NOVEMBER 2023
I’ve quoted author Harold Myra’s perspectives many times. This is from his devotional writings in The Pilgrim’s Progress.*
There’s a scene where Interpreter showed Christian a fire burning against a wall. The devil stood by the fire pouring on water to quench it. But the fire only burned higher and hotter. How?
"The fire is the work of grace in the heart," Interpreter explained to Christian.
But why did that fire keep burning so high and so hot?
Interpreter led Christian around to the backside of the wall, and a man with a jar of oil was secretly feeding the fire.
"This is Christ," Interpreter explained, "who, continually, with the oil of his grace, maintains the work begun in the heart.”
Harold says, “It is hard for the tempted to see how his work of grace is maintained in the soul. As we determine to follow God's path and to live in the grace and empowering of the Spirit, we can be mystified by what a dynamic, frustrating, marvelous adventure it is…The conflict within us is always there, changing in specifics but raging all through our earthly journey. Martin Luther stressed that God works in the lives of his people even when we can't see what his plans might be. ‘God won't lie to me or deceive me,’ he preached, ‘though at times, nothing in life will seem to make sense.’"
As I read this devo, Isaiah 41.10 came to mind:
“Don’t be afraid for I am with you. Don’t look anxiously about for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you too. And with the righteousness of my right hand, I will uphold you.”
We do have so much to be grateful for, don’t we?”
*https://www.amazon.com/Pilgrims-Progress-Experience-Spiritual-Devotion/dp/1627076751
There’s a scene where Interpreter showed Christian a fire burning against a wall. The devil stood by the fire pouring on water to quench it. But the fire only burned higher and hotter. How?
"The fire is the work of grace in the heart," Interpreter explained to Christian.
But why did that fire keep burning so high and so hot?
Interpreter led Christian around to the backside of the wall, and a man with a jar of oil was secretly feeding the fire.
"This is Christ," Interpreter explained, "who, continually, with the oil of his grace, maintains the work begun in the heart.”
Harold says, “It is hard for the tempted to see how his work of grace is maintained in the soul. As we determine to follow God's path and to live in the grace and empowering of the Spirit, we can be mystified by what a dynamic, frustrating, marvelous adventure it is…The conflict within us is always there, changing in specifics but raging all through our earthly journey. Martin Luther stressed that God works in the lives of his people even when we can't see what his plans might be. ‘God won't lie to me or deceive me,’ he preached, ‘though at times, nothing in life will seem to make sense.’"
As I read this devo, Isaiah 41.10 came to mind:
“Don’t be afraid for I am with you. Don’t look anxiously about for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you too. And with the righteousness of my right hand, I will uphold you.”
We do have so much to be grateful for, don’t we?”
*https://www.amazon.com/Pilgrims-Progress-Experience-Spiritual-Devotion/dp/1627076751
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