Stevemidkiff's Blog

For we walk by faith,

We don’t walk by sight

2 Cor 5:7

So how do we pull that off?

We look not at the things which are seen,

but at the things which are not seen:

for the things seen are temporal;

but the things not seen are eternal

2 Cor. 4:18

We don’t look at the troubles

We don’t look at the crisis.

We don’t look at what appears

to be swallowing us

and destroying us

from every angle.

Sure we can see it all around;

it is our now.

No reason for denial.

But we fix our gaze on things

that can’t be seen with

physical eyes.

The things we see now

will soon be gone,

they are only temporary.

But the things we can’t see,

the spiritual world will last forever.

We need these icky things to

Shut us up to faith

Gal. 3:23

We are helpless except through

God’s way of faith.

Unfortunately we don’t want to

pay the price of living by faith.

We want to live by sight.

God has to shut us up to faith.

Our physical limitations,

our natural inadequacies,

our circumstances,

our trials,

our disappointments,

all serve to shut us up

and keep us in a position

where the only way out

is God’s way of faith.

Moses tried by self-effort,

He tried by personal influence,

He even tried by violence,

to bring about the deliverance

for his people.

God had to shut him up forty years

in the wilderness before he was

prepared for God’s work.

Paul and Silas went to Europe

to share life solutions for others

through a life of Faith in Jesus

And faith in God’s Word.

They got off the ship

They walked into Philippi.

They just wanted to encourage

people to learn to live by faith.

They were attacked.

They were beat up.

They were locked up in prison.

Their feet were chained up

in the stocks.

What was all that about.

How are they going to pull off

this faith life?

How are they going to teach

this faith to others?

By God’s plan.

They were shut up to faith.

They trusted God.

They sang praises to God

in their darkest hour,

and God used their faith

for deliverance and salvation.

John was tortured and locked

away in exile to the Isle of Patmos.

He was shut up to faith.

Had he not been so shut up,

he would never have seen

his beautiful visions of God.

This is how Revelation is composed.

It all comes by being shut up to faith

Our ugly and greatest trouble;

Our worst disappointments,

our tragic sorrows

our devastating unspeakable

losses!

Are we in a hard place?

We’ve been shut up to faith.

We have to embrace God’s way.

Commit it to God.

Praise the Lord that He makes

us grow in faith!

all things work together for good

God works for us

as we wait on Him

in prayers of faith

there will be His blessings,

there will be His help

there will be revelations of God

that will come to us

that never could otherwise

have come;

Only only only when we are

shut up to faith.

Adapted from the writing of C. H. P.

“Trouble excites prayer,

prayer brings deliverance,

deliverance produces praise”

John Newton

We love You God

You listen to us

You listens as we beg for mercy.

You listens so intently

as we lay out our case to You.

Death stares us in the face,

Hell is hard on our heels.

We’re up against it,

We don’t know which way to turn;

But we’ve called out to You God

We constantly need Your help

Please, God !”

We’re crying now.

“Save our life!”

God Your so gracious—

God, You make things right,

God Your compassion is so perfect

God, please take our side

in our helplessness;

God please lift us up

We feel we’re at the end of our rope,

God You’ve saved us every time.

We say to ourselves,

“Relax and rest.

God You’ve showered us

with blessings.

We say to ourselves,

Soul, you’ve been rescued

from death;

Eye, you’ve been rescued

from tears;

Foot, you’ve been kept

from stumbling.

We’re striding forward with You

in You presence God ,

We’re alive

in the land of the living!

We’re full of faith

In Your faithfulness,

though at moments we’re bedeviled,

though a ton of bad luck creeps

us out

We admit that we cringe Lord

at the human race,

And In Despite of giving up

And saying

“They’re all liars and cheats.”

We can trust You

We can trust Your solutions

We can relax in Your purposes

as weird as everything appears

around us

We give You

Gratitude and praise

You’ve filled us with blessings

You’ve poured into our life richly

We’ll lift high our cup of salvation

up to You

We’re awed by You God!

