Amen, Pastor Sean. As long as we will abide in Jesus, the "old man" cannot read his ugly sinful head!! As Paul reveals, we can keep the body (flesh) under, through the divine power given to us through the indwelling Holy Spirit!
There is more encouragement in a personal gift from God to me... who? me! Wonder of wonders, than all the reading I can do about even those who loved God.
Amen! And yet, we so often forget what wonderful things God hath done for us. We need to give more testimonies more often. We need to tell of His blessings!! We are to be His witnesses.
The Lord works continually to benefit mankind. He is ever imparting His bounties. He raises up the sick from beds of languishing, He delivers men from peril which they do not see, He commissions heavenly angels to save them from calamity, to guard them from "the pestilence that walketh in darkness" and "the destruction that wasteth at noonday" (Psalm 91:6); but their hearts are unimpressed. He has given all the riches of heaven to redeem them, and yet they are unmindful of His great love. By their ingratitude they close their hearts against the grace of God. Like the heath in the desert they know not when good cometh, and their souls inhabit the parched places of the wilderness. Let us not forget!
Yesterday, I had a few projects to do. One was difficult. A light had quit working. After five hours, and two trips to the hardware store, I had not fixed it. There were three switches in the electrical box on the wall. There were three hanging lights in the foyer. The center one did not work. I got out a ten foot ladder to get to the light and pulled one of the bulbs. I managed not to break my neck (I was praying continually) and tested the bulb to see if they were all burned out. I prayed it would not work. It did work, so my prayer went unanswered, thus I had an electrical problem, not burned out light bulbs. I got back on the ten foot ladder and went to the very top, and replaced the bulb, the whole time thinking about the impossibility of working on that light fixture ten feet high. I could barely pull the bulb, and I was as far up the ladder as I could go. It would be impossible to work on the fixture with that ladder.
So, my next work was to pull the switch and see if it was faulty. They are not easy for one who is not an electrician. They have a technique to bend the wire so it will go on the switch. It is not easy to get off or put back on. The box had three switches and the wires were short and stiff. But, I finally got the switch out and while praying continually that it would be bad, I had it tested at the store. It was good. But, I replaced it anyway still praying that a new switch would take care of the problem. Again, my prayer went unanswered.
So, what next? A bad breaker? No, the other lights were working. Then, the Holy Spirit reminded me of the problems when there are GFI receptacles on a circuit. It would be strange to put the lights on a circuit with plugs, but they do it. I went outside and checked three GFI protected receptacles. Two were tripped. I reset them, and still the light did not work. Worse, when I flipped the switch to a third light, it caused the one that did not work to come on!
Miseries of miseries! There were two three way lights involved and this complicates things greatly! I continue to pray. It is getting close to the Sabbath and I can't leave the situation as is, if I can help it. Electrical problems are a safety issue. I pray harder, but my prayers appear to go unanswered, still.
Well...Sabbath is soon beginning, and I cannot fix the situation and have nothing left to do without more tools and more information as to what to do. I have some ideas about jumping wires to hot the bad switch, but it is going to have to wait until after the Sabbath. I pack up my tools, and am ready to head home, when I see a switch on the other side of the entrance door. I realize there is a switch for the outside lights. It must be for them. I go over and turn it on and the hanging light which is above the staircase turns on. It is one of the three hanging lights. Strange! Why would it come on? Things must be really messed up. On the other hand, maybe, just maybe, the switch I replaced was never meant to turn on the hanging light. Maybe, just maybe, it was the switch that turned on the outside lights!!
With tools in my hand, I was on my way home, I opened the door so I could see the outside lights, while praying very hard, flipped the switch that I thought went to the hanging light fixture which was not working, and it turned on the outside lights!!!
Yes, God had answered my prayers some time back, but I did not know it. When I replaced the outside GFI, it solved the problem of the inside hanging light. For some strange reason it was on the same electrical circuit as the hanging light. When it went bad, it caused the inside light to cease working.
God could have helped me see that I was working on the wrong switch, but He did not. He let me go through this trial so that I would know I needed Him so very much. And, after today's reading in Desire of Ages, how could I not relate the joy I had as those lights outside turned on with that "bad" switch.
God is so very good. He gave me the knowledge to check the GFI plug outside, which fixed the problem. He did answer my prayer without my knowledge! Do we lose our peace when our prayers go unanswered? Hopefully not. God answers our prayers in the very best way He can. We just don't always know it when He does. But, we can know His promise is true. Therefore, we can glory in our tribulation knowing it is for our good and His glory as we abide in Him. What a God we serve!!