Category: Literature

Humble Yourself

by Anastasia Irene, posted in Current Events, Literature, Prayer, Scripture, The Christian Walk, Theology

1 Peter 5:6-7

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.

A little booklet by John MacArthur, Found: God’s Peace, casts these famous verses in an entirely new light. As Christians, we’ve probably all heard them a time or two, and thus, they can easily be overlooked due to how well we know them. But the question stands: how often do we actually put these verses into practice?

MacArthur explains what it means to humble ourselves under God’s hand: “The key is never to contest God’s wisdom but instead to accept humbly whatever God brings into your life as coming from His hand.”

Humbling ourselves under the hand of God equals accepting everything, even trials and pain, as coming from His perfect plan. Instead of getting angry or bitter, it means trusting and submitting. Instead of continually questioning “why?” it means saying “Lord, I do not understand what You are doing. But I trust that it is good–in fact, it is best for me–and it is for Your glory and my good, ultimately.”

Of course, we all struggle, and there are times we face doubt and questions. That is common; go to the psalms and you will find that other men of God struggled with the same things. But at the end of most lamenting psalms, you will find declarations of praise and trust. Even in the book of Lamentations, which is a declaration of mourning and sorrow, we find some of the most beautiful verses in Scripture: “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”

That is what truly makes a person of God–not someone who never struggles with their faith, but someone who does not stay there but always comes out victorious, humbly and joyfully submitting to God’s will in all things.

It is most certainly not an easy practice. But may we pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help us peacefully and joyfully submit to His will! What a God we serve, that we can trust Him wholeheartedly, for He always does what is best for us, for our good and more importantly, for His glory.

*Note: I wanted to mention that Dr. MacArthur’s recent passing is deeply sorrowful for those of us on earth who have been impacted by his life and ministry. I have been so blessed by his materials and am thankful for the man of God he was. Praise the Lord for his life and legacy, and may the Lord help his ministry to continue going strong!

Prisoner’s Prayer

by Anastasia Irene, posted in Literature, Praise and Worship, Prayer, Scripture, The Christian Walk, Theology

Recently, I read some writings by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of my personal heroes. If you do not know much about him, I hardly know where to begin in describing his life to you. Rather, I will have to refer you to one of my favorite books ever: Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas. Once you start digging into the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, you will find yourself challenged, inspired, and encouraged in your walk with Christ.

Bonhoeffer wrote a prayer to encourage his fellow prisoners at Christmastime in 1943. It ministered to me greatly, and I thought I’d share it with you. Enjoy!

MORNING PRAYERS

O God, early in the morning I cry to you.

Help me to pray

And to concentrate my thoughts on you;

I cannot do this alone.

In me there is darkness,

But with you there is light;

I am lonely, but you do not leave me;

I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help;

I am restless, but with you there is peace.

In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience;

I do not understand your ways,

But you know the way for me.

O heavenly Father,

I praise and thank you

For the peace of the night;

I praise and thank you for this new day;

I paise and thank you for all your goodness

and faithfulness throughout my life.

You have granted me many blessings;

Now let me also accept what is hard

from your hand,

You will lay on me no more

than I can bear.

You make all things work together for good

for your children.

Lord Jesus Christ,

You were poor

and in distress, a captive and forsaken as I am.

You know all man’s troubles;

You abide with me

when all men fail me;

You remember and seek me;

It is your will that I should know you

and turn to you.

Lord, I hear your call and follow;

Help me.

O Holy Spirit,

Give me faith that will protect me

from despair, from passions, and from vice;

Give me such love for God and men

as will blot out all hatred and bitterness;

Give me the hope that will deliver me

from fear and faint-heartedness.

O holy and merciful God,

my Creator and Redeemer,

my Judge and Saviour,

You know me and all that I do.

You hate and punish evil without respect of persons

in this world and the next;

You forgive the sins of those

who sincerely pray for forgiveness;

You love goodness, and reward it on this earth

with a clear conscience,

and, in the world to come,

with a crown of righteousness.

I remember in your presence all my loved ones,

my fellow-prisoners, and all who in this house

perform their hard service;

Lord, have mercy.

Restore me to liberty,

and enable me so to live now

that I may answer before you and before men.

Lord, whatever this day may bring,

Your name be praised.

