The Forces Which Are At Work

       

           
The forces which are at work to bring a soul to ruin...

To prevent a man or a woman reaching God’s appointed and desired haven...

Are far greater and more terrible and persistent than anything that has ever been encountered in the natural realm of storms. 

Of course, you do not know that until you definitely set yourself in the direction of God’s will. 

A great many people in this world seem to be getting along very well, with not very much trouble...

And think that they are going (in that easygoing, carefree way) to get where God wants them to be. 

That Is An Illusion. 

Never yet has there been a definite and serious association with the will of God, the purpose of God...

Except there has been the rising of terrific conflict and tempest to try and make that realization impossible...

And I say when a man or a woman does seriously have an understanding with God that His will and purpose is to be realized in their life...

And that they are abandoned to Him for that...

Then such a life will know that it is not all plain sailing, easygoing. 

There will be forces which were not imagined arising to hinder that, to try and make that impossible.
 
~T. Austin Sparks~

GOD Is JEALOUS!

                                                                    
Nah 1:2  God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.

Your Lord is very jealous of your love, O believer.

Did he choose you? 

He cannot bear that you should choose another. 

Did he buy you with his own blood? 

He cannot endure that you should think that you are your own, or that you belong to this world.

He loved you with such a love that he would not stop in heaven without you; he would sooner die than you should perish, and he cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart’s love and himself.

He is very jealous of your trust. 

He will not permit you to trust in an arm of flesh. 

He cannot bear that you should hew out broken cisterns, when the overflowing fountain is always free to you.

When we lean upon him, he is glad, but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom, or the wisdom of a friend...worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own, he is displeased, and will chasten us that he may bring us to himself.

He is also very jealous of our company. 

There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus.

To abide in him only, this is true love...

But to commune with the world, to find sufficient solace in our carnal comforts, to prefer even the society of our fellow Christians to secret intercourse with him, this is grievous to our jealous Lord.

He would fain have us abide in him, and enjoy constant fellowship with himself...

And many of the trials which he sends us are for the purpose of weaning our hearts from the creature, and fixing them more closely upon himself.

Let this jealousy which would keep us near to Christ be also a comfort to us, for if he loves us so much as to care thus about our love we may be sure that he will suffer nothing to harm us, and will protect us from all our enemies.

Oh that we may have grace this day to keep our hearts in sacred chastity for our Beloved alone, with sacred jealousy shutting our eyes to all the fascinations of the world!

~Charles Spurgeon~