The Crucible of Love
Love is easy when it blesses.
But what happens to you when love lacks benefit, becomes a cross to bear, or a curse upon you?
Oswald Chambers asks a question which causes me to pause:
Have you come to the place where God can withdraw His blessings and it does not affect your trust in Him? (1)
I would be lying if I claimed that a withdrawal of God’s blessing would not affect my trust in Him.
This is why I cling to these verses:
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for God is with me; His rod and His staff, they comfort me.
Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (2)
In those times when doubt has crept into my heart and mind these verses remind me that God never withdraws His blessing from me.
I may perceive God has withdrawn His blessing, but He does not.
God sends His blessings in comforts and in difficulties, in joy and in sorrow, in praise and in discipline, in gain and in loss.
Knowing this sustains me when His love is greater than a warm fuzzy for the day.
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Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year (Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986).
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The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Psalm 23:4, Romans 8:39, and Hebrews 4:16.
Amen, well said!!!!