Amen.

My Current Favorite Quotes

by Anastasia Irene, posted in Literature, The Christian Walk, Theology

Proverbs 25:11 (NKJV)
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.

Here are a few of my current favorite quotes. Enjoy!

Quotes from some of my favorite books: (If you pick up one of my books, you are sure to find some of these quotes underlined heavily! 🙂)

“Only when we have become completely oblivious of self are we ready to bear the cross for His [Christ’s] sake. If in the end we know only Him, if we have ceased to notice the pain of our own cross, we are indeed looking only unto Him.” –Dietrich Bonhoeffer (The Cost of Discipleship)

“We pay no attention to our own lives or the new image which we bear, for then we should at once have forfeited it, since it is only to serve as a mirror for the image of Christ on whom our gaze is fixed. The disciple looks solely at his Master.” –Dietrich Bonhoeffer (The Cost of Discipleship)

“A true Christian is one who has not only peace of conscience, but war within.” –J.C. Ryle, Holiness

“And no man can grow in holiness except he abides in Christ. Christ is the great root from which every believer must draw his strength to go forward.” –J.C. Ryle, Holiness

“Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.”–Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment

“For, in the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts toward the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious, that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves; no, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone. In the second place, those blessings which unceasingly distill to us from heaven, are like streams conducting us to the fountain.”
-John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

Random quotes I came across (therefore, I do not neccessarily endorse the author/publication; but the quote is good):

“NOT TO SPEAK IS TO SPEAK. NOT TO ACT IS TO ACT.” –Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”–John Piper

“When we think too lightly of sin, we think too lightly of the Savior.” –C.H. Spurgeon

“That cannot be politically right which is morally wrong.”–Abigail Adams

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” –George Santayana

“I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work He will give us to do.” –Corrie ten Boom

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” –Harriet Beecher Stowe

“Our motto must continue to be perseverance. And ultimately I trust the Almighty will crown our efforts with success.” –William Wilberforce

“As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the world in which we live.” –Pope John Paul II

“The Lord’s mercy often rides to the door of our heart upon the black horse of affliction.”–Charles Spurgeon

“Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.” –Mother Teresa

Prayer and Faith

by Anastasia Irene, posted in Literature, Poetry, Prayer, Scripture, The Christian Walk

John 14:12-14

12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

Recently, a friend of mine was talking about prayer. She emphasized how difficult it is when you are waiting on the Lord for an answer to prayer. When it looks like God’s response is a billion miles away, do we still trust Him? Can we still surrender our requests to Him when the answer is “no”?

Some of my favorite examples of prayer are in the Psalms. Numerous Psalms are the honest outpouring of a broken heart before the Lord. Should that not comfort us? We do not need to mince words before the Almighty God. He knows our hearts through and through.

Blooming azaleas

And in the meantime, as we fervently pray and surrender the answers to God, we must have faith. I think that often we do not receive answers to prayer because of our unbelief. Looking back on the numerous requests He has mightily answered in the past and the great things He has done fuels our faith. We must be filled with thankfulness and praise Him for His many blessings in the past and the present, while believing in His mighty power sufficient for the future.

A great resource for Scriptural prayers is John MacArthur’s book At the Throne of Grace. MacArthur gives us many beautiful prayers to help guide us as we pray, praise, and wait. Let us be filled with prayer and faith!

Here is a poem I wrote about faith.

Faith

O my soul, why are you fearful? Why do you doubt?

Why are you anxiously wandering about?

You have nothing to fear–you have Yaweh!

How is it that you have no faith?

Yet when you are faithless, faithful He stays.

He’ll continue to be so for all your days.

Lord, You know, strength it takes.

Lord, I believe; increase my faith!

Mark 11:22-24

22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

Fearless

by Anastasia Irene, posted in Literature, Scripture, The Christian Walk

Recently I read the book Fearless by Max Lucado. It is a very inspirational resource. It addresses numerous terrifying fears that grip us, a few being the fear of not mattering, of disappointing God, of worst-case scenarios, and much more. For each of the fears Lucado addresses, he tells us how to battle it with Scripture.

