Favorites from Nancy

Author Nancy Guthrie has been my favorite lately.

I've been absorbing all she has to say in her books on suffering and chewing over some powerful quotes.  

The following quotes are from her bible study, The Wisdom of God: Seeing Jesus in the Psalms & Wisdom Books.

Regarding Psalm 42:

"[The Psalmist's] feelings of drowning in his difficult circumstances are not what define his reality but that God's covenant love is his security in the storm."

and

"Rather than listening to his own desperate thoughts, he speaks the truth to those thoughts.  Rather than trusting his feelings, he defies them.  Rather than talking about the truth of the gospel as something out there for other people, he applies it to himself personally.  He prays to God, and he preaches hope to himself in the midst of his desperate dryness and despair."

In the chapter on Job regarding God's purpose in suffering:

"What allows us as his children to endure it is that while it's painful, we're confident that it's purposeful.  Never punitive.  Never random.  Never too harsh.  Always out of love."

And when God finally spoke to Job in the last chapters:

"...rather than revealing all of the answers to Job's questions or explaining the spiritual battle going on behind the scenes, God revealed himself.  Rather than telling Job what he might have wanted most to hear, he told Job what he needed most to hear...and the message became clear to Job: God is Creator and I am the created.  He can do anything with me that he wants to do with me."

"And when God revealed himself to Job, Job came to realize that the more he knew about who God is, the more he could accept what God gave - even when he didn't understand it."

"The wisdom of God...moves us from demanding from God what we think we deserve to thanking God for all that we've received that we do not deserve."

And more quotes from her devotional, Be Still My Soul: God's Purpose & Provision in Suffering:

"God recompenses outward losses with inner enjoyments" (see II Cor 1:5).

"Our comfort lies to a great extent in the choice of our main happiness."

"God uses chronic pain and weakness, along with other afflictions, as his chisel for sculpting our lives."

"Trust is not a passive state of mind.  It is a vigorous act of the soul."

"Trusting God is first of all a matter of the will, and is not dependent on my feelings."

Whew - SO many good quotes - these are just a few!

I'll leave you with a pic of the boy:

 Last night we did a craft with Aidan (since it was too cold and wet to play outside).  We made the ABC turkey in the background - Aidan ended up getting bored so it's more like Mama and Daddy made an ABC turkey last night.

My cute lunch dates yesterday: