Build us up

Act 20:32  And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

The word of HIS GRACE- is able to BUILD us up!

BUILD.

What does it mean to build?  When you're building you are creating something aren't you?  If I build my strength I'm creating more muscle mass. If I build a house, I'm creating a structure. If I build character I'm creating better personality traits in myself. To build means to create and when we are being built up as the Word of God tells us- our spiritual life is growing, it's becoming something more than it was.  The word of God's grace can cause us to grow, it will BUILD us up, it will give us an INHERITANCE as we are made holy, sanctified.  We MUST, absolutely MUST study the word of God and His grace! We must constantly dwell upon the grace of our Savior realizing it is only through a constant study, a constant prayer that we are built up in Christ. It does us no good to accept Christ as our Savior and then go on to live our lives oblivious to Him, He must be a real presence in our lives, in all we do.

All by HIS amazing grace!

In Jesus Christ always!

Amen!

When we put God first all other things are in their less prominent place

For many years now, perhaps a lot longer than we think there have been prominent people. Way back towards the beginning of the human race after sin entered the world and the population expanded there came prominent people.  Right now I'm thinking of Nimrod. Now in current times in America we use that word as derogatory slang. In the Bible Nimrod was found here--the great grandson of Noah-

Gen 10:8  And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. 

Gen 10:9  He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. 

Nimrod was a mighty hunter, a mighty one in the earth- a prominent person.  And when it states *before* the LORD, some have taken that to imply put in front of the LORD.

What happened to this mighty hunter Nimrod, this prominent person?

Gen 10:9  He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. 

Gen 10:10  And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 

Gen 10:11  Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, 

Gen 10:12  And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city. 

He had a KINGDOM.

Was this an acceptable and good kingdom in the eyes of God?

Gen 11:4  And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 

Gen 11:5  And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 

Gen 11:6  And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 

Gen 11:7  Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 

Gen 11:8  So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 

Gen 11:9  Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. 

Obviously it was not acceptable in the eyes of God. We have human kind taking PRIDE in themselves and their creations, in fact they desired to make a tower that would reach incredible heights- a show of their power.  The LORD saw this and knew it was wrong, they were following a prominent PERSON not GOD. They wanted to make a NAME for themselves, not God. The glory they wanted was for themselves, not God. Their hearts were directed inward to selfish pursuits not outward towards God.

From then onward prominent people with a bent towards selfish aims and desires have gone on under the hand of Satan to rule the many kingdoms of the world. The people were not content to have God's judges and prophets but wanted a KING, a prominent person to lead them. Remember this...

1Sa 8:1  And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. 

1Sa 8:2  Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were judges in Beersheba. 

1Sa 8:3  And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment. 

1Sa 8:4  Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, 

1Sa 8:5  And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. 

1Sa 8:6  But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. 

1Sa 8:7  And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. 

1Sa 8:8  According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. 

1Sa 8:9  Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. 

1Sa 8:10  And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king. 

1Sa 8:11  And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. 

1Sa 8:12  And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. 

1Sa 8:13  And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. 

1Sa 8:14  And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. 

1Sa 8:15  And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. 

1Sa 8:16  And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. 

1Sa 8:17  He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. 

1Sa 8:18  And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day. 

1Sa 8:19  Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; 

1Sa 8:20  That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles. 

1Sa 8:21  And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD. 

1Sa 8:22  And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king...

They REJECTED GOD that He would NOT reign over them! They separated themselves from God's will. And God explained what would happen, how a king would take so much from them and give little in return. They wanted a PROMINENT PERSON to rule over them as the prominent people were ruling over other non-God fearing kingdoms. 

Prominent people, the rulers of the worldly kingdoms, Satan's kingdoms.  People looking to people, not God.We KNOW they are Satan's kingdoms--

Mat 4:1  Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

Mat 4:8  Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 

Mat 4:9  And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 

ALL the kingdoms of the world and their glory was shown to Jesus by Satan and Satan made Jesus an offer-  he would GIVE all the kingdoms and their glory to Jesus if Jesus would fall down and worship him.

