NOTHING
CAN SEPARATE ONE OF GOD’S OWN FROM HIM
BREAD
13 “When I shut up
the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or
send a plague among my people, 14 if
my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek
my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will
forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now
my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this
place. 16 I have chosen and
consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my
heart will always be there.” 2 Chronicles 7:13-16 (NIV)
1 From inside
the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD
his God. 2 He said: “In my
distress I called to the LORD, and
he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you
listened to my cry.” Jonah 2:1-2 (NIV)
1 I love you,
O LORD, my strength. 2 The LORD
is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take
refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3 I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my
enemies. 4 The cords of death
entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. 5 The cords of the grave coiled around me; the
snares of death confronted me. 6 In
my distress I called to the LORD; I
cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before
him, into his ears. Psalm 18:1-6 (NIV)
1 I love the LORD,
for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. 2
Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I
live. 3 The cords of death
entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble
and sorrow. 4 Then I called on the
name of the LORD: “O LORD, save me!” 5 The
LORD is gracious and righteous; our
God is full of compassion. 6 The
LORD protects the simplehearted; when
I was in great need, he saved me. 7 Be
at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD
has been good to you. Psalm 116:1-7
(NIV)
27 “My
sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one
can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no
one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” John 10:27-30 (NIV)
31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for
us, who can be against us? 32 He
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? 33 Who will bring any charge against those
whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34
Who 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. 35 Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or
nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As
it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as
sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more
than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For
I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither
the present nor the future, nor
any powers, 39 neither height
nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39
(NIV)
BUTTER
“Upon
some points a believer is absolutely sure. He knows, for instance, that God
sits in the stern-sheets of the vessel when it rocks most. He believes that an
invisible hand is always on the world’s tiller, and that wherever providence
may drift, Jehovah steers it. That re-assuring knowledge prepares him for
everything. He looks over the raging waters and sees the spirit of Jesus
treading the billows, and he hears a voice saying, ‘It is I, be not afraid.’ He
knows too that God is always wise, and, knowing this, he is confident that there
can be no accidents, no mistakes; that nothing can occur which ought not to
arise. He can say, ‘If I should lose all I have, it is better that I should
lose than have, if God so wills: the worst calamity is the wisest and the
kindest thing that could befall to me if God ordains it.’ ‘We know that all
things work together for good to them that love God.’ The Christian does not
merely hold this as a theory, but he knows it as a matter of fact.
Everything has
worked for good as yet; the poisonous drugs mixed in fit proportions have
worked the cure; the sharp cuts of the lancet have cleansed out the proud flesh
and facilitated the healing. Every event as yet has worked out the most
divinely blessed results; and so, believing that God rules all, that He governs
wisely, that He brings good out of evil, the believer’s heart is assured, and
he is enabled calmly to meet each trial as it comes. The believer can in the
spirit of true resignation pray, ‘Send me what thou wilt, my God, so long as it
comes from Thee; never came there an ill portion from Thy table to any of Thy
children.’” C. H. Spurgeon
“We have a God who sees hearts like we see faces, a God who hears ache like we hear voices, and we have a God who touches wounds like we touch skin. No one’s crazy can change God’s crazy love. Jesus died to save us not to make us safe. No one ever got saved unless someone else was unsafe.” Ann Voskamp
“Yes, we need to feel our
need. Where real need is not felt, there is rarely any real praying.... Our
places of desperation are the places of God's revelation of his power (2
Corinthians 12:8-9).” Jon
Bloom
“My hope is not in a cure today. My hope is not the
absence of suffering and comfort returned. My hope is in the presence of the
One who promises never to leave or forsake, the One who declares nothing “will
be able to separate us from the love of God.” (Romans 8:39). Nothing. Your
story is a good story. In the grief, pain and hard, the Author has a plan. It
may feel like a desperate breaking of your very heart, but suffering is not the
absence of God or good.” Kara
Tippetts
“Life holds for all of us, from
time to time, desolate places. All that was ordinary and secure and familiar and
dependable seems a thousand miles away. Here we are in this strange wilderness -
out of work, ill, robbed of something or someone, banished from a privilege
that once was ours, no longer needed, confused, forsaken. It is a place of
dryness, loneliness, isolation, helplessness, fear. We feel as though we are
walking where no human being was ever meant to walk, a place of dragons. Don't despair. Even though you find no signs, be sure that thousands
have traversed this terrain. When you reach the far side you will meet them.
But there is something that is far more comforting than that. You are not alone now. Always beside you is Another whose voice
you may not hear, whose arm you may not feel, whose footprint you may not see.
Nevertheless His Word is utterly to be trusted: ‘I cared for you in the
wilderness’ (Hosea 13:5).” Elisabeth
Elliot
“Do not
think that your prayer, however weak or trembling, will be unregarded. Our God not only hears prayer but also loves
to hear it. ‘He does not ignore the cry
of the afflicted.’ True, He does take
into consideration haughty looks and lofty words; He doesn’t care for the pomp
and pageantry of kings; He doesn’t listen to the swell of martial music; He doesn’t
regard the triumph and pride of man; but wherever there is a heart big with sorrow,
or a lip quivering with agony, or a deep groan, or a penitential sigh, the
heart of Jehovah is open; He marks it down in the registry of His memory; He
puts our prayers, like rose leaves, between the pages of His book of
remembrance, and when the volume is opened at last, a precious fragrance will
release itself from it.” Charles H.
Spurgeon
HEART SAVOR
·
God is near
to His children not far away. His eyes
and heart are even on us.
·
Those who
call on the Lord will renew their strength – soaring on wings like eagles; they
will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
·
God
always hears our cries for mercy. He is
worthy of great praise!
