Turbulent Passions

"When at any time the passions are turbulent, a gentle retreat inward unto a present God, easily deadens and pacfies them; and any other way of contending with them rather irritates than appeases them."
    -Madame Guyon  (A Short and Easy Method of Prayer, Chapter 11)

Peace is one of the hardest things to gain and it can be one of the easiest things to lose.  It's so hard to stay in a place of constant peace, a place where the mind is still, the soul is settled and the spirit rules.

There is a clarity one has when they can live in a place of peace, there is an ease to connecting with God and hearing his voice, why is it that we so quickly trade that for the chaos of our own solutions?

"Notice the way God does things; then fall into line. Don't fight the
ways of God, for who can straighten out what he has made crooked?"
-Ecclesiastes 7:13

I believe peace is a decision, we have to allow ourselves to be robbed of our peace.  The more your mind is in control, the more you are ruled by your fleshly desires, the more offensive the ways of God will be to you.  God's ways are not our ways, when we allow our peace to be taken from us it shows the reality of our heart.  That we don't believe God knows what He's doing, that He does not know what is best for us, that He doesn't have our best in mind. 

The sooner we can allow ourselves to slip back into a place of trust and release the control of our destiny and simply listen and obey, the sooner we can return to the green pastures and still waters the Lord desires to lead us to.

God knows the desires of our heart and he knows the pains of our struggles, surely the one who bore all of our iniquities to the cross can relate to our everyday struggles.

God knows our situations intimately and instead of fighting and struggling through the valley of the shadow of death, we should seek to have no fear and follow the Shepherd asking how we can agree with what He is doing instead of complaining like the Isrealites and condemning ourselves to wandering in the wilderness until we can walk in victory.

A New Blog

This message marks a change in my blog thus far.  Previous to this I had this blog to keep people updated on what I was doing in New Hampshire while I interned and was on staff with Streams Ministries.  Now the purpose of this blog is just for to put up what ever I please, maybe reflections, things God is speaking to me, things I think warrant thought, whatever!

Time will tell if I keep updating this so don't hold your breath!


-Dustin