What a powerful statement. The whole devotional was very good and I will reprint here in it's entirety.
Title: It Is Sufficient
Author: Mrs. Charles E. CowmanSource: Streams in the Desert
Scripture Reference: 2 Corinthians 12:9
"IS" (2 Cor. 12:9).
It had pleased God to remove my youngest child under circumstances of peculiar trial and pain; and as I had just laid my little one's body in the churchyard, on return home, I felt it my duty to preach to my people on the meaning of trial. Finding that this text was in the lesson for the following Sabbath, I chose it as my Master's message to them and myself; but on trying to prepare the notes, I found that in honesty I could not say that the words were true; and therefore I knelt down and asked God to let His grace be sufficient for me. While I was thus pleading, I opened my eyes and saw a framed illuminated text, which my mother had given me only a few days before, and which I had told my servant to place upon the wall during my absence at the holiday resort where my little one was taken away from us. I did not notice the words on returning to my house; but as I looked up and wiped my eyes, the words met my gaze, "My grace is sufficient for thee." The "is" was picked out in bright green while the "My" and the "thee" were painted in another color. In one moment the message came straight to my soul, as a rebuke for offering such a prayer as, "Lord, let Thy grace be sufficient for me"; for the answer was almost as an audible voice, "How dare you ask that which is?" God cannot make it any more sufficient than He has made it; get up and believe it, and you will find it true, because the Lord says it in the simplest way: "My grace is (not shall be or may be) sufficient for thee.""My," "is," and "thee" were from that moment, I hope, indelibly fixed upon my heart; and I (thank God) have been trying to live in the reality of the message from that day forward to the present time. The lesson that came to me, and which I seek to convey to others, is, Never turn God's facts into hopes, or prayers, but simply use them as realities, and you will find them powerful as you believe them.--Prebendary H. W. Webb Peploe
4 comments:
Oh, this is so important! I would also like to point out something that Beth Moore points out in praying the Bible. These truths that God bookmarks for us are to be used as guidelines as we pray. It is knowing beyond all doubt that we are praying in God's will. So many times we say, "Lord, if it be Thy will..." when in actuality, it absolutely is God's will because it is Biblical. Thank you for reminding me of this!!
Gina, so good to hear from you again! Don't you just love Beth Moore? The Lord has certainly blessed her with ability to discern from His Word! Bless her heart....and yours too! :)
Bless you, Claire! Thank you for steering me toward the conversion story on November 16. I love stories like that! Praise God from Whom all blessings flow! Amen.
Thanks for sharing that devotional - I've never thought of God's promises that way!
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