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[WellWithMySoul]

Today

Ps. 37:24 - "Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand." John 10:28 - "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."

What a wonderful thing it is that as His dear children He keeps us! Have you ever considered the power of the small word "keep" when it is our omnipotent God doing the "keeping"? For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken" (Prov. 3:26). Praise God who "kept" me from being utterly cast down, because He had saved me to the uttermost! (Heb. 7:25)

Along with my testimony in the thread "Saved And I Know It", I'd like to "briefly" testify of how the Lord is working in my life today. Spiritual growth comes about by His workmanship; because in and of myself I can do no good thing. Our God longs to "grow us up" in Himself, but we must surrender to Him and avail ourselves to His work. For years I held back total surrender and submission to Him because I believed that, that meant I was going to have to make some sort of terribly painful sacrifice. I was afraid to trust Him completely, which really is quite silly for He always has what is for our ultimate best in mind.

The Lord has indeed been growing me a lot in this area since that wondrous time that He so miraculously blessed me with the depth of understanding and comprehension of His love. As I've aged and have also gone through some life-threatening health issues, I've found that time is of essence! I could've just collapsed and died with the health issues that I had, but the appointed time for my earthly demise was not to be then....for the Lord had more for me to do here. Every single day is precious and I dearly want to live it to its fullest to God's glory.

My Lord has taught me much about how to trust Him and to surrender submissively to Him. Matt. 16:25 says, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." He has taught me these things, but I am still in the process of learning them. He has more than adequately proved His truth to me that if I would but trust and surrender myself to Him, then I will actually FIND that by doing so I will experience the abundance of life with blessing, peace, and with joy. He first loved me, but by the reasonable "sacrifice" of losing myself, my very life, thoughts, and ways to Him - that it would be an utter delight to respond and return my love to Him.

Our precious God is so full of mercy, grace, and longsuffering! On occasion, I have tried to understand and view more of God's perspective of me by using ants as an analogy. Since we live in a very rural area we have all kinds of ants busy around us. What a blessing it has been when I've stooped down and watched the ants and considered their ways. I've seen them very busy and working sometimes alone, sometimes in long lines with a "b'zillion" other ants, sometimes where there are only a couple of them working together, and I've seen them in huge nests. I would stoop down and while watching the ants, I would consider that perhaps my perception of them was likened to the way God might stoop down and see me. Considering the ants caused me to wonder with amazement and awe that "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" (Ps. 8:4) Ants seem to be so insignificant compared to human beings, but then again - next to God Almighty if it weren't for His majestic and divine glory and His gracious love, we'd be swallowed up by our own insignificance. Observing ants ought to be humbling to all of us. I'm so very glad that the Lord is mindful of me!

Hand in hand with teaching me how to trust Him, the Lord has incorporated the lesson of learning how to be thankful both in and for all things. Indeed we can be thankful for all things as well as in them, for each circumstance of our lives gives us opportunity for growth and for proving His indwelling presence to the lost. We can be thankful that even though the devil means things for evil, our God can and will work them for the good of those that love Him, and according to His purpose.

Fears, fretting, and stress are three areas that I continue to struggle with. I'm so very glad that the Lord knew from the beginning that all of us would struggle with these things, and so gave us encouragement, comfort, instruction, and commmandment concerning them. As it says in Jer. 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Verse 10 tells us that it's the Lord who searches the heart...) The Lord has indeed granted me several victories in these three areas, however I refuse to deceive myself into thinking that I'm "more than a conqueror" of them. As I continue to grow in my level of trust in Him, I'm assured that He will bless me with yet more victories through Him on the way to becoming "more than a conquer" of them... as I journey along in this earthly life.

There are many, many more lessons that the Lord has been teaching me including learning how to "wait" on Him while also "resting in Him. I can be very impatient at times, and so waiting on Him can truly be a challenge for me. There are so many things that I wish that I'd learned already yesterday! I'm so very glad that my precious Saviour discerns my heart and the thoughts and intents there, and is so just with me, yet full of loving kindnesses when He chastises me.

I have a very long, long ways to go in being transformed more and more to His likeness, but it's wonderful that each day is new and that I can still rejoice in Him. I'm ever so glad to know and to be fully persuaded that in spite of myself, He will continue to "KEEP" me, and that always all things are truly "well with my soul"!