One thing I learned from this book is that so many problems in our lives are, at the root, attributed to fear when we may have diagnosed them otherwise. If we truly search our hearts for the root of various issues, we will find that we battle more fear than we realize. Determining the root of our problems can help us solve them.

Lucado gives several great observations in his introductory chapter. “Fear corrodes our confidence in God’s goodness… It deadens our recall… Dulls our miracle memory…” He stayed that out of the 125 commands of Christ in the gospels, 21 reprimand fear.

I remember hearing a pastor once say that since we are given so many commands not to fear, fearing is a form of disobedience which is sin. How many lives have been ruined by unnecessary fear? Why should we let fear ensnare us when we have the LORD God of angel armies on our side?

Lucado summarizes fear perfectly. “Fear may fill our world, but it doesn’t have to fill our hearts. It will always knock on the door. Just don’t invite it in for dinner, and for heaven’s sake don’t offer it a bed for the night. Let’s embolden our hearts with a select number of Jesus’ ‘do not fear’ statements. The promise of Christ and the contention of this book are simple: we can fear less tomorrow than we do today.”

Let us therefore forsake fear, embrace courage, and have calm confidence in the Lord our God.

Proverbs 29:25

The fear of man is a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord shall be safe.

Praise

by Anastasia Irene, posted in Literature, Praise and Worship, Scripture, The Christian Walk

Recently, a dear friend sent me a booklet called “Praising” by Watchman Nee, a famous Chinese Christian. Its message has given me new inspiration and a fresh perspective on praising Jesus. In this booklet, Watchman Nee talks about how essential praise is to our Christian walk. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the booklet:

“Praise is the highest work carried out by God’s children.” (page 1)

“We should sing praises to our God.” (page 2)

“The nature of praise is an offering, a sacrifice…praise comes from pain and suffering.” (page 3)

“Prayer is a warfare, but praise is a victory.” (page 8)

“We need to learn to overcome Satan by our praise. We overcome Satan not only by prayer but also by praise.” (page 15)

Watchman Nee asserts many times that praise lifts us above our situation and drives the devil away. He also says that the most essential times for praise are the seasons of deepest darkness.

Sunrise on the Texas Gulf coast

A friend once said, “When it is hardest to pray, pray the hardest!” That is a wonderful statement, and I would create a similar one: “When it is hardest to praise, sing the loudest!”

Bridge in Kentucky

Watchman Nee is a wonderful example of praising in all circumstances. He was incarcerated for his faith in 1952 and went to be with the Lord after 20 years of imprisonment. How precious are the lessons from a man who experienced such trials!

Let us also be living witnesses to the power of praise! Whenever we go through various difficulties and are prone to fall into depression, we should turn on our praise, and it will drive our gloom away.

Let us all praise the Lord and lift His name on high more and more!

2 Chronicles 20:20-22

So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the Lord, For His mercy endures forever.” Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.

Womanhood vs. Manhood

by Anastasia Irene, posted in Art, Literature, Scripture, The Christian Walk

Eric Metaxas, a wonderful Christian author, wrote an amazing book called 7 Women and the Secret of Their Greatness. In the introduction, Metaxas gives a refreshing and thought-provoking message about femininity and its contrast to masculinity. He says, “The stories of these great women show us that men and women are not interchangeable. There are things men can and should do that women cannot, and there are things that women can and should do that men cannot…Men and women were deliberately designed to be different. Indeed we are specifically created as complements to each other, as different halves of a whole, and that whole reflects the glory of God.”

I believe this view is Biblical and refreshing in today’s culture where men and women are pressured to compete with each other. Both genders are distinctly different and each is wonderful in the way God made it. Although women are, in general, more vulnerable and are commanded by God to submit to men, they are by no means inferior to men. We can see in Scripture how Jesus, living in a society in which women had little value, highly respected them. He was born of a woman, ministered to by women, performed His first miracle at the request of a woman, and first directly proclaimed His Messiahship to a woman. Numerous other women also hold important roles in the gospels. All recorded accounts of Jesus’ raising the dead directly involved women. They were among the few who remained at the foot of the cross, and the first to see the resurrected Lord.

Forgiven by Greg Olsen

Whether you are a man or a woman, let us all attempt to serve God in the role in which He has placed us today.

I close with one of my favorite verses about womanhood:

1 Peter 3:3-5a

Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves.