Living By Faith Blog

Could Not Sing

Sunday morning at Mercy Hill we sang “Jesus I My Cross Have Taken.”

I started off fine.  But as the song progressed, and I saw the truth of the lyrics, I was so moved I could not sing.

Here are the truths that impacted me —

Jesus, I my cross have taken …
Thou from hence my All shalt be.

Following Jesus means saying to him —

I turn from everything else.  From now on I trust you as my All; my Everything.  All I need — all I want — is you.

Like Paul said — “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

How can pain be pleasure?  Only if the pain brings us something so pleasurable that it’s worth the suffering.

That’s what God promises.  When the path of serving Christ brings suffering, God promises to comfort us with his favor (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).  He will sustain us with his nearness, his love, his glory.

His favor is so pleasurable that loss becomes gain.

These words are not about literal storms or clouds.  They are about the trials we face.  So why “must” storms and clouds — trials — work for good to me?

Because the Sovereign God has commanded it.  He commands every trial to work for your good, and they all must obey his command (Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:28).

So every trial you face is obeying God’s command.  It is working for good to you.

To repine means to grumble.  When we grumble it’s because we are not seeing the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

So ask God to forgive your grumbling, and enable you — once again — to see.

And then preach to yourself the truth of —

• the precious third person of the Trinity, God the Spirit, dwelling in you
• God the Father smiling on you with deep affection, infinite compassion, perfect strength
• the Savior, God the Son, fully God and fully man, who died to win you

When, by the Spirit’s work, you see and feel these truths — grumbling and repining will scurry away like cockroaches fleeing the light.

Now we are on mission — at war to save people from Satan’s kingdom.

And another picture — we are pilgrims, traveling to the City that is to come, laboring to keep each other on the path, and urging others to join us.

This is not easy.  There are trials, tears, disappointments, suffering.  We live in hope, faith, and prayer.

But our destiny is certain — fruition, sight, and praise.

Be encouraged.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkz5vreZ65U