We’ll pray in Your name God

We’ll stick with You Lord

You’re promises are incredible.

You’re love is unimaginable

You’re grace is astonishing

Oh, God, here we are,

set us free for You!

Psalm 116:1-18 personalized

“Every man at the beginning

sets out good wine;

and when men have well drunk,

then that which is worse:

but You have kept

the good wine until now.”

John 2: 10.

Are our pleasures of this life past

Was the best wine given

at the beginning. In our youth

No, where Christ is active in us

the best wine is kept until the bed

Apart from God it‘s the worst

With Jesus

We have His empowering

We have His creative energies

into each step of life,

Maybe we’re old and weak

Maybe we stagger in our steps

But leaning on Jesus always

the best keeps happening

until we lifted in His endless end.

He makes every thing beautiful

in His time:

He has set eternity in our heart,

no one can find out the work

that God makes

from the beginning to the end.

Ecc. 3:11

All the good God is doing in our lives

is limitless and incalculable.

He works all things together

for good to us who love God.

He has kept the best wine until now

and now keeps getting better.

Adapted unknown

The word for “refuge” in the Psalms

Is sometimes rendered

“a high tower.”

Phillips notes

David was no stranger to trouble.

He had spent most of his youth

and early manhood hiding

in the hills, forests, wastelands,

He even hid in foreign countries

from His slanders and executioners.

Often he longed for a high tower,

He looked for a place of security

He looked for a place he could run

He looked for a place hide

secure from his enemies.

He found His refuge in the Lord.

Come to me Jesus tells us

Come to me

all you who are weary

all you who are burdened,

and I will give you rest.

He came walking, not running,

not riding on the wings of the wind,

but walking deliberately,

as one slow to anger,

teaching us,

when we are ever much provoked,

teaching not to be hot nor hasty,

but to speak kindly

and act considerately

and not rashly.

He came in the cool of the day,

not in the night,

when all fears are doubly fearful,

nor in the heat of day,

for he came not

in the heat of His anger.

Fury is not in him

Isa. 27:4.

Nor did he come suddenly

upon them;

but they heard His voice

at some distance,

giving them notice of his coming,

and it was a still small voice,

like that in which he came

to enquire after Elijah.

Some think they heard Him

discoursing with Himself

concerning the sin of Adam,

and the judgment

now to be passed upon him,

perhaps as he did

concerning Israel

Hos. 11:8, 9.

How shall I give thee up?

Matthew Henry

His heart broken,

creation’s perfection shattered,

His image-bearers marred

and subject to death,

He came walking.

Gently, softly, lovingly,

kindly the King of the universe

came walking.

How beautiful.

And when he came to make

atonement for that sin,

Jesus too came walking.

He too came in such a manner

as made it formidable only

to those who recognised

who He was

and saw the depth of their guilt.

He came as a man,

as one who was willing

to be familiar with us.

We heard a voice,

calling in the wilderness,

giving us notice of His coming.

And, knowing the heartbreak

that awaited Him,

knowing He was to take on

the brokenness of all creation

and be scarred by those

His hands had made,

knowing He was to become

death for us,

He came, walking.

Jennie Pollock

He comes to us walking

in our difficulties and sorrows.

We feel His loving approach

step by step.

He reaches to us

saying gently, give to Me,

let Me have your heartaches

and woe.

I’ll take them.

You just grow in Me.

By shrinking we’re gaining,

by losing ourself

we’re gaining Himself

“He brought me forth also

into a large place;

He delivered me;

because He delighted in me.”

Psa. 18:19

AND what is this “large place”?

What can it be but God Himself,

His infinite Being

in whom all other beings

In Him all other streams of life terminate

God is our large place.

And it is through humiliation,

It is through abasement,

It is through nothingness

David was brought into it.

Madame Guyon.

He bare us on eagle’s wings,

He brought us to Himself

Exod. 19:4

Fearing to launch on

“full surrender’s” tide

I asked the Lord

where would its waters glide

My little bark,

“To troubled seas I dread?”