Satan OWNED the worldly kingdoms they were HIS to give away. 

Has anything taken the kingdoms from Satan over the many years since he offered them to Jesus? No. They still belong to Him. And people look to people, more so the prominent people to guide their lives, to give them direction. We set certain people on pedestals- politicians, actors, sports figures, philanthropists, musicians, authors, religious figures and then we teach our children to fall in step and idolize them. So many people attach their affections to prominent people and try to emulate them after a fashion. No, they might not try to be singers, or actors, etc but they'll start to believe in the causes these people represent. They'll start to be wild if their prominent person shows a tendency for the wild life. They'll even do good deeds if their prominent person does them. When our sights are set on PEOPLE, they are NOT SET ON GOD, this is TRUTH. We even often times choose people not so prominent in the world, but prominent in our own circles of friends and family and do the same thing, we look to them rather than to God. We want their approval of our life and our life choices before we want God's. We reason within ourselves that it's normal because we are REALLY living with these people and God is more of an idea than a real force in our lives.  We are deceived!

Shouldn't God be more real to us than any other, because without the reality of God there would be no us, no others to put before Him. We need to recognize that God created us, each of us exists because He created us. And no other we love can create as God created and creates. We HAVE a Creator! We need to live in the truth that it is! As we honor a mother and father as our birth parents we exceedingly more need to honor our Creator who created all of human kind. And how do we reveal our honor to God, truly, how?

Joh_14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments. 

We CAN reveal our love for God in more than just our words and thoughts.  We can reveal our love by OBEYING Him. Not because obeying Him will gain us salvation, but because we LOVE Him and desire to honor Him.

Seriously, there is one VERY special commandment among the moral ten -

Exo 20:8  Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 

Exo 20:9  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 

Exo 20:10  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 

Exo 20:11  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 

The SABBATH commandment was brought into existence to remind us of our created status, and in reminding us of our created status we are reminded of our CREATOR and we HONOR Him when we honor the Sabbath commandment.   A commandment to bring HONOR to our Creator, how could this commandment ever be done away with? Who is our CREATOR?

Eph_3:9  And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ

God, created all things by who?  JESUS CHRIST. God with God!

Col 1:12  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 

Col 1:13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 

Col 1:14  In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 

Col 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 

Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 

Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 

And we should no longer keep the fourth commandment, why? Did Jesus cease being our Creator upon saving us? NO, NEVER!  We NEED the constant REMINDER of our CREATION!  

God FIRST in all things, let this be true for us. With God first all other things are in their proper LESS prominent place.

God FIRST. Please Father, You first. In the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ our LORD, our SAVIOR!

Amen!

We are only sincerely satisfied when we are reunited with our Father God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Mat 4:1  Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

Jesus was LED by the SPIRIT with the purpose of being TEMPTED of the devil.

This is TRUTH!

I know I've talked about it before but it needs talking about again and again. Jesus COULD be tempted! Really and truly TEMPTED. Jesus had the ABILITY to sin, it wasn't stripped from Him.  Too many want to believe that it was impossible for Him to sin, that He had some sort of sin repelling shield around Him, that because He was GOD in FLESH, He was above being able to sin and that's a LIE.

Why would ANYONE waste their time trying to tempt someone who is above succumbing to temptation? Trying to tempt a dead person would be just as profitable as trying to tempt someone above succumbing to sin. 

Jesus HAD to defeat Satan just as if He were one of us or else it would prove nothing. God defeating Satan we'd expect, right? There is no real contest there at all.

