A difficult question.

“Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
He makes my feet like the deer’s;
He makes me tread on my high places.”
-Habbakkuk 3:17-19

After reading this passage this morning, I am wondering how much I love God for Himself and rejoice in Him for His own sake, or how much I love the gifts and blessings He gives. For I certainly have been blessed.

I can sing "His love endures forever" along with everyone else, but how would I really believe that if I had nothing except His love? Thankfully, He is a gracious God and is patient and gentle with our weakness, our humanity.

Wisdom gleaned while studying for my midterm exam.

If it's not obvious, I love quotations.

“Insofar as the church is conformed to the world, and the two communities appear to the onlooker to be merely two versions of the same thing, the church is contradicting its true identity… God’s historical purpose is to call out a people for Himself; that this people is a ‘holy’ people, set apart from the world to belong to Him and to obey Him.” --John Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, p. 17

“Men are in their nature ‘evil.’ It is out of their heart that evil things come and out of their heart that their mouth speaks, just as it is the tree which determines its fruit. So there is but one solution: ‘Make the tree good, and its fruit good.’ A new birth is essential. Only a belief in the necessity and possibility of a new birth can keep us from reading the Sermon on the Mount with either foolish optimism or hopeless despair.” --John Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, p. 29

Requests.

O God,
May I never be a blot or a blank in life,
cause the way of truth to be evil spoken of,
or make my liberty an occasion to the flesh.
May I by love serve others, and please my neighbour
for his good to edification.
May I attend to what is ornamental as well as essential in religion,
pursuing things that are lovely and of good report.
May I render my profession of the gospel
not only impressive, but amiable and inviting.
May I hold forth the way of Jesus with my temper as well as my tongue,
with my life as well as my lips.
May I say to all I meet,
I am journeying towards the Lord's given place,
come with me for your good...

--from The Valley of Vision, p. 274