The dry places

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

Ps 105.41  He opened the rock, and water gushed forth; it flowed through the desert like a river.

Have any of us any dry places?  They may be out of sight of even loving eyes.  We may be ashamed to think there are such places when we have so much to fill our lives with song and praise, and yet there they are, dry places of longings, weariness, disappointment, difficulty of any sort, failure.

Oh, blessed be the love of God; ‘the waters . . . ran in dry places like a river.’  There is no need to go on in dryness.  ‘For the Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody’ [Is 31.3].  (Amy Carmichael, Edges of His Ways)

May this promise be fulfilled soon in each of us.

But how can we be happy?

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

Did some of you stumble on yesterday’s post: Every day?  Perhaps this from Amy Carmichael will help you, commenting on Ps 9.1-2: I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will tell of all thy wonderful deeds.  I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High. 

Joys are always on their way to us.  They are always travelling to us through the darkness of the night.  There is never a night when they are not coming.  So the Psalm for this morning should be the word of our heart every morning.  It is the ‘Every day’ word again.  ‘Every day I will bless Thee’.

If any of you feel, But how can we be happy while we are burdened by the sins and sorrows of the world?  I say to you, ‘O thou enemy, destructions are coming to a perpetual end. . . But the Lord shall endure for ever: . . . He shall judge the world in righteousness. . . ‘[Ps 9.6-8 P.B.V.].  The day when that word will be fulfilled is on its way, it is hastening.  So in faith and in certainty we rejoice, for sin and sorrow shall not endure for ever, they have an end. ‘But the Lord shall endure for ever:’ Alleluia.  (Edges, pp. 64-65)

May God lift up your heart today . . .

Every day

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

Still working through Amy Carmichael’s commentaries on various psalms.  I was struck by her words about Ps 145.2: Every day will I bless Thee; and I will praise Thy Name for ever and ever.  She writes: “Every day—that means this day.  On some days it is much easier to bless the Lord and praise Him than on other days, but there are not exceptions: ‘This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it’ (Ps 118.24).  Whatever the burdens, however sharp the conflict, the word is the same.” So this day may we each bless the Lord and rejoice in this day that He has made.  No matter what it may look like to our eyes, the spiritual reality is always the same: God is love and only love.

Delivered from all your fears

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

I have been “living” in the psalms this past year, relying on Derek Kidner’s commentaries and, more recently, working through some of Amy Carmichael’s comments on various psalms.  I thought I would share this one on Psalm 34 with you today:

Psalm 34.4, 6:  From all my fears . . . Out of all his troubles. 

My fear is not yours, but nearly everyone has, somewhere inside, a weary little fear which keeps cropping up.  But every time the fear pushes out its head, there, waiting to end it, is that glorious word, ‘delivered from all my fears.’ (Not from some, or from most, but from all.)

Out of all his troubles: this may find someone in trouble.  We may have to pass through the waters, but we shall be delivered out of them.  They will not overflow us. ‘This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.’  There again, it is not out of some, or out of most, but out of all.”  (Edges of His Ways, p. 23)

Great victories won by ordinary people

Sr. Dorcee, beloved4 Comments

A word of encouragement from Philip Yancey for those of you who wonder what difference your everyday life is making for the Kingdom of God:

I once watched a public television series based on interviews with survivors from World War II.  The soldiers recalled how they spent a particular day.  One sat in a foxhole all day; once or twice, a German tank drove by, and he shot at it.  Others played cards and frittered away the time.  A few got involved in furious firefights.  Mostly, the day passed like any other day for an infantryman on the front. Later, they learned they had just participated in one of the largest, most decisive engagements of the war, the Battle of the Bulge.  It did not feel decisive to any of them at the time, because none had the big picture of what was happening elsewhere.

Great victories are won when ordinary people execute their assigned tasks. . .I sometimes wish the Gospel writers had included details about Jesus’ life before he turned to ministry. For most of his adult life he worked as a village carpenter.  Did he ever question the value of the time he was spending on such repetitious tasks?

A word to last all through your day

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A reflection from Amy Carmichael on Ps 68.28: Thy God hath sent forth strength for Thee (P.B.V.)

Many of us know what it is to receive a word in the early morning that lasts all through the day.  We live on that word; we ‘feed on faithfulness’ [Ps 37.3 RV margin].

These few words from the Psalm for the day have been with me all through the hours. ‘Thy God hath sent forth strength for thee’.  The day lies before us.  It will bring us things that in ourselves we have no strength to meet.  That does not matter.  Our God has already sent forth strength for us.  It is like that other word, ‘My God with His lovingkindness shall come to meet me’ [Ps 59.10 Amer. Ver.].  Strength and lovingkindness—what more do we need?  That duty, that difficulty, which we see coming to meet us, what of it?  Our God hath already sent forth strength for us, and before the thing we fear can meet us on the road, our God with His lovingkindness shall meet us there.” (Edges of His Ways, pp. 21-22)

A quick way of escape

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Amy Carmichael in Edges of His Ways, July 13:

Dr. F. B. Meyer once told me that when he was young he was very irritable, and an old man told him that he had found relief from this very thing by looking up the moment he felt it coming, and saying, “Thy sweetness, Lord.”  By telling this, that old man greatly helped Dr. Meyer, and he told it to tens of thousands.  I pass it on to you because I have found it a certain and a quick way of escape. Take the opposite of your temptation and look up inwardly, naming that opposite; Untruth–Thy truth, Lord; Unkindness–Thy kindness, Lord; Impatience–Thy patience, Lord; Selfishness–Thy unselfishness, Lord; Roughness–Thy gentleness, Lord; Discourtesy–Thy courtesy, Lord; Resentment, inward heat, fuss–Thy sweetness, Lord, Thy calmness, Thy peacefulness.

I think that no one who tries this very simple plan will ever give it up.  (It takes it for granted, of course, that all is yielded–the “I” dethroned.) Will all to whom it is new try it for a day, a week, a month, and test it?