Fodder

The portions in quotes are from A Plea for the godly, Thomas Watson
"Faith anticipates future things and makes them present. When God told Abraham what a glorious country He would give him, Abraham looked upon it as if it had been actually done and he had taken possession. Faith can live upon God in the deficiency of visible comforts. Although the fig-tree does not blossom, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. A righteous man believes that if God will save him from hell, He will save him from want; if He will give him a kingdom, He will not deny him daily bread."

This is both an encouragement and exhortation to me. The encouraging part is that God can and does keep His promises, so we should take them as already being completed. The exhortation is that even though He is growing my faith I have so far to go in really trusting Him. Not that He is not trustworthy, but He is the One who grants the faith to trust Him and sin gets in the way. I think this is the "come as a child" part that I often lack. A child implicitly trusts what his father tells him. It is not until the father has not kept all his promises that the child starts to have doubts if it is true. Our Heavenly Father ALWAYS keeps His promises.

"The life of a righteous man is more excellent for usefulness. He is a blessing in the midst of the land. He spends and is spent for Christ; yet he would rather wear out than rust out. The lives of the wicked are unprofitable (therefore they are compared to chaff), and hurtful (therefore compared to thorns). But a righteous man is like the bee or silk-worm, working for the good of others. "It comforts me," said worthy (John) Jewel, "that I have exhausted myself in the labors of my holy calling." A good man hangs between these two as a needle between two load stones: longing to be with Christ in heaven and loving to serve Him on earth."

Lately I have a strong pull between Heaven and knowing that God still has a plan for me here. It is difficult to be between the 2. Our lives will be so much more in Heaven, but He has plans for us here. It is my desire to wear out for Him, and also to be with Him. I am finally starting to understand Paul's heart when he said, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain", Phil. 1:21. Up until now I would only want the "live" part, but now I am starting to see that the "die" part is really the "live" part.

So, until He calls me home, I have work that He has set out for me to do here. There are people that, for some reason, He has chosen me to be His voice to them. Others that He has some act of kindness to live out to them, some tangible way for them to see God in whatever it is that I do, or an attitude that I portray. Representing the King is a high calling and one that I should not take lightly. It is kind of Him to allow us to participate in His divine work here on earth.