Down But Not Out

Scripture

Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything.

~2 Corinthians 6:10, NLT

Quote

The loftiest Psalms were the outcome of the deepest agony of the soul.

~William J. Bennett

The hardest ingredient in suffering is often TIME. A short sharp pain is easily borne but a stone lodged in your urinary track {kidney stone} is another matter. Some sorrows drag on and on. In the initial stages, we think to ourselves, “this cannot last,” and yet it does, day after day until it becomes month after month and then year after year. If we are not careful, the heart will lose it’s strength and apart from the grace of God, we are bound to sink in despair. David said in Psalm 73, My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

For decades our country depended on coal; it turned the wheels of industry and lit homes and fires long before electricity came into play. It is amazing the power and energy that is stored in coal which was produced over a long period of time by intense heat and lots of pressure. God never hurries the process of sanctification. He put Moses on the backside of a wilderness raising sheep for one third of life; this was his refining, his training for ministry. Joseph didn’t have a copy of Romans and was not familiar with Romans 8:28 but he did understand the principle, “God has the ability to make good come out of bad situations.” When God delays, He is not inactive, He is getting His instrument ready.

I love the paradoxes stated by Paul in 2 Corinthian 6…We are ignored, even though we are well known. We live close to death, but we are still alive. We have been beaten, but we have not been killed. Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything. Jack Taylor says, “The devil can’t do anything with a man like Paul. If the devil says, ‘I will give you something’, Paul says, ‘you can’t I have everything.’ If the devil threatens to take something away, Paul says, ‘you can’t, I don’t have anything.'”

There was a poem in STREAMS the other day and the last stanza went like this…

And now my heart and I are sweetly singing– Singing without instruments or strings; Drink abundant waters in the desert; Crushed, and yet soaring as on eagles wings.

Paul was crushed yet soaring. Remember Acts 16, Paul and Silas beaten to a pulp and thrown in jail, yet singing at midnight. Peter and John beaten for preaching in Jesus name, yet glorying in the fact they were counted worthy to suffer for His sake.

Watched a little news last night on Newsmax. Borders in a mess as chaos reigns among the dems. They don’t have a clue. In less than three months they have wrecked the economy and created a crisis on the border and now they don’t know what to do. I can tell them what to do: admit they cheated, resign, and reinstate Trump. Sounds like a plan to me.

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