A Rich Self

Gratitude, Trust 0

A rich self has a distinct attitude toward the past, the present, and the future.  It surveys the past with gratitude for what it has received, not with annoyance about what it hasn’t achieved or about how little it has been given.  A rich self lives in the present with contentment.  Rather than never having enough of anything except for the burdens others place on it, it is “always having enough of everything” (2 Corinthians 9:8).  It still strives, but it strives out of satisfied fullness, not out of the emptiness of craving.  A rich self looks toward the future with trust.  It gives rather than holding things back in fear of coming out too short, because it believes God’s promise that God will take care of it.  Finite and endangered, a rich self still gives, because its life is “hidden with Christ” in the infinite, unassailable, and utterly generous God, the Lord of the present, the past, and the future (see Colossians 3:3).

— Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge, p. 110

The Feeding of the Five Thousand

God, Healing, Letting Go, Trust 0

Another important part of the miracle is Jesus’ concern for the fragments, because he is always concerned about the broken things, the broken people.  Only when we realize that we are indeed broken, that we are not independent, that we cannot do it ourselves, can we turn to God and take that which he has given to us, no matter what it is, and create with it.

— Madeleine L’Engle, The Rock That Is Higher, quoted in Glimpses of Grace, compiled by Carole F. Chase, p. 63

The Child Inside

Children, Core Value, Relationships, Trust 0

For that delightful, exuberant, lovable child in us to come out and play and show his or her beautiful face in moments of intimacy and closeness, that child first has to be found.  Secondly, that child must know that if he or she comes out to play he or she will be protected, valued, cherished, and cared for.  That the child in us must feel this way isn’t optional:  it’s essential and a prerequisite to intimacy.

— Melody Beattie, Beyond Codependency, p. 185

Trusting God

God, Trust 0

Great faith believes in God even when he plays his hand close to his vest, never showing all his cards.  He has his reasons for doing so.  God wants to increase your “measure of faith” (Romans 12:3).  He does this whenever he conceals a matter, and you trust him nevertheless!

— Joni Eareackson Tada, Pearls of Great Price, February 19 entry

Faith in God and from God

Guidance, Trust 0

When God tells us something or asks us to do something, the faith to believe it or to do it comes with the word from God….

Faith is the product of the spirit; it is a spiritual force.  The enemy doesn’t want you and me to get our mind in agreement with our spirit.  He knows that if God places faith in us to do a thing, and we get positive and start consistently believing that we can actually do it, then we will do considerable damage to his kingdom.

— Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind, p. 98-99

Letting the Master Sleep

Trust 0

“Where is your faith?” he asked them, and suddenly I realized that shrieking to Jesus to help me and having faith that he would take care of me were not the same thing.  Faith, that elusive gift that I could not earn, did nevertheless require doing something, something specific.  I had to calm myself with the certainty that I was loved and would be taken care of.  “Like a weaned child with its mother,” I had to calm myself enough to let my master sleep.

— Patty Kirk, Confessions of an Amateur Believer, p. 248

Even If Not

Forgiveness, God, Trials, Trust 0

He knows your heart, dear one.  He has not left you alone.  And by trusting in His sovereign wisdom, goodness, and love, you, too, may one day see the sweet restoration of everything you’ve prayed for.

But even if not, you will have found a refuge in His will and in His care — a blessed place that is reached only by those who trust His heart — and keep trusting it even when the darkness closes in around them.

— Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Choosing Forgiveness, p. 165

True Safety

God, Trust 0

Our distress over money doesn’t come so much from a lack of it as from our belief that it can protect us.  And yet, no bank account can be fat enough nor health potion strong enough to protect anyone.  The world is a place of fear and danger.  You can feel safe, but only in God.  As our place in God’s heart dawns on us, we see money as one of the world’s more amusing preoccupations, and we become more generous with the little of it we have.

— Hugh Prather, Spiritual Notes to Myself, p. 25