My migraines have been oppressive lately...to my body and spirit...but God is faithfully comforting and leading me through...day by day, moment by moment...and although reading tends to make them worse...I have been led to some great nuggets to encourage me to view life correctly...because just like everything else that I go through...I want to grow more like my Savior...I don't want to stay the same.
Here's a great nugget from this week:
Every day God appoints a measure of pleasure and pain for that day—like the old Swedish hymn says:
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure,
Gives unto each day what He deems best—
Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.
Kind beyond all measure, the Lord gives pain and pleasure to each day as he deems best. We don't always agree enthusiastically with what God deems best for us. It is hard for us to feel that he is kind beyond all measure when he gives us pain. Causing pain is not generally equated with showing kindness. Especially if God's measure for one day is a lot more than another day. But it's true, as we will see more fully in a moment. God gives each day his wise and loving measure of pain and pleasure.
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There is a secret to the Christian life here that I want you to get a handle on. If you don't—if you go on desperately needing to feel today the strength for tomorrow, then it seems to me that either you will cave in under the pressure of excessive anxieties, or you will find a worldly strategy for developing immense ego strength and persuade yourself that you really are sufficient for tomorrow's troubles.
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Why are they new every morning? Why does God do it that way? It's not because yesterday's mercies were bad or weak. It's because they were yesterday's. Yesterday's mercies were for yesterday's burdens. Today's mercies are for today's burdens. They are new every morning. They are like the manna in the wilderness: you can't keep it overnight. Enough comes for each day. You live on God day by day, or you don't live on God.
The Swedish hymn gets it right again. The second verse says,
Every day the Lord himself is near me,
With a special mercy for each hour.
A special mercy for each hour. The mercy to carry you through this hour is given in this hour.
This article/sermon is LONG...and wonderful...go check out the rest of it if you have time!
1 comment:
Thanks for this post - I really like John Piper but have not read as much as I'd like of his stuff. Isn't it amazing how a phrase or scripture you've heard your whole life comes life? Mercies. New. Every Morning. What a cure for worry and anxiety.
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