CHRISTmas time!

Once again, the most wonderful time of the year, to remember the birth of Christ and count all the blessings in our lives =)

During break, have been reading Passion & Purity by Elizabeth Elliot, excellent excellent book, would recommend this to everyone, single, dating, or married! She speaks so much wisdom and truth, also lots of excerpts from her own journal and Jim Elliot's letters, as well as many examples of reader's letters to her. Very interesting read, feel likes she echoed a lot of my thoughts and answered lots of my questions

Notes & Excerpts to share during this Christmas time! :) 

• God wants us to be happy, but doesn't mean He'll give us everything we want. (e.g. Adam & Eve, fell into snake's reasoning --"How could He love them if He didn't let them have the fruit?", "God must be stingy")
• Learning to wait patiently, it doesn't come naturally to most of us, but it's an important discipline for anyone who wants to learn to trust.

Psalm 25:5- "Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day"

• We die in order to live. 
  A seed falls into the dark earth and dies. Out of its death comes multiplied life.  "It is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."  It takes faith to believe this.

Isaiah 40:27-31.

Why do you complain, Jacob?

    Why do you say, Israel,

“My way is hidden from the Lord;

    my cause is disregarded by my God”?

28 Do you not know?

    Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

    the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

    and his understanding no one can fathom.

29 He gives strength to the weary

    and increases the power of the weak.

30 Even youths grow tired and weary,

    and young men stumble and fall;

31 but those who hope in the Lord

    will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

    they will run and not grow weary,

    they will walk and not be faint.

S.D. Gordon:

Steadfastness, that is holding on;

Patience, that is holding back;

Expectancy, that is holding the face up;

Obedience, that is holding one's self in readiness to go or do;

Listening, that is holding quiet and still so as to hear.

Isaiah 59:9

So justice is far from us,

    and righteousness does not reach us.

We look for light, but all is darkness;

    for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Psalm 37:5 "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass."

"Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart" - George Croly, hymn:

        Teach me to feel that thou art always nigh;
        teach me the struggles of the soul to bear.
        To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh,

        teach me the patience of unanswered prayer. 

Loneliness-

Be still and know that He is God.  When you are lonely, too much stillness is exactly the thing that seems to be laying waste your soul.  Use that stillness to quiet your heart before God.  Get to know Him.  If He is God, He is still in charge.

Remember that you are not alone.  "The Lord, He it is that doth go with thee.  He will not fail thee neither forsake thee.  Be strong and of good courage." (Deut. 31:8)  Jesus promised His disciples, "Lo, I am with you always." (Matt. 28:20)  Never mind if you cannot feel His presence.  He is there, never for one moment forgetting you.

Give thanks.  In times of my greatest loneliness I have been lifted up by the promise of 2 Corinthians 4:17, 18, "For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen." This is something to thank God for.  This loneliness itself, which seems a weight, will be far outweighed by glory.

Refuse self-pity.  Refuse it absolutely.  It is a deadly thing with power to destroy you.  Turn your thoughts to Christ who has already carried your griefs and sorrows.

 Accept your loneliness.  It is one stage, and only one stage, on a journey that brings you to God.  It will not always last.

Offer up your loneliness to God, as the little boy offered to Jesus his five loaves and two fishes.  God can transform it for the good of others.

Do something for somebody else.  No matter who or where you are, there is something you can do, somebody who needs you.   Pray that you may be an instrument of God's peace, that where there is loneliness you may bring joy.

Your choices:

Rebellion-- if this is the will of God for me now, He doesn't love me.

Rejection-- if this is what God is giving me, I won't have any part of it.

Faith-- God knows exactly what He's doing

Acceptance-- He loves me; He plans good things for me; I'll take it.

Taken in a spirit of trust, even loneliness contributes to the maturing of character, even the endurance of separation and silence and that hardest thing of all, uncertainty, can build in us a steady hope.