Rest In Him

Our Father never does a thing suddenly.

He has always prepared long, long before. So there is nothing to murmur about, nothing to be proud of, in the calling of God. There is also no one of whom to be jealous, for other people's advantages have nothing to do with us.

'It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that hath mercy' (Romans 9:16). 

Our heritage, our birth, our natural equipment:

 These are things already determined by God. We may pick up other things in the way, for we are always learning; but the way is His way. When we look back over our life, we bow and acknowledge that all was prepared of God. To have such an attitude of heart, that is true rest. -W.N.

"He has created us through our union with Christ Jesus for doing good deeds which He beforehand planned for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10, Wms.).

The turning point in our Christian life comes when we begin to "let God be God," the day we throw all caution (fear) to the winds and look to Him to carry out His purpose for us in His own time and way.

Let us take care lest we get out of soul-rest in seeking further blessing. God cannot work while we are anxious, even about our spiritual advance. Let us take Him at His Word, and leave the fulfillment of it to Him.

"For it is God Himself whose power creates within you the desire to do His gracious will and also brings about the accomplishment of the desire" (Philippians 2:13, Weymouth).

By Miles Stanford, Author of The Green Letters: Principles of Spiritual Growth

How Your Faith Grows Strong

There is a plan for spiritual growth.

The Lord is in charge. He will establish you. 

"But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil." (2 Thessalonians 3:3).

Though we receive our faith from Him, it must be developed in us by Him. Undeveloped faith never progresses beyond the babe-in-Christ, milk-of-the-Word stage. 

"But solid food is for adults that is, for those who through constant practice have their spiritual faculties carefully trained to distinguish good from evil. Therefore leaving elementary instruction about the Christ, let us advance to mature manhood" (Hebrews 5:14-6:1, Weymouth).

You will never learn faith in comfortable surroundings.

God gives us promises in a quiet hour; He seals our covenants with great and gracious words. Then He steps back and waits while we believe; then He lets the tempter come, and the test seems to contradict all that He has spoken. It is then that faith wins its crown. Then is the time to look into His face and say, 'I believe, Lord, that it shall be done as it was told me.'"

"Without trials of faith we should all be ruined. These trials give us opportunities of linking on to the mighty promises of God and finding through the trials come blessing that wonderfully glorifies Him, or else, missing God, turns the blessing into a burden that fills the heart with weariness and pain." -G.W.

Trust Him. His Love for you will pull you closer to Him and mature your faith. Just like physical growth, it happens over time. 

Adapted from Miles Stanford

Life's Purpose

By Miles J. Stanford

For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. (Colossians 2:9).

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19).

Christian growth is the becoming real in ourselves, of what is already true of us in the Lord Jesus.

'I am the vine, ye are the branches, He says. But the vine furnishes the branches, not only with the principle of life, but with the type of life. No pressure or molding from without is needed to shape them to the pattern of the parent stock. Every minutest peculiarity of form, and color, and taste, and fragrance is determined by the root, and developed from it. A true believer, therefore, will ask no better thing of the Lord than that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in his body (2 Corinthians 4:11).

"For such a manifestation will, by a necessary principle, be the unfolding within him of every needed element of joy and sorrow, of suffering and triumph." A.J. Gordon

"Straining, driving effort does not accomplish the work God gives a man to do; we must partake of Christ so fully that He more than fills the life. It will then be not overwork but overflow.

So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. (Colossians 2:10).