“Unto Myself,” He said.

Weeping beside an open grave

I stood,

In bitterness of soul

I cried to God:

“Where leads this path

of sorrow that I tread?”

“Unto Myself,” He said.

Striving for souls,

I loved the work too well;

Then disappointments came;

I could not tell

The reason, till He said,

“I am thine all;

Unto Myself I call.”

Watching my heroes

those I loved the best

I saw them fail;

they could not stand the test,

Even by this the Lord,

through tears not few,

Unto Himself me drew.

Unto Himself!

No earthly tongue can tell

The bliss I find,

since in His heart I dwell;

The things that charmed me

once seem all as naught;

Unto Himself I’m brought.

—Selected

Pain can hit in on us

Pain approaches us

On a number of plains.

You isolate and focus in one area,

trying to tackle a solution,

and a new area

or multiple arenas of trauma

and stress clobber our peace.

God knows our heartache

God knows our pain threshold.

He is the God of all comfort

God comforts us in our pain

that we may be able to comfort others.

He reveals deep

He reveals the hidden things

He knows what lies in darkness,

and light dwells with Him

Daniel 2:22.

God knows truth that is deep

God gives unsearchable truths

Truth that is hidden and kept secret

He alone knows these deep truths.

At moments of His own choosing,

He reveals what’s deep

He reveals hidden things to us.

Pain is not in vain in The Lord.

This is what turns our heart to Him

Consider it a sheer gift of joy,

when tests and challenges

come at us from all sides.

We know that under pressure,

our faith-life is forced into the open

And shows its true colors.

So don’t try to get out of

anything prematurely.

Let it do its work so we become

mature and well-developed,

not deficient in any way.

James 1:2

Perseverance is developed

through testing.

During the process,

we begin to have joy

as we let go of things.

The cause of inner dejection is

we’re afraid of what might happen

we’re disappointed by what happen

But perseverance through the

struggle changes our whole

way of seeing things.

As we persevere we let go of

the baggage we carry.

Our burdens sometimes need to

be almost ripped from our hands,

But it’s the release that brings joy

Releasing in Faith reveals all

the things acting as barriers

between God and ourselves.

As strange as the process sounds

As much as we internally wince at

this principle of God’s use of trials

and pressurized tests.

Persistent prayerful trust in

the pressure of trials of our faith

is our passage to spiritual growth

We see Jesus on the Cross!

How can this be our deliverer?

We hear the promises to Joseph

and his dreams

But than Joseph is falsely accused

and bound in chains in a prison

in Egypt!

We read of Paul’s mission

Then Paul is beaten over and over

and captured and imprisoned?

We read of Abraham’s vision

than his one and only son is

bound to an altar with

a blade in its downward arc

G. K. Chesterton aptly wrote

“A Paradox Is Truth standing

on her head to get attention.”

When we look over our lives

What paradoxes are we experiencing?

These men mentioned were

Steadfast, immovable and always abounding

in the work of the Lord

They knew that their labor was not in vain

In the Lord

Consider it a sheer gift of joy,

when tests and challenges

come at us from all sides.

We know that under pressure,

our faith-life is forced into the open

And shows its true colors.

So don’t try to get out of

anything prematurely.

Let it do its work so we become

mature and well-developed,

not deficient in any way.

James 1:2

Perseverance is developed

through testing.

During the process,

we begin to have joy

as we let go of things.

The cause of inner dejection is

we’re afraid of what might happen

we’re disappointed by what happen

But perseverance through the

struggle changes our whole

way of seeing things.

As we persevere we let go of

the baggage we carry.

Our burdens sometimes need to

be almost ripped from our hands,

But it’s the release that brings joy

Releasing in Faith reveals all

the things acting as barriers

between God and ourselves.

As strange as the process sounds

As much as we internally wince at

this principle of God’s use of trials

and pressurized tests.

Persistent prayerful trust in

the pressure of trials of our faith

is our passage to spiritual growth