God Fixes Our Steps...

How kind God is to use various things to help us in our daily struggles. This was helpful and encouraging to me.

“Some of you are perplexed with a multitude of anxieties about your life.
You do not know what to do.
One plan was suggested, and for a time it seemed the best action.
But now you have doubts. You are bewildered and you cannot see Providence’s clue.
You are lost in a maze...

You have tried various ways and methods to escape your present difficulty. But you have been disappointed and are distracted.
Your thoughts have no order; they drag you in opposite directions.
The currents meet and twist as if you were in a whirlpool.

My perplexed friend, remember the children of Israel at the Red Sea.
The sea was before them, rocks were on either side,
and the cruel Egyptians roared in the rear. Imitate Israel’s actions.
‘Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord,
which He will accomplish for you today’ (Ex. 14.13)
You reply, ‘I cannot be quiet. I am agitated, perturbed, perplexed, tossed, and distracted.
What shall I do?’

‘In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul’ (Ps. 94.19)
Turn your eyes to the deep things of God.
Cease from an anxious consideration of seen things, which are temporary,
and gaze by faith on things that are eternal.

Remember your way is ordered by a higher power than your will and choice.
The eternal God has fixed your every step.
All things are fixed by the Father’s hand.
He who loved us from before the foundations of the world
has immutably determined every step of our pilgrimage.

It is a blessed thing,
after you have been muddling and meddling with your anxieties,
to throw your burdens on the Lord and leave them there.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon Beside Still Waters

Equally Lovely Lives Lived In Light Of Eternity...

I was thinking about two things this morning…the first was how many of us think we live ordinary, commonplace lives. The second, is Because we think we live commonplace lives, we can often waste a lot of time because we think there is no real need to hurry up and do the next great thing. At least I think this way sometimes.I am convinced that I am wrong on both accounts. In the first place, no one created by God is commonplace and though every person’s roles and positions look different, they are all equally necessary and important.

Nathan Zacharias gives an illustration in an article he wrote about varying roles, “Yes, the poppies are the ones that seem to make the biggest impact on those taking in the scenic view. But quickly the viewer realizes that the poppies' color is made radiant because of the golden color of the cornfields. Their strengths compliment each other. They are "equally lovely," in Boreham's words, and they both need each other. Alone, they both lose some of their radiance. Together, they cause people to simply stop and look. The same holds true for the roles God gives each one of us. Some of us are the poppies that make the initial impact. Some of us are the golden cornfields that surround, support, and help the poppy stand out. Neither side belittles the other, but rather, they help the other shine.”

Zacharias goes on to say…"We don't have to make headlines to be a success in life. It's not the news we make or the attention we get that determines whether or not we are making a difference in this world. It's the cause we serve. God has created each and every one of us, and he's given us very specific gifts that He will use to help further His kingdom. For some, it's the responsibility of success and using that to represent the Faith in the public eye. For others, it's the duty to support and encourage those on the front lines. As Boreham said, one is not greater than the other. It is a team effort. And ultimately, each of us has the chance to make a difference every day. It's not in the awards we win; it's in the character we hold to in our day to day lives.”

A commonplace life, we say and we sigh,
But why should we sigh as we say?
The commonplace sun and the commonplace sky
Makes up the commonplace day.
The moon and the stars are commonplace things,
And the flower that blooms and the bird that sings;
But dark were the world and sad our lot,
If the flowers failed and the sun shone not.
And God who studies each separate soul
Out of the commonplace lives makes His beautiful whole.—Anonymous

1 Corinthians 12:12 “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”

In light of all of this I have been challenged to live purposefully. I shouldn't wait for someone else to serve a family in the church, or preach the gospel to that person, or encourage the friend who’s going through a difficult time…I should live every minute to it’s fullest for His glory lest I lose it.

James 4:13-14 "Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes."

“Whence proceeds the great stupidity of men, who, bound fast to the present state of existence, proceed in the affairs of life as if they were to live two thousand years…. In short, men are so dull as to think that thirty years, or even a smaller number, are, as it were, an eternity; nor are they impressed with the brevity of their life so long as this world keeps possession of their thoughts…. How speedily our life vanishes away. The imagination that we shall have long life, resembles a profound sleep in which we are all benumbed.”-John Calvin

Tomorrow is never promised to us, so I know that I need to make the most of today. Commonplace or not God has called me to certain things and my prayer is that I will live my ordinary life for the glory of our extraordinary God.