taken up irrespective of God? I read a little of the scriptures before, but preferred other books; but since that time the revelation He has made of Himself has become unspeakably blessed to me, and I can say from my heart, God is an infinitely lovely Being. Oh, be not satisfied until in your own inmost soul you can say, God is an infinitely lovely Being!" ~ George Mueller


(Photo credit goes to photographer Brooke B. - Ellerslie sister :-)

1 comments:

Nolan said...

So much to be thankful for!

Great quote by George Mueller too.