Thirteen week journey.......
Last night a few people gathered in my living room...we were all here to start a 13 week journey through Griefshare. We all come from different backgrounds, we are all at different ages and stages of life...but we all have one thing in common...the loss of at least one loved one...we may be accepting, we may be in denial, we may be angry, we may be anywhere on the life scale of grief, but the Kleenex box was passed freely.....most of us were strangers until last night, but now we have chosen to walk a path together ....listening to God, receiving His comfort and Grace....sharing in the pain, the joys, the tears, the revelations, the Word, the light shining in the dark times of our lives, the growth.....
The lessons are guided through DVDs and a workbook, but they are also freeing to let our lives be open to what God has to say to each one of us, how He leads us into a "new normal" life...what paths He opens for each one of us...what new directions He takes us...how He comforts us through Himself as a Father, the Holy Spirit as a truth bearer and revealer, Jesus as a redeemer and fellow sufferer...
Growth through pain and joy, comfort through trials, and seeing God's fingerprint gifts of timing...we share them all....guilt free laughter and tears....cookie and tea...lives bonding....
We can do this by God's strength ....He lifts us up, sets us on a path, and then joins us..even explaining the scriptures as Jesus did on the road to Emmaus.....thank YOU for Your protection, comfort, guidance...help each one of us to be enfolded in your arms, comforted...help us to comfort others along their paths as well...that we would reflect Your light....
Psalm 119:50 My comfort in my suffering is this:Your promise preserves my life.
2 Corinthians 1:3-7 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
I thought this following devotional apropos to include...
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He also said, This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how (Mark 4:26-27).
This is a secret of the kingdom of God, and to me it is one of the most encouraging of all the parables Jesus ever uttered. He is speaking of how this rule of God increases, how it grows in a life. He explains it as a coming to harvest by a patient expectation that God will work. The key of this whole passage is, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. That is, there are forces at work that will be faithful to perform their work—whether a farmer stews and frets about it or not. Farmers do what they can do, what is expected of them. But then God must work. And God will work. And in the confidence of that, this farmer rests secure. As Jesus draws the picture this farmer goes out to sow. It is hard work as he sows the field, but this is what he can do. But then he goes home and goes to bed. He does not sit up all night biting his fingernails, wondering if the seed fell in the right places or whether it will take root. Nor does he rise the next morning and go out and dig it up to see whether or not it has sprouted yet. He rests secure in the fact that God is at work, that He has a part in this process, and He must do it; no one can do it for Him. But he will faithfully perform it. So the farmer rests secure, knowing that as the seed grows there are stages that are observable: first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. It is only as the grain is ripe that he is called into action again. When the harvest is ready, then he is to act once more.
This is exactly what Paul describes for us in that passage in 1 Corinthians 3:9a: For we are God's fellow workers. This is the way we ought to expect Him to work. It involves a witness first, perhaps a word of teaching or exhortation to someone—or to ourselves. And then an inevitable process begins, one that takes time and patience and allows God to work. One of the most destructive forces at work in the church today is our insistent demand for instant results. We want to have immediate conversions, immediate responses every time we speak. We tend not to allow time for the Word to take root and grow and come to harvest.
I have watched a boy in Peninsula Bible Church (PBC) growing up since grade school. I watched him come into adolescence and enter into a period of deep and bitter rebellion against God. I watched his parents, hurt and crushed by his attitudes, yet nevertheless praying for him—saying what they could to him—but above all holding him up in prayer. I watched the whole process as the seed that had been sown in his heart took root and began to grow. There were tiny observable signs of change occurring. Gradually he came back to the Lord. And as an adult young man, he asked me to fill out a reference for him to go to seminary. That is the Word growing secretly. The sower knows not how it happens but can rest secure in this.
Our Lord is teaching us the fantastic truth that God is at work. It does not all depend on us!
Thank You, Lord that I can trust that as I do my part and sow the seed of Your Word wherever I can, You will do the rest.
Life Application: We have the privilege of sowing the fertile seed of the gospel. Do we trust the sovereign work of the Spirit to produce a harvest, or rely on our own effectiveness?
Related Message: This daily devotional was inspired by one of Ray's messages. Please read "Seed Thoughts" or listen to Ray for more on this portion of scripture.
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Copyright © 2007 by Elaine Stedman — This daily devotion is from the book The Power of His Presence: a year of devotions from the writings of Ray Stedman; compiled by Mark Mitchell. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice and a hyperlink to www.RayStedman.org if the copy is posted on the Internet.
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