Him Whom I have not seen, I love » Peace

Futile efforts

~Bryant — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 02:13:18 +0000

What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could be like gods — be their own masters — invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history — money :: poverty :: ambition :: war :: prostituion :: classes :: empires :: slavery — the long terrible story of

man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

Terrific energy is expended — civilizations are built up — excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong.

That is the key to history.

The reason why it can never succeed is this: God made us; invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on gasoline, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself.

He Himself is the fuel our sprirts were designed to burn,

or the food our spirits were designed to feed on.

There is no other.

That is why it is just no good asking God to make up happy in our own way with out bothering about Him.

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself,

because it is not there.

There is no such thing.

C. S. Lewis

Thou hast made us for Thyself,

and the heart of man is restless

until it finds its rest in Thee.

St. Augustine

Accepting His will

~Bryant — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 02:32:00 +0000

“And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ…”

Ephesians 1:9

In acceptance lieth peace,

O, my heart be still;

Let thy restless worries cease,

And accept His will.

Thought this test be not thy choice,

It is His–therefore rejoice.

In His plan there cannot be,

Ought to make thee sad;

If this is His choice for thee,

Take it and be glad.

Make from it some lovely thing

To the glory of thy King!

Cease from sighs and murmuring,

Sing His loving grace,

This thing means thy furthering,

To a weathly place.

From thy fears He’ll give release,

In acceptance lieth peace.

-Hannah Hurnard

In the cleft of the Rock

~Bryant — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:54:00 +0000

So helpless a thing my heart
—and, oh, so small—
All overwhelmed, it looks to You for strength,
Nor looks in vain;
Long it has struggled on, and now at length
is crushed again.
Eager with expectation, rising but to fall,
Wearily it longs for that great Rock
“higher than I,”
Where, with Your strength absorbing every shock,
Calm shall I lie.

-Ruth Bell Graham

“He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”

-Psalm 62:2

What a blessed comfort we can attain in the “cleft of the Rock”.

I find not only protection in its vastness, but confidence in its strength.

I find an immediate shelter where I can gain peace—

for peace is not easily gained when confronted with troublesome times.

How precious to have a place to hide our spirit when our flesh cannot run away!

“Rock of Ages cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.”

Only in surrender

~Bryant — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:28:00 +0000

“Jesus’s presence always brought astonishing peace to me no matter how bad the situation I was in. Whenever I was in prison, He was always there for me.

He transformed the jail into a heaven and the burdens became blessings.

There are many Christians who do not feel His glorious presence as something real, because for them Jesus only occurs in their minds and not in their heart.

Only when someone surrenders his heart to Jesus can he find HIM.”

-Sundar Singh

Martyr in Tibet

1929

Peace

~Bryant — Thu, 31 May 2007 14:38:00 +0000

Peace is the deliberate adjustment of my life

to the will of God.

-Anonymous

“Agree with God, and be at peace…

Receive instruction from His mouth,

and lay up His words in your heart.”

-Job 22:21

Perfect Peace

~Bryant — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 01:31:00 +0000

I know I said I would not be posting for two weeks, but I had a minute tonight, and wanted to post one reflection from my day! :-)

This moring during family devotions, we sang the hymn Like a River Glorious. I have sung this song so many times that I know it word for word by heart. Rarely do I take the time to think about what I am singing, but this morning I did. The words really are amazing! The first and third verses especially “struck” me. Read them carefully, and your eyes will be opened to how truly amazing is His peace, perfect peace!

:::::::::::::::::::::::::

Like a river glorious is God’s perfect peace,

Over all victorious in its bright increase,

Perfect yet it floweth, fuller every day,

Perfect yet it groweth, deeper all the way!

Every joy or trial falleth from above,

Traced upon our dial by the Son of Love,

We may trust Him fully, all for us to do

They who trust Him wholly, find Him wholly true!

Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest!

Finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest!

::::::::::::::::::

“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you…”

~Isaiah 26:3

We may trust Him fully, all for us to do

They who trust Him wholly, find Him wholly true!

Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest!

Finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest!

Waterfall photograph by Bethany Wissmann

A sermon by George Whitefield…

~Bryant — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 23:08:00 +0000

Before you can speak peace to your heart, you must be brought to see that God may damn you for the best prayer you ever put up; you must be brought to see that all you duties–all you righteousness… are so far from recommending you to God, are so far from being any motive and inducement to God to have mercy on our poor soul, that He will see them to be filthy rags…that God hates them, and
cannot away with them, if you bring them to Him in order to recommend you to his favor. My dear friends, what is there in our performances to recommend us unto God?

~The Method of Grace–George
Whitefield

I read this sermon by George Whitefield for school. It is a very convicting read, and speaks cleary about sin, peace, and God’s grace working in the heart of sinners. I highly recommend this sermon!!!