Tuesday, April 28, 2009

He's Teaching Me

There are certain books on our shelves... books that are worn, the pages have creases, the binding is coming off...  These are books that you are able to read again and again, books that bring encouragement and laughter or maybe they teach and challenge us.  They bring life.

One such book for me is Streams in the Desert.  I've read it for several years now.  I don't read it daily and sometimes it will sit on the shelf for months but then there are those times when it seems to be calling me and I find myself going to pick it up, finding that days reading and it is usually at that point that the words written within begin to speak to me...  


Unfortunately, a great number of people play at praying. They do not expect God to give them an answer, so they simply squander their prayer time. Our heavenly Father desires us to transact real business with Him in our praying. 
Charles H. Spurgeon

.:.


Their strength is to sit still. 
Isaiah 30:7


There is a perfect passivity that is not laziness. It is a living stillness born of trust. Quiet tension is not trust but simply compressed anxiety.


.:.


We must have periods of lonely meditation and fellowship with God. Our souls must have times of fellowship with Him on the mountain and experience valleys of quiet rest in the shadow of a great rock. We must spend some nights beneath the stars, when darkness has covered the things of earth, silenced the noise of human life, and expanded our view, revealing the infinite and the eternal. All these are absolutely essential as food is for our bodies.
In this way alone can the sense of God's presence become the unwavering possession of our souls, enabling us to continually say, as the psalmist once wrote, "You are near, O Lord" (Psalm 119:151) F.B. Myer



The Lord has been using this simple daily devotional to speak to me the last several weeks.  prayer...  being still...  having God near... all things that I need to learn.


What are your favorite books?  The books that have changed you... the books that have drawn you closer to Him?  I'd love to hear!

5 comments:

  1. stillness is so what I need right now and what I struggle with... this was a wonderful post and most needed for me to read :)

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  2. oh and I really like the book I am reading now - becoming God's true woman.

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  3. I needed this today--thank you. It is funny, I have been praying for "stillness" for 2 years and now that it is here--I've been pestering God about, "what is coming?" "What is next" "When, when, when" we really are like small children He guides along, even when we need to learn the same lesson over and over again.
    Blessings,
    Holly

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  4. Let's see. . . I'ld have to say : The War of Words by Paul David Tripp, The Heart of Anger by Lou Priolo, Shepherding a Child's Heart by Ted Tripp, and The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges among others.
    Like you, I read them over and over and over again.

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  5. I really like Corrie Ten Boom, Oswald Chambers, and others...my sister is borrowing me some books by Amy Carmichael which I am looking forward to reading. My Bible is the #1 book that I like...:)Missionary stories are always REALLY challenging to me and help me put things into perspective!!

    How are you doing? Hope all is just swell with your family! Thank you for your sweet comments about Ella on my blog! Say, I have a neat quote about babies by a Elizabeth Prentiss or something...I think I might have saw it here...is it alright if I use it on my blog? I can't remember where I got it, but I think it was here...:)

    Hope you are having a WONDERFUL Monday!
    Amy

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