My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace.

"My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace,
Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God;
'Tis His to lead me there--not mine, but His--
At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.

So faith abounds forward to its goal in God,
And love can trust her Lord to lead her there;
Upheld by Him, my soul is following hard
Till God has full fulfilled my deepest prayer.

No matter if the way be sometimes dark,
No matter though the cost be oft-times great,
He knoweth how I best shall reach the mark,
The way that leads to Him must needs be strait.

One thing I know, I cannot say Him nay;
One thing I do, I press towards my Lord;
My God my glory here, from day to day,
And in the glory there my great Reward."

What a great hymn.

Dale out.

how beautiful...

How beautiful are the words "My grace is sufficient for you"!

Jesus is all I need.

to quote Rich Mullins,

"When my body lies in the ruins
of the lies that nearly ruined me,
will you pick up the pieces that were pure and true
and breathe life into them, and set them free?
And when you start this world over again from scratch,
will you make me anew out of stuff that lasts?
stuff thats purer than gold is, and clearer than glass
could ever be?
Can I be with you?

Can I be with you?"

Daingit.

Man, rejection sure stings.

God be in my head

"God be in my head and in my understanding,
God be in my eyes, God be in my looking.
God be in my mouth, God be in my speaking,
God be in my heart, God be in my thinking...
God be in my hands, God be in my reaching,
God be in my soul, God be in my seeking.
God be in my days, God be in my wanderings,
God be in my mind, God be all consuming."

I keep thinking of these words from Jared Anderson's "God be in my head."

It's a new time in my life, a time for growth and healing. I want God to fill me up.

God be in my heartache :)

The following is by Charles Spurgeon:

"God is gracious…
Because God is gracious, sinful people are forgiven, converted, purified, and saved. It’s not because of anything in them, or anything that ever can be in them, that they are saved; it’s because of the boundless love, goodness, pity, compassion, mercy, and grace of God.
It’s because “his love endures forever” (1 Chronicles 16:41) that we are not destroyed. It’s because “his compassions never fail” (Lamentations 3:22) that sinners are brought to Him and forgiven.
Remember these things or you may fall into error by focusing so much on your faith that you forget that grace is the source of faith itself.

Faith is the work of God's grace in us...
Faith is the work of God’s grace in us. No one can say that Jesus is the Christ except by the Holy Ghost. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44).
So faith is the result of divine drawing. Grace is the first and last cause of salvation while faith acts as an important part of the machinery which grace employs.
It’s important to remember that we’re saved “through faith,” but salvation is “by grace.” Faith occupies the position of a channel. Grace is the fountain and the stream; faith is the along which the flood of grace flows down to refresh the thirsty.
But faith is only the channel and not the fountainhead, and we must not place it above the grace of God. Our life is found in “fixing our eyes on Jesus,” (Hebrews 12:2) not in fixing our eyes on our own faith. By faith all things become possible to us; yet the power is not in the faith, but in the God upon whom faith relies.

Encouragment for those whose faith is weak…
So you see, the weakness of your faith will not destroy you. A trembling hand may receive a golden gift. The Lord’s salvation can come to us though we have only faith as a grain of mustard seed because the power lies in the grace of God, and not in our faith.
Great messages can be sent along slender wires, and the peace-giving witness of the Holy Spirit can reach the heart by means of a thread-like faith which seems almost unable to sustain its own weight.
Think more of Him to whom you look than of the look itself. You must look away even from your own looking, and see nothing but Jesus, and the grace of God revealed in Him."
- Charles Spurgeon

In the world...

Jesus said, "In the world you will have trouble. But take heart; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33). I usually take this to mean that we will face trials that come from living in this world, external diffculties and struggles.

But I think that Jesus also would include in this statement troubles that come from within. Often I think that if I can just get things straightened out on the inside, things will be smooth sailing. Or another way of saying it is: I have to get my sinfulness and personal struggles straightened out before I can depend on God.

I have recently been encouraged by Jesus' reminder: In this world you will also face trouble from within. Your insides will often work to betray you. You will often face personal failure. But take heart--I have overcome the world, and I am with you always.

:)

A reminder to myself

I always need to hear things like this:

"One day as I was passing into the field . . . this sentence fell upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in heaven. And methought, withal, I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God's right hand; there, I say, was my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, he wants [=lacks] my righteousness, for that was just before him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, 'The same yesterday, today, and forever.' " --John Bunyan

Taken from John Piper's biography on John Bunyan, http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Biographies/1480_To_Live_Upon_God_that_Is_Invisible