Another from "The Supplied Life." This is a remarkable verse -
"your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore"! It is really something to see that the Lord really does cause
all things to work together for good for us, isn't it!? This is not my natural inclination to think this way. When something apparently "bad" is happening to me, I tend to either think that God is upset with me or that it is all the enemies doing.
But if we believe He loves us without end, and is fully willing and capable to do the things He has promised ("able to present you before the glory of His throne faultless with exceeding joy" Jude 1:24), then all these things are actually working for us! These afflicting teachers are actually our "employees" as it says in 2 Cor 4:17,
"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." These things are working for us! Is this not amazingly good news that
"Faithful is He Who began a good work in you will finish it"!?!? (Phil 1:6)
Oh to see this more - that because of His most capable providence
all these things are actually used by Him to develop us into His loving purpose for us!
Quote:
Your teachers April 11th
"And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the
water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner
anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear
a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk in it, whenever you turn
to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left." ISAIAH 30:20-21
Often in our experience the Lord's voice in us encounters a deaf
or indifferent ear. When this occurs, the Lord has a way to turn
up the volume of His speaking. According to the Scriptures, His way
is to use our environment and circumstances to intensify His inner
speaking. This is the spiritual principle of discipline and chastise-
ment in the lives of all God's children (cf. Heb. 12:5-9), The effect
that God's discipline has on our ability to hear the Lord's voice is
clearly seen in the verses above.
When the Lord gives us the bread of adversity and the water of
affliction, He does it to get our attention, that we may hear His voice.
Adversity and affliction are described as teachers that are not hidden
in a corner anymore. Indeed, our eyes will see our teachers. These
teachers are different from brothers and sisters giving us outward
instructions. They are like personal tutors that are able to get our
attention so that we will listen to the Lord, They are sent by God
when all else seems to fail. Under God's sovereignty, the environ-
ments of adversity and affliction are used by Him to attain one end
- our hearing of the Lord's voice.
|