the Farmer has beans to pick.
Good Morning
“I was crushed . . .so much so that I despaired even of life,
but that was to make me rely not on myself,
but on the God who raises the dead”
2 Corinthians 1:8-9 unknown translation
The pressure of hard places makes us value life.
Every time our life is given back to us from such a trial,
it is like a new beginning,
and we learn better how much it is worth,
and make more if it for God and man.
The pressure helps us to understand the trials of others,
and fits us to help and sympathize with them.
There is a shallow, superficial nature,
that gets hold of a theory or a promise lightly,
and talks very glibly about the distrust of those
who shrink from every trial;
but the man or woman who has suffered much never does this,
but is very tender and gentle,
and knows what suffering really means.
This is what Paul meant when he said,
“Death worketh in you.”
Trials and hard places are needed to press us forward,
even as the furnace fires in the hold of that mighty ship
give force that moves the piston, drives the engine,
and propels that great vessel
across the sea in the face of winds and waves.
~~ A. B. Simposn
2 Corinthians 1:8-9
For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
Help me, O Lord, learn from the pressing . . .Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie
Thoughts of Grace 