Tried And Tested

HEBREWS 3:7-11

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
"Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
In the day of trial in the wilderness,
Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
And saw My works forty years.
Therefore I was angry with that generation,
And said, 'They always go astray in their heart,
And they have not known My ways.'
So I swore in My wrath,
'They shall not enter My rest.'"
[NKJV]

My grandmother used to say that our lives on this earth is a time of trial and testing, a time of preparation for the life everlasting. As a boy and then a young man, I felt that I understood, but really only in part. I didn’t have the life experience to know the deeper truth.

Our lives are filled with tests and trials, there is no doubt of that, and we can ask “for what purpose?” The answer is always, if we have fully given ourselves to Him in faith, that we are being honed and shaped to be as He needs us to be. It is a father teaching His child about His ways that the child may become a man — or in our walk in the Spirit — the man, Jesus Christ.

Father God allows the trials and tests so that we lean on His arm, as we read in Song of Songs 8:5-6 …

Who is this coming up from the wilderness,
Leaning upon her beloved?
I awakened you under the apple tree.
There your mother brought you forth;
There she who bore you brought you forth.
[The Shulamite to Her Beloved]
Set me as a seal upon your heart,
As a seal upon your arm;
For love is as strong as death,
Jealousy as cruel as the grave;
Its flames are flames of fire,
A most vehement flame.

Today, let us set Him as a seal, upon our hearts, upon our arms, as we already are for Him; that our passion for Him is A most vehement flame.

Gill wrote this on her love_dove_studio Instagram page a few days ago …

One thing in life is certain…it is uncertain. And that is part of the beauty, the sadnesses, the joy, the surprises. It all depends what you do with it all…how we respond to any given day, whatever it may bring. We can stand strong, or we can fall apart. We can be shaken.
I had a bit of a quake at the end of last week. Indeed, I was in a bit of shock at news received. But once settled, and digging deep, I am set on the path once more. I have peace. The sad news has not changed, but my reaction to it has.
For me, my digging deep is my faith, for you it may be the same or something different. It is my anchor in all things, the thing that makes sense of all things, that sheds light and understanding abroad in my heart.
Just like the lighthouse [in the photograph]…a symbol of warning and a guide to safer waters.
GILL STEWART

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‘MEDITATE ON THESE THINGS’

1 SAMUEL 17:38-39 NKJV
So Saul clothed David with his armour, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also clothed him with a coat of mail. David fastened his sword to his armour and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, "I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them." So David took them off.

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This video, while not a hymn or song of praise, nonetheless less captures a bit of the message today.
Hope you enjoy it. Lean on Jesus as a guide to safer, more peaceful waters …

“Lean On Me” — Bill Withers

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A HOLY OCCUPATION: Oswald Chambers on PRAYER
— requires CHILDLIKENESS --

We pray pious blather; our will is not in it. And then we say God does not answer. We never asked for anything. “You will ask what you desire,” said Jesus. Asking means our will is in it.
Whenever Jesus talked about prayer, He put it with the grand simplicity of a child; we bring in our critical temper and say — Yes, but … Jesus said, “Ask.” But remember that we have to ask of God things that are in keeping with the God whom Christ revealed.
[from ‘My Utmost For His Highest’]

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Listen to this meditation by clicking below ...

22-02-03_tried_and_tested.m4a
File Size:	3404 kb
File Type:	m4a

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