Even on the sickbed
God’s glory in our sickness
I have been really sick this week. This is a great reminder from John Piper about God’s purpose in it: https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/gods-love-and-my-sickness
Five Natural Ways To Get To The Gospel
I appreciate articles like this, which give us practical ways to angle the gospel into any and every circumstance. Jesus did this perfectly. https://stonegate.church/2017/07/five-natural-ways-to-get-to-the-gospel/
Really encouraging thought
The whole article is good, but this last segment, bookmarked here, is worth our meditation. “The Spirit is always preaching the gospel to us — nonstop, 24/7. As we linger over God’s word, do we take time to listen?” https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/leave-the-throne-of-guilt#listen-to-the-spirit-s-testimony
Quote I am dwelling on:
“Action without study is fatal; study without action is futile.”
Meme to share:
Puritan Prayer Against Temptation:
Lord God,
when the devil presents the bait,
show us the hook.
When the devil presents the golden cup,
show the poison hidden inside.
When the devil presents the sweet pleasure of sin,
show us the misery that will follow.
When the devil presents the profit of yielding to sin,
show us the wrath that comes from committing it.
When Satan promises the soul honour and profit,
give us eyes to see the shame and loss he delivers.
Strengthen our resolve
that we keep at the greatest possible distance from sin,
and not play with the golden bait held out by Satan. May we tremble at sin, and keep our distance from it.
Give us eyes to see that sin is a bitter sweet
whose sweetness quickly vanishes,
replaced by lasting shame, sorrow, horror and terror.
May we fear to lose
that divine favour that is better than life,
that joy that is unspeakable and full of glory,
that peace that passes understanding,
those divine influences by which our souls
are refreshed, raised and gladdened. Help us to see when Satan paints sin with virtue’s colours:
when pride is called neatness and cleanliness,
when covetousness is called good stewardship,
when drunkenness is called good company,
when a lack of self-control is called liberality,
and when wild living is called youthful tricks.
Help us to see through the deceits of sin.
Help us to see sin as one day we will see it:
when what once appeared sweet will appear most bitter,
what once appeared beautiful will appear most ugly,
what once appeared delightful will appear most dreadful. Gracious Father, may we reckon the true price of our sin:
that it cost the best blood, the noblest blood,
the life-blood, the heart-blood of our Lord Jesus.
In temptation, impress these truths on our hearts:
that Christ came from your side to sorrow and death;
that God should be manifest in the flesh;
he who was clothed with splendour, wrapped in rags;
he who filled heaven with his glory, cradled in a manger;
the God of the law, subject to the law;
he who is the fullness of all things, hungry and thirsty;
the God of strength, weary;
the Judge of all flesh, condemned;
the God of life, put to death;
the fairest of faces, spat upon;
hands that hold the sceptre of heaven, nailed to the cross;
eyes purer than the sun, put out by death’s darkness;
each sense aggravated:
his feeling with a spear and nails;
his smell with the stench of death;
his taste with vinegar and gall;
his hearing with reproaches;
his sight with his mother bemoaning him;
his soul, comfortless and forsaken;
and all this
for those very sins that Satan dresses up in fine colours! Oh, may these considerations stir up our souls against sin,
that we might fly from temptation,
and use all holy means to subdue and destroy it!
May the thoughts of the crucified Christ
never leave our minds.
May they be our meat and drink,
our sweetness and comfort,
our honey and our desire,
our life, death and resurrection. Thomas Brooks
Chester, Tim. Into His Presence: Praying with the Puritans (pp. 79-81). The Good Book Company. Kindle Edition