Lazaroo – Wednesday, August 19, 2009
5 comments, Aug 19, 2009
Pray the words of this Lazaroo aloud, with every fiber of your being:
“Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
(James 1:4)
Perseverance.
Oh, Jesus.
This one’s hard.
You want me to hang in there
when I don’t want to
when others don’t want me to
when I don’t feel up to it
when I’m weary of the battle
when I’m
fed up
used up
and want to give up
But I can’t.
Not if I want to mature.
Not if I want to be complete.
Not if I want to want to taste the sweet spiritual contentment that lacks nothing.
And I do.
Oh LORD, how I do!
Which means I have to persevere.
Even though it’s hard.
But it’s supposed to be hard, isn’t it?
No shortcut over, under or around.
Only through the fire.
so that I will come out on the other side
as pure gold.
_________
Hebrew 5:7-9; Proverbs 24:16; Hebrew 12:2-13; John 6:27-29; Jeremiah 30:7; Matthew 10:22; Matthew 24:10-13; 1 Corinthians 3:11-15; Philippians 1:27-28; Job 23:8-10
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Ken Ferry Says:
Steve, You might have already known that I was out of town yesterday, so the late comment. But, as always with God, the timing is perfect. I just got back to my desk after a meeting that has left me wondering if I should just pack it in and leave this job. This is definitely an answer to some very recent praying, even though not necessarily what I wanted to hear. Difficult truths are generally hard pills to swallow.
Thanks for your faithfulness.
Aug 19, 2009, 11:13 am