Men,
Many of you of you know that I am taking a Seminary class and through the required reading, I have found many jewels of God's wisdom that have encouraged and inspired me. I'm sure that each time I've posted about the jewels I've noted that the current jewel was more precious than the previous one. I'm sure also that I will continue to do that. Let me say now...My bad, but I want to share a new jewel with you. It is indeed precious and may prove not to be as precious as the next that I discover, but this one is special because it proves to me once again that my Heavenly Father is right beside me and at the ABSOLUTE PRECISE moment I need a word from Him, He delivers causing tears of joy to flow freely no matter where I am. Not a word I personally think I need, but what He knows I need.
I had my first exam this Wednesday night and I did fine. Fine meaning I tested fine, however, I did not do fine leading up to it. I was a mess, stressed out and full of anxiety that I would not do well. I wrapped myself around this exam and was basing my value in this exam. Did He come to my rescue, no. Did I ask Him to, shamefully I confess no. I can offer the excuse the enemy had me too wrapped up in the stress and concern of doing well on the exam, but I don't believe that's true. I believe that God was letting me lean on my own understanding because I basically, because I didn't take it to Him in prayer, told Him I didn't need Him, that I had it under control. I suffered for it.
The exam and studying for it is over. Now I have to get back to my reading of Thomas 'a Kempis' Imitation of Christ. In this book he often uses a dialogue between Christ and a believer and identifies Christ talking with the section title "The Voice of Christ." I open to where I left off Chapter 33 "Restlessness of Soul-Directing Our Final Intention Toward Christ." This is where I find the Jewel...The Voice of Christ speaking directly to my heart and reminding me how I failed in preparation for my exam. Enjoy:
MY CHILD, do not trust in your present feeling, for it will soon give way to another. As long as you live you will be subject to changeableness in spite of yourself. You will become merry at one time and sad at another, now peaceful but again disturbed, at one moment devout and the next indevout, sometimes diligent while at other times lazy, now grave and again flippant. But the man who is wise and whose spirit is well instructed stands superior to these changes. He pays no attention to what he feels in himself or from what quarter the wind of fickleness blows, so long as the whole intention of his mind is conducive to his proper and desired end. For thus he can stand undivided, unchanged, and unshaken, with the singleness of his intention directed unwaveringly toward Me, even in the midst of so many changing events. And the purer this singleness of intention is, with so much the more constancy does he pass through many storms. But in many ways the eye of pure intention grows dim, because it is attracted to any delightful thing that it meets. Indeed, it is rare to find one who is entirely free from all taint of self-seeking. The Jews of old, for example, came to Bethany to Martha and Mary, not for Jesus’ sake alone, but in order to see Lazarus. The eye of your intention, therefore, must be cleansed so that it is single and right. It must be directed toward Me, despite all the objects which may interfere.
Thomas a Kempis (2009-04-19). Imitation of Christ - Enhanced Version (Kindle Locations 1799-1801). Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Kindle Edition.
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