Something I hope I can encourage you...

000Hi!  Just a thought that I hope will encourage you in your own daily battles.
 
000Here's my devotional meditation today from Oswald Chambers, "My Utmost for His Highest".  He was a British chaplain from WWII, deep and sometimes uses British vocab.  but he is profound and the book worth getting.  It's a devotional to use annually.  They are excerpts from his teachings at his Bible College and to the soldiers during the war.  They are tremendous—I have used it for several years now.
 
000With all of the challenges you and I face—Abiding in Jesus is a truth and a secret we must begin to live by.  I too struggle with all the battles and challenges here.  Going through more worker attitudes and problems, security issues—just had a former worker break into the compound at 6:15 am and forcibly kidnap a boy.  We have gotten child back but Congolese police don’t even want to press charges.  I am now making arrangements for fulltime police escort.  I am more troubled than anything—in my heart.  I did not come to live like this.  THAT IS WHY THIS DAILY MEDI TATION SPOKE SO DEE PLY TO ME.   You may not face police issues, but you face your own MOUNTAINS and deep trials.  That is why I thought of you—just hoping you might be encouraged as I!  He is our All in All and He is Worth it All!
 
June 7th:  Don't Slack Off
 
"Whatever you shall ask in My name, that will I do."  Jn. 14:13
 
000Am I fulfilling this ministry of the interior?  There is no snare or any danger of infatuation or pride in intercession, it is a hidden ministry that brings forth fruit whereby the Father is glorified.  Am I allowing my spiritual life to be frittered away, or am I bringing it all to one center--the Atonement of my Lord?  Is Jesus Christ more and more dominating every interest in my life?  If the one central point, the great exerting influence in my life is the Atonement of the Lord, then every phase of my life will bear fruit for Him.
 
000I MUST TAKE TIME TO REALIZE WHAT IS THE CENTRAL POINT OF POWER.  Do I give one minute out of sixty to concentrate upon it? "If you abide in Me"--continue to act and think and work from that center--"you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you."  AM I ABIDING?  Am I taking time to abide?  What is the greatest factor of power in my life?  Is it work, service, sacrifice for others, or trying to work for God?  The thing that ought to exert the greatest power in my life is the Atonement of the Lord.  It is not the thing we spend the most time on that molds us most; the greatest element is the thing that exerts the most power.  We must determine to be limited and to concentrate our affinities (personal loves and tendencies).
 
000"Whatsoever you shall ask in My Name, that will I do."  The disciple who abides in Jesus IS the will of the Father and his (my) apparent free choices are God's fore-ordained decrees.  Mysterious? Logically contradictory and absurd?  Yes! but a glorious truth to a saint.
 
Note:  It is worth taking time to search out in the dictionary and concordance the words "abide" and "Atonement".  This is a key for all of us.
 
You are in my love and prayers, MOM/Theresa