We KNOW God can defeat Satan, He created Him. However, He created him as an Angel of Light, and then Satan chose to let sin enter His heart changing him, separating himself from God.  We know if God had wanted to He could have destroyed Satan right then and there when sin began. So, why didn't He? Because God is NOT a God who dictates, He's NOT a puppet master. God created beings with free will. Giving the beings free will is what love is all about, recognizing the power of that love.  God did not destroy Satan instantly because it would prove nothing other than God's ability to destroy those who choose to separate themselves from Him. It wouldn't have proven WHY that separated being is a being without love and destined to a life of pain and heartache.  When Satan chose to separate himself from God there was a result of that separation and to witness that result -all the beings of all the worlds would need time to understand why destroying the being choosing sin was much better than letting sin reign, than letting separation from God in the created beings, exist.

Before  humankind was tempted to join Satan in sin God had a plan for that possibility. He had a great hope that the plan wouldn't be needed but He'd create a new and different being, a being more like Him than the angels, and He gave the new creatures the freedom to choose as well.

On their own the new beings did NOT sin. They didn't. They chose NOT to sin of their own accord. However, when Satan tempted them, when he challenged them, lied to them using his own evil sinning ways to do so, they relented and succumbed to the temptation.

They chose to believe another and in choosing they separated themselves from God by not believing in Him.  They couldn't have believed Him, that He'd told the truth about their choosing to disobey.  God offered them everything except the fruit of one single tree. That tree represented trust and faith in God, their Creator. If they trusted Him and believed Him they wouldn't eat that fruit.

Still God did not wipe these new beings out of existence. Instead of doing that He did what ONLY love could do. He offered a sacrifice of Himself. God with God, one God declared the Father, the other declared the Son.  The Son was decreed to die, willingly die in order to offer salvation to His new beings.  This love wanted to repair the breech, to heal the separation introduced by sin. This love wanted life for His creations, not death, not sin.

God declared the Son divested Himself of His God powers when He took on human flesh. Not only did He NOT put on the flesh of an adult human being, He put on the human flesh of a helpless, dependent infant.  He endured life and all its pains. He teethed as a child, He fell down and scraped His knee as a child. He endured the hardships of the life of one not born into royalty, not born into wealth. He felt hunger pangs, He became thirsty in need of water. He took on human flesh fully and the only power He used as He grew up into adulthood and onwards was the power of His Father.  Yes, He knew His Father in heaven. He knew that He faced the challenge of trusting and believing in the Father's truth. Raised to know the God of the Jewish people, His knowledge took on a special knowing through the choice not to sin, to NOT separate Himself from the Father. Each and every childhood temptation He faced left Him only stronger in His faith, stronger in His relationship with the Father. 

When He was led of the Spirit of God to the wilderness to be tempted by Satan He was strong in His relationship with the Father. You see, when Jesus became a human being just like us, He became a flesh and spirit being.  His spirit was one with God the Father's spirit.  Just because He took on flesh did not mean He was completely spiritless. To be like us in all ways He had to be part spirit, just as we are. There is a part of us that can only be satisfied by reuniting with our God. That part of us millions and millions of people try to satisfy with other things only to be guaranteed to fall short of being truly satisfied.  We are only sincerely satisfied when we are reunited with our Father and our Savior Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. 

More tomorrow by the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR, now and forever….

Amen.

Non-stop spiritual assaults

1Pe 5:5  ...Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

1Pe 5:6  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

1Pe 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

1Pe 5:11  To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

This is TRUTH!

Clothed with humility.

Humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.

IN DUE TIME exalted--   not now!

We are not promised instant peace! People need to STOP expecting a life of ease! We need to stop expecting less hardship, less heartache, less pain in our lives. Yes, it would be nice not to live in hardship, in heartache, or in pain but it's not something we must insist upon having in order to believe in our God.

The innocent will suffer, the helpless will suffer,  and we who have compassion for them will suffer and hate the fact the innocent and helpless are feeling such pain, living in such horrific conditions. 

Satan has created societies which promote our distrust of God. Satan has worked hard to warp the truth of God so many will be deceived.  Truly we must follow after the truth in its fullness through Jesus Christ our LORD. 

