What a bright spot on overcast days, California Poppies
Good Morning
John 12:27
Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
As a saint of God, my attitude toward sorrow and difficulty
should not be to ask that they be prevented,
but to ask that God protect me
so that I may remain what He created me to be,
in spite of all my fires of sorrow.
Our Lord received Himself,
accepting His position and realizing His purpose,
in the midst of the fire of sorrow.
He was saved not from the hour, but out of the hour.
We say that there ought to be no sorrow,
but there is sorrow,
and we have to accept and receive ourselves in its fires.
If we try to evade sorrow,
refusing to deal with it,
we are foolish.
Sorrow is one of the biggest facts in life,
and there is no use in saying it should not be.
Sin, sorrow, and suffering are,
and it is not for us to say
that God has made a mistake in allowing them.
Sorrow removes a great deal of a person’s shallowness,
but it does not always make that person better.
Suffering either gives me to myself or it destroys me.
You cannot find or receive yourself through success,
because you lose your head over pride.
And you cannot receive yourself
through the monotony of your daily life,
because you give in to complaining.
The only way to find yourself is in the fires of sorrow.
Why it should be this way is immaterial.
The fact is that it is true in the Scriptures
and in human experience.
You can always recognize
who has been through the fires of sorrow and received himself,
and you know that you can go to him in your moment of trouble
and find that he has plenty of time for you.
But if a person has not been through the fires of sorrow,
he is apt to be contemptuous,
having no respect or time for you,
only turning you away.
If you will receive yourself in the fires of sorrow,
God will make you nourishment for other people.
My Utmost ofo His Highest, Oswald Chambers
Accept the refining of sorrow . . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie