As I continue on in my Lenten Studies booklet, I realized I just had to share the entire message for Tuesday with you here:
Ask for Help
Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily when I call. Psalm 102:2
You must ask for God's help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us toward is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one had that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. the only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection.
This entire message resonates with my very soul. I've been sitting on the following for a couple of days because I just have not had the time to get on here. Now I can see why. It was a "God-thing"....it simply wasn't time yet!
Psalm 23:6 ~ Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
with
Haggai 2:9 ~ ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”
Hugs, my friends ~ Merana
Thanks for sharing this, Merana. Every week as I prepare to teach Sunday School class, that's how I feel - more and more in need of His help, more and more dependent on Him!
ReplyDeleteI like what –A.W. Tozer says,
ReplyDeleteHe is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts…”
Right now we are in an age of religious complexity.
The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely among us.
In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention —
but can never satisfy the longing of the heart.
Thank you for the beautiful reminder here.
Mirana - I know this is kind of out of the blue, but you've been on my heart all day and I just wanted to let you know that I miss you
ReplyDelete<3 Paula