6.29.2011

Trust Him to Keep

i am simply posting the devotion from the 28th from my book Opened Treasures by Francis Ridley Havergal. i am continuing to chew on the profound truths of this excellent entry. (bolds and italics in the entry are mine...also, remember that she was English, so some words may be spelled differently).

June 28

Our Lips For Him

The lips of the righteous feed many...The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable.
   Proverbs 10:21, 32

The days are past forever when we said, "Our lips are our own." Now we know that they are not our own. And yet how many of my readers often have the miserable consciousness that they have "spoken unadvisedly with their lips!" How many pray, "Keep the door of my lips," when the very last thing they think of expecting is that they will be kept! They deliberately make up their minds that hasty word, or foolish words, or exaggerated words, according to their respective temptations, must and will slip out of that door, and that it can't be helped. The extent of the real meaning of their prayer was merely that not quite so many might slip out. As their faith went no farther, the answer went no farther, and so the door was not kept. Do let us look the matter straight in the face. Either we have committed our lips to our Lord, or we have not. This question must be settled first. If not, oh, do not let another hour pass! Take them to Jesus, and ask Him to take them. But when you have committed them to Him, it comes to this--is He able or is He not able to keep that which you have committed to Him? If He is not able, of course you may as well give up at once, for your own experience has abundantly proved that you are not able, so there is no help for you. But if He is able--nay, thank God there is no if on this side!--say, rather, as He is able, where was this inevitable necessity of perpetual failure? You have been fancying yourself virtually doomed and fated to it, and therefore you have gone on in it, while all the time His arm was not shortened that it could not save, but you have been limiting the Holy One of Israel. Honestly, now, have you trusted Him to keep your lips this day? Trust necessarily implies expectation that what we have intrusted will be kept. If you have not expected Him to keep, you have not trusted. You may have tried and tried very hard, but you have not trusted, and therefore you have not been kept and your lips have been the snare of your soul (Proverbs 18:7).

I have been very challenged by this, and not just with my lips. What other things have i prayed for Him to 'keep', but not really believing He DOES keep them completely. 

What are your thoughts on this?


4 comments:

  1. Thank you for your comment on my blog. What a blessing to connect with sisters in Christ via blog world! :)

    Oh, to really trust Him with every part of our lives. It is a process, but he proves Himself faithful every time.

    Look forward to connecting with you again.

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  2. EEK. Good post, not so good feeling after reading it. LOL. But good in the sense that I needed to hear it. Thanks for sharing it. I'll be mulling it over as well.

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  3. I LOVE this! It is not preached enough how victory is ours in Christ Jesus! Too many of us excuse our petty failures as "only human" and forget that we walk by faith as NEW creatures.

    Thanks for visiting my blog! Are you just starting to blog? I look forward to getting to know you... :)

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  4. i have blogged for years, off and on. deleted an older one to start this one :) i have 2 other blogs, but i have not been good about one of them... will add a sidebar connecting em all.

    and i am really mulling this over too, michelle. i needed to hear this.

    we say we give Him everything, but do our actions/attitudes reflect that we truly TRUST HIM to keep us? ouch.

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