Today's meditations:
From Charles Spurgeon:
Laughter and Singing
"You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don't see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing." (1Peter 1:8, The Message).
Imagine Peter's delight in watching a generation rise up of those who never saw Jesus — but yet loved and believed in Him. Not only that, but they believed in the face of great difficulties and strong opposition; they loved and trusted Jesus without seeing any evidence of His presence. And furthermore — they did all this with laughter and singing!
Their behavior proved their belief. Something far greater than this world held their hearts, and as a result their lives were unleashed with joy and praise — even though their world was falling apart!
It is indeed a mysterious thing that the Lord does when He lifts the loads we carry through life, and enables us to then lift our heads and see life from His point of view. Yes, we may have to put up with all kinds of aggravations, but we do so realizing that pure gold put in the fire comes out proved pure.
In the same manner, genuine faith put through suffering comes out of it proved genuine. And after all, isn't that what you really want? To be proven pure and genuine?
So whatever is going on is this topsy-turvy world, filled with strife created by greed, lift your vision higher and look unto Jesus. And let your life be marked by laughter and singing — knowing that God has His eyes on you, and is committed to proving you true.
And from F. B. Meyer:
September 30
THE TALISMAN OF VICTORY
"In all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us."-- Rom_8:37.
CAN ANYTHING separate me from the love of Christ? was the only question that St. Paul felt worth consideration. In this paragraph he takes the extreme conditions of being, and carefully investigates them, knowing that they include all between. First, he interrogates Existence--"death and life"; next, created Intelligences--"Angels, principalities, and powers"; next, the extremes of Time--"things present, things to come"; next, of Space---"height and depth"; lastly, the created Universe --"any other creature." Each of these extremes is passed in review. He is like a man proving every link of the chain in which he is going to swing out over the abyss. Carefully and fervently he has tested all, and is satisfied that none of them can cut him off from the love of God.
We strangely misjudge and mistrust the Love of God our Father, and think that our distresses and sufferings, our sins and failures, may make Him love us less. But in the home, it is not the troop of sturdy children that engross the mother's care so much as the puny feeble life, that lies in the cot, unable to help itself and reciprocate her love. And in the world, death and pain, disease and sorrow, sin and failure, so far from separating us from God's love, bind us closer.
Oh blessed Love! that comes down to us from the heart of Jesus, the essence of the eternal love of God--nothing can ever staunch, exhaust, intercept it. It is not our love to Him, but His to us, and since nothing can separate us from the love of God, He will go on loving us for ever, and pouring into us the entire fullness of His life and glory. Whatever our difficulties, whatever our weakness and infirmity, we shall be kept steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; gaining by our losses, succeeding by our failures, triumphing in our defeats, and ever more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
PRAYER
Yea thro' life,
thro' sorrow and thro' sinning
He shall suffice me,
for He hath sufficed:
Christ is the end,
for Christ was the beginning,
Christ is the beginning,
for the end is Christ.
May you have a blessed day, in God's love, in His Grace.
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