It is good to come to a future which you do not know. It is good if God brings you
to the borders of some promised land. Do not shrink from any experience , merely
because of its novelty. Do not draw back from any way just because you have never
traveled there before. Oh, my friend, go into it today without fear! Only, go into it with
God, the God who had been always with you. Remember what He has already done
for you, and the new life to which He leads you shall open its best richness to you.
For he who most humbly accepts what God already has given him and taught him
is surest of the best and deepest feelings which God has yet to give.
Phillips Brooks
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He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
John 1:11
    Jesus came to his own things -- the world he had created and the land he had promised his people -- and his very own people didn't receive him. Sometimes we are blinded by our own desires and dreams for Jesus and we really miss what he wants for us and from us. Let's not let the following be true in our lives. "Jesus came to me, but I wasn't ready to receive him. I had other things I wanted to do and other things I wanted to experience before I fully surrendered my heart to him." Each time we put off surrendering our will to Jesus, each time we push him away as Lord, we allow our hearts to harden and it becomes easier and easier to push Him away.
    Now, while our hearts are still attentive to his grace, let's renew our commitment to him afresh and completely offer our hearts and lives for his glory and grace.
Today's Verse; HEARTLIGHT Magazine
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Why Me, Lord?
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; for thou art with me.
Psalm 23:4
    I am an ordinary man who retired on an average income. I never did anything particularly noteworthy or bad. My life has had its ups and downs. When the downs came, I cried, "Why me, Lord?" When the ups came, if I remembered, I would say, "Thank you, Lord."
As a young man, I was quite religious. But as the years went by, I drifted away from God. In later years, I began to drift, or be pulled  back into a real relationship with God. Then I was diagnosed with cancer and I said again, "Why me, Lord?" Then I went for surgery.
    I feared the cancer, the surgery, and the aftermath. As I waited for the anesthesia to take over, I prayed, "Thy will be done." The last thing I remember was a sensation that someone standing at the head of my bed (which was against a wall) gently held my face in his hands. Each time I went to sleep during my hospital stay after the surgery, I felt the hands on my face. For me they were the hands of God. God was there, comforting and reassuring me in my time of great trial. Once again, I ask the question, but this time in amazement at God's goodness, "Why me, Lord?"
The Upper Room Daily Devotional
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