Reposted from Desiring God.org and C.S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis writes about the problem of forgiveness:

. . . you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart—every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out. The difference between this situation and the one in such you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.
As regards my own sin it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really so good as I think; as regards other men’s sins against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think. One must therefore begin by attending to everything which may show that the other man was not so much to blame as we thought.
But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent guilt which is left over. To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian character; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.
This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life—to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son—how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night ‘forgive our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.’ We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.

C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

An encouragement.

This morning, I decided to read ahead in my Streams in the Desert devotional...and I am glad I did! This story below is EXACTLY what I feel God has given to me for a ministry idea. To help others know that they aren't struggling alone, to share our stories, to encourage and love one another! This got me so excited...I had to share it :) Thank you Lord for reinvigorating your vision and helping along the way!!! I see your hand through it all and I will follow you!


Eternal Glory Struggles

"I endure all things for the sake of God's own people; so that they also may obtain salvation...and with it eternal glory" (2 Tim. 2:10, Weymouth).

If Job could have known as he sat there in the ashes, bruising his heart on this problem of Providence--that in the trouble that had come upon him he was doing what one man may do to work out the problem for the world, he might again have taken courage. No man lives to himself. Job's life is but your life and mine written in larger text....So, then, though we may not know what trials wait on any of us, we can believe that, as the days in which Job wrestled with his dark maladies are the only days that make him worth remembrance, and but for which his name had never been written in the book of life, so the days through which we struggle, finding no way, but never losing the light, will be the most significant we are called to live. --Robert Collyer

Who does not know that our most sorrowful days have been amongst our best? When the face is wreathed in smiles and we trip lightly over meadows bespangled with spring flowers, the heart is often running to waste.

The soul which is always blithe and gay misses the deepest life. It has its reward, and it is satisfied to its measure, though that measure is a very scanty one. But the heart is dwarfed; and the nature, which is capable of the highest heights, the deepest depths, is undeveloped; and life presently burns down to its socket without having known the resonance of the deepest chords of joy.

"Blessed are they that mourn." Stars shine brightest in the long dark night of winter. The gentians show their fairest bloom amid almost inaccessible heights of snow and ice.

God's promises seem to wait for the pressure of pain to trample out their richest juice as in a wine-press. Only those who have sorrowed know how tender is the "Man of Sorrows." --Selected

Thou hast but little sunshine, but thy long glooms are wisely appointed thee; for perhaps a stretch of summer weather would have made thee as a parched land and barren wilderness. Thy Lord knows best, and He has the clouds and the sun at His disposal. --Selected

"It is a gray day." "Yes, but dinna ye see the patch of blue?" --Scotch Shoemaker

Praying

Hello All!

So, lately, I've been dreaming a lot. It's always the same dream; and pretty much the same things happen. It's a ministry dream. It's a life dream. It's scary to think about these things as becoming a reality. What would it practically mean? how would that work out? I don't have all these answers yet, but I know in the past when I had these questions, God provided, and worked miracles to make things happen.

I believe that God is doing the same now. Do I have a long way to go? YES! But, I'm not going to give up! I know it's going to be work, I know it will take moving out of my comfort zone, I know it will take faith and sacrifices, but I know that it's what my heart longs for.

I know that this ministry is needed, I know that there are lost and hurting people out there. I also know that there are Christians that are discouraged and need this ministry too! I know that this ministry is bigger than me, and God's pretty much just calling me to be the orchestrator. I'll need help, I'll need partners, I'll need prayer warriors! I pray that you would take some time to seek the Lord and ask if maybe you can help somehow. If you feel like you'd like some more information on what this is all about, please message me, email me, etc.

I love you all and I know that God has called us to go forth into the world and to share His good news! Let's not waste another day! Let's lavish this world with His love!