Troubles in this life...

These quotes struck a chord with me this morning...


"When it comes down to it, apart from Christ we have very warped views of what the abundant life is all about." --from Practical Theology for Women by Wendy Alsup, p.38


It's easy to lose sight of Christ and His best for me.


from my Bible study this morning by Cynthia Heald, she put it better than I could
"If I am abiding --spending time alone with God and His Word--then my heart is being trained to ask for the eternal things of God.  My heart becomes set on "things above, not on things that are on earth"." from Becoming a Woman of Prayer, p. 32


"We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far too easily pleased."  from The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis


I wrote recently on my Facebook status that life really is a lot of work.  And today I am faced with an enormous amount of work--I have no idea how I'm going to get everything done (yet I'm here blogging for just a minute =)).  I think it's easy for me to see the truth of C.S. Lewis's quote in blatant things, but for me I find that it is in the little things that my selfishness is found rather than the things he mentions in his quote.


That authentic faith consists of confident assurance of God's existence and a confident expectation of his goodness to his children.--from Practical Theology for Women by Wendy Alsup, p. 39


Yes, I realize that God's plan is the best for me.  Sometimes it is still hard to trust.  Pperhaps that is the difference between having faith--and trusting God.  They are intertwined and yet they are two separate words.  Faith.  Trust.  I liked reading Trusting God by Jerry Bridges because it helped me articulate that Trusting God means to choose to glorify Him by choosing Him instead of giving in to myself.  This quote says well to me why it is hard to trust:


We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.--C.S. Lewis


Romans 8:26-34 ESV



²⁶In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. ²⁷And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

 ²⁸And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,^[a] who^[b] have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

 ³¹What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.