One Step Closer to a Yes

"Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick, but a sudden good break can turn life around." (Proverbs 13:12, The Message)

A friend in the promotion business says, "Every time someone tells me "NO!" I get happier — because I'm one step closer to that person who will say "YES!"
Some people cannot bear to be told "NO" even once; let alone repeatedly. And then there are others who stop just one person too soon. All they needed was to ask one more time. But they didn't. Disappointment can do that to you if you let it. Especially if it seems to be unrelenting — one blow after the next.

Years ago I discovered a splendid little poem that has anchored my life in those times when everything seems to be going wrong — times when your hopes are dashed, your dreams have faded, your deepest desires thwarted, and when so many great expectations become inexplicably disappointed. Maybe you will find it helpful, too.
"Disappointment. HIS appointment. Change one letter, then I see that the thwarting of my purpose is God's better choice for me!"

It is true, as the proverb says, that unrelenting disappointment can leave you heartsick. But the rest of the proverb is also true — "a sudden good break can turn life around." One doesn't come without the other.

Draw yet another breath, my fellow traveler; though you have paused alongside the road — you have not stopped. Your journey is not finished. There's a bend in the road up ahead. And the bend in the road is not the end of the road — unless you fail to make the turn.

Tip your hat respectfully to old man Disappointment, and then be on your way; for God has something better in mind for you. And though you have heard "NO" perhaps a thousand times — you are actually one step closer to a "YES!"
And that single "Yes" can turn your life around!

Pressing On the Upward Way

"I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:14).

Notice the cooperative partnership in our opening verse of scripture — God calls us upward, and we press toward the goal. Both are necessary. If God calls, but no one answers – nothing happens. If man presses, but God's not with him – nothing happens. Nothing good, anyway.

Have you ever taken a volley ball into a swimming pool, pushed it down into the water, and then tried to balance yourself by standing on it? Did you notice that the deeper you pushed the ball into the water, the greater the force it exerted to rise back up to the top?

The air inside the ball belongs with the air above the water, and it will press upward to return back to where it belongs. That's the way it is with us as followers of Jesus. There is something inside us that urges us to the summit; it's the upward call.

Some merely drift along, hoping for a break here or there. But in Life, as in nature, nothing ever drifts upstream. The only exception to this happened in Texas during a freak flash flood.

The waters rose so quickly that people only had time to scurry to their rooftops. One man, a reporter, sat on the house watching the floodwaters sweep past. There were cows, and cats, and all kinds of things zipping by the house. Suddenly something caught his eye. A $500 Stetson hat came floating down stream, just out of his reach. However, before it passed by, the hat stopped, turned around and floated back up stream. It then came back, stopped and turned back upstream again.

Amazed, the reporter said, "This is a miracle: it will be the lead story in my paper tomorrow!”

A woman sitting on the roof next door heard him and replied, "That's no miracle. It's my husband Cecil. He said he was going to mow that lawn come hell or high water!”
Like I said, nothing ever drifts upstream. Left to ourselves we will not rise, but retreat. However, God does not leave us to ourselves; He calls us upward. Something deep inside us is hooked to heaven; there's a pull on our hearts which lifts us towards the higher way.

As the old hymn says, "I'm pressing on the upward way; new heights I'm gaining everyday. Still, praying as I onward bound, 'Lord, plant my feet on higher ground!’”
When you hear God calling, press upward. One day heaven will be your home.

The Best Friend in the World

"I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you." (John 14:16, The Message)

One of history's unsung heroes is a man named Ludwig Nommensen, a German Lutheran missionary sent to Sumatra in 1862. He focused his attention on the Batak people of the Indonesian interior.

While he met with typical difficulties for the first few years, his unflagging zeal ultimately turned the tide. By the time of his death in 1918 at the age of eighty-four, the church he had started numbered over 180,000 members, with 34 Batak pastors and 788 teacher-preachers assisting in the work. Its prevailing influence lasts to this day.

A turning point came early in Ludwig's labors when a prominent chief of the Batak asked him a question.

"We, too, have laws that say we must not steal, nor take our neighbor's wife, nor bear false witness," the chief said. "So how does what you teach differ from what we already know?”

"My Master doesn't merely tell us what to do," he answered, "He also gives the power to do it."

The startled chief replied, "Can you teach my people that?"

"God will do it if they ask for it and listen to His word," Ludwig answered.

So for six months Nommensen taught the Batak about the power of God, and friendship with the Holy Spirit. At the end of that time the chief said, "Stay, your law is better than ours. Ours tells us what we ought to do. Your God says, 'Come, I will walk with you and give you strength to do the good thing.'"

And the rest, as they say, is history.

God will also walk with you, and give you the strength to do the good thing. Jesus promised us that we would not be left as orphans, but that we would have a constant friend who would walk with us, talk to us, teach us, guide us, empower us and help us every day in every way. That Friend is the Holy Spirit.

The simple definition of a friend is "one attached to another by affection or esteem." We rightly imagine that our friendship with the Holy Spirit is based upon our affection and esteem for Him, but friendship is never one-sided. Perhaps you have never considered that the Holy Spirit is also attached to you by the strong affection and high esteem which He has for you!

Has it ever occurred to you just how much the Holy Spirit actually enjoys being with you? Why not spend the rest of today thinking about that , as you walk with and talk with the best Friend in the world?