My dear child, I want to tell you how much I rejoice in you. It grieves Me that so many of My children do not believe I enjoy them. They are so constantly distracted by their inadequacies. They imagine I look at them with a frown instead of a smile.
Think of the joy a father and mother have when their child is born. What great joy I had when you were born again! I caused all heaven to rejoice.
I want My joy to be in you and your joy to be full. Many of your inhibitions have gone, haven’t they? I love to break through all that stuff. It’s great when you want to skip and dance and rejoice with Me. This is My joy in you. Don’t you realize I was already rejoicing before it even occurred to you?
Joy is not emotional response to situations. I am not an emotion; I am spirit. Joy is a fruit of My Spirit in your life. I don’t want to see that joy suffocated by problems and cares that concern you.
I never take My joy away from you. It is always within you and can always be expressed in your life.
For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Isaiah 66:2 (KJV)
Prodigal: Remembering sometimes, what God gave us.
Me: Yes, that is the truth.
This is from the book The Soul Winner by C.H. Spurgeon
Such a man was Paul. I am not about to set him on a pedestal, so that you may look at him and marvel, much less that you may kneel down and worship him as a saint. I mention Paul because what he was, every one of us ought to be. Even though we cannot share in his office, not being apostles, and even though we cannot share in his talents or his inspirations, we still ought to be possessed by the same Spirit that motivated him. Let me also add that we ought to be possessed by it in the same degree.
Do you take exception to that? I ask you what was there in Paul, by the grace of God, that may not be in you? What did Jesus do for Paul more than He has done for you? He was divinely changed; so have you been changed if you have passed from darkness into marvelous light. He had much forgiven him; so have you also been freely pardoned. He was redeemed by the blood of the Son of God; so have you been–at least, so you, if you are truly such as your profession of Christianity makes you out to be.
Owing your salvation to Christ, being debtors to the precious blood of Jesus, and being quickened by the Holy Spirit, why should you not bear the same fruit the same sowing? Why not the same effect from the same cause? Do not tell m that the apostle was an exception and cannot be set up as a rule or model for more common folk, for I will have to tell you that we must be as Paul was if we hope to be where Paul is.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed. Acts 16:26 (KJV)
Prodigal: When the enemy under estimates God,,well….
Me: Yes, that is like a little league team playing against super bowl champions.
This is from Barlett’s Familiar Quotations
Sir Winston Churchill at a cabinet meeting during World War II was encouraging no surrender. He said, “I find it rather inspiring (to stand alone). Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.”
For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. James 3:16 (KV)
Me: I can see why, but hold on, I will help clear your path.
This is from A.M. Toplady
When we in darkness walk,
Nor feel the heavenly flame,
Then is the time to trust our God,
And rest upon His name.
For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. 1 Thessalonians 2:9 (KJV)
We cannot think rightly of God until we begin to think of Him as always being there, and there first. Joshua had this to learn. He had been so long the servant of God’s servant Moses, and had with such assurance received God’s word at his mouth, that Moses and the God of Moses had become blended in his thinking, so blended that he could hardly separate the two thoughts; by association they always appeared together in Joshua’s mind. Now Moses is dead, and lest the young Joshua be struck down with despair God spoke to him with assurance, “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.” Moses was dead, but the God of Moses still lived. Nothing changed; nothing had been lost. Nothing of God dies when a man of God dies.
And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the LORD. Ezekiel 6:7 (KJV)