Song of a Sparrow

Every day is a new adventure or battle.  I sometimes feel I really have no words to say because it's all the same.  Get up and face the world, acknowledge your dependence on God in the face of trials, and trust in dark times that He is still Sovereign.  I think my little battles with learning to live more Biblically and more obediently are difficult.  Until I hear of news that is far worse than a failing grade on an exam... Yesterday yet another person threw himself off the platform of the train station on Long Island (I'm sad to say it happens a lot) and sometimes it is hard to understand God's role in all of this.  This idea of free will and allowing people to not come to know who He is and how He saves is such a mystery to me.  Is it for lack of people taking up their cross and sharing the Gospel, or because this person chose not to believe in God?  How could a person be left to a point of such hopelessness as to take his own life?  If it bre...

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/single-satisfied-and-sent-mission-for-the-not-yet-married Just read it.  I couldn't say it better.

Lord, grant to me the gift of Great-Faith in these times of struggle, amidst feelings of defeat. Dear Reader, I'm sorry if I am redundant quoting other people all the time instead of just saying things myself, but it is amazing the number of ways God speaks to us and through us.  Once again Spurgeon's daily devotional drops into my email box and puts my gloomy attitude into perspective: Little-faith says, "It is a rough road, beset with sharp thorns, and full of dangers; I am afraid to go;" but Great-faith remembers the promise, "Your bars shall be iron and bronze, and as your days, so shall your strength be"; and so she boldly ventures. Little-faith stands despondently, mingling her tears with the flood; but Great-faith sings, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you," and she crosses the stream at once. Father, Son, and Spirit, let not these battles be the breaking of my l...

Just be reminded today that He does hear and He does answer prayers.  He is faithful indeed! If you've been reading my blog you know I've been complaining a bit about the work load and feeling stressed.  Do I still have work ahead of me?  Indeed, but I have to say prayer changes things. This morning I prayed remembering that God is who I am dependent on, not myself.  That He is merciful by making me go do my work instead of giving me the day off, because in His plan He knows what fruit that work may produce.  I asked Him this morning to "take me deeper than my feet could ever wander, and my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my Savior"(see the song I posted last time).  Trials shall be overcome not by looking at what we have ahead to tackle, but by looking at the Unchanging God.  Our moods don't have to shift with the trials and blessings of life because if we focus on our Lord who is Steadfast and True.  There are so many things I...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy9nwe9_xzw If you haven't heard the song "Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)" off the new Hillsong album, please take a moment to do so.  Another rough day of schoolwork that seems neverending and tests that were brutal.  I feel so wrong daring to complain.  But I heard this song this evening, a good start to the new day (it is past midnight right?) and was reminded to "keep my eyes above the ways." Yes Lord, forgive me, and help me to always keep my eyes above the waves.

I can't help myself but quote Elisabeth Elliot. Her words always come so simply, so profoundly, yet practically and succinctly. A verse she wrote in her college days so speaks into mine: "Lord, give to me a quiet heart That does not ask to understand, But confident steps forward in, The darkness guided by Thy hand." May my heart echo this little verse along with the words of a psalm: "Why so downcast, O my soul, why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in the Lord, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior, My God."

"My unmoving mansion of rest is my blessed Lord. Even when prospects are few and hopes are squashed and joy is waning, I have lost nothing of what I have in God. He is "my refuge" to which I continually return. I am a pilgrim in the world, but at home in my God. In the earth I wander, but in God I dwell in a quiet dwelling place." -Spurgeon I love my daily devotional email i get from TruthforLife.org. It tends to be so perfectly timed with the seasons o my life. Presently graduate school feels it will be the death of me, but I am slowly and painfully discovering what I am making into priorities v. what I should be making into priorities. I am learning the loneliness that will ensue if I cannot discipline myself to study well alongside friends- then I sentence myself to solitary study. I wanted life to be all fun and games but to make this season of life worthwhile, if I desire to do my best and honor God in it all, then "sacrifice" (so meager in comp...