CAUTION! GOOD TIMES AHEAD!

CAUTION! GOOD TIMES AHEAD!

Rev 3:17

17 Because thou [Laodiceans] sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Phil 4:12

12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

          We pray in times of want, adversity and hardship. We beg God and seek His face. We desire to be in the presence of God and enjoy the comfort of His closeness in the bad times. Bad times are an aid to devotion.

          Not many can endure success and abundant blessings. The Laodiceans became self focused and forgot about God. They looked around and saw no need. They were increased with goods and those very things blinded them to their true condition. God knows this much better than we do and so He, in His wisdom, keeps us needy.

          He brought the children of Israel to the brink of disaster and then parted the Red Sea for deliverance. He made their bellies gnaw with hunger and then gave them manna fresh every morning. Their tongues he made dry by thirst and then gave them water from the rock. Eventually but slowly they learned to trust.

          Someone has said “Discipline begets abundance. Abundance, unless we use utmost care, destroys discipline. Discipline in its fall pulls down with it abundance.” Can God trust you with good times?

To live content with small means;

To seek elegance rather than luxury,

and refinement rather than fashion;

To be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich;

To study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly;

To listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart;

To bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasion, hurry never;

In a word, to let the spiritual unbidden and unconscious,

grow up through the common:

This is to be my symphony.

William Ellery Channing

Dear Lord, let me trust you enough that you can trust me with abundance. Keep me just needy enough to know that I need you. AMEN