We must believe in a God who LOVES fully, wholly, without any selfish thought at all.  God created human beings to live in harmony, as counterparts to Him.  The counterpart would be love as He is love, selfless as He is selfless.  All those who are willing to give up self, a true, true fight, will be God's. The willingness to give up, the willingness to let Christ and His grace save us is what God wills. Satan rebels against this and uses any means possible to keep us from giving our will to God. The selfishness within us is used by Satan at every opportunity. Situation after situation will pop up screaming for us to be selfish, non-stop assaults at our spiritual self will take place and we have to recognize this!

We must RESIST the devil so He will flee from us and resisting means recognizing the devil's assaults upon us.  He disguises them so thoroughly that its next to impossible to distinguish them from what most people will call 'just life', but we KNOW BETTER!  Our eyes are OPEN, we are NOT blind. We see the LIGHT that Christ allows us to see by His grace and mercy.

Please, Father, please, help us be Yours in all ways. Help us resist, help us trust in You, in Your grace which is sufficient for us. All to Your glory! All to Your honor! All to Your love!

In the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord!

Amen!

Submit to God, Resist the Devil

Jas 4:6  But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Submit ourselves to God.

Resist the devil

God gives us the grace we require as we recognize our need of His grace. The PROUD do NOT recognize their need for the grace of Jesus Christ, their Savior.

It's true.  Pride has stood in the way of many, many things. The belief that on our own we can attain all we want is a very deceptive belief. That we have been taught to be self sufficient is well known, yet the danger of that teaching is leaving out our biggest need in this life, to be entirely submitted to our Savior and His grace. We can live our lives knowing we are dependent upon God for ALL things and most importantly our Salvation, or we can live believing we have to only rely upon ourselves for all things, including saving ourselves.

Too many try to walk the fence on this. They want to believe they must be self-sufficient by not including God in their day to day, mundane life, while still depending on Him for their salvation.  They refuse to truly submit to God. They refuse to resist the devil and his awful influence to promote self-sufficiency, to encourage pride in us. 

The devil will flee from us if we resist him, he doesn't want us to believe that it is possible that he can flee from us.  He knows if we try to get him to flee under our own power he can take advantage of us dig in deeper.  It is only through our submission to God and our resisting of the devil that he will flee from us.  The power to resist comes from God.

If the devil doesn't flee from us we remain under his influence and that influence will do all it can to keep us from full submission to God. Let us HUMBLE ourselves, let us recognize our need to humble ourselves. Admit that we need God to direct our path, our life in all its avenues. 

Please Father, please by YOUR grace help us to humble ourselves, help us to give up all our pride knowing that YOU are our all in all! Help us to resist the devil so he flees from us, we cannot resist him on our own. Bless us Father, bless us in You, and in Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior.

Amen.

God is able

2Co 9:8  And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work

God is able. That doesn't say YOU are able to make all grace abound towards yourself.  GOD IS ABLE.

Now this next part may have some people up in arms about the fact there are starving, destitute Christians who are NOT sufficient in all things so they may abound to every good work.

 That is a lie, even the destitute are sufficient.

But honestly, there are those who will do all in their power to discredit God and God's word. There are those who refuse to comprehend that God's understanding of our needs are different than ours, that we MOSTLY only consider the here and now, rather than the eternal. If a Christian dies of starvation does that mean God didn't supply the grace He needed?  I suppose we can go as far as to say if a Christian dies at all God hasn't supplied the grace that person needed, their life ended in some fashion- heart failure etc. We can truly take things that far if we are so completely void of faith in God that we want to do so.

God's grace is sufficient in all things and it will abound towards us so we may live for Him no matter our situation. 

Christians do die of starvation. Christians are tortured. Christians are subjected to all of our earthly woes.  This does NOT mean God doesn't exist. It does mean the MAGIC GENIE God that some people want God to be doesn't exist. Way too many want that magic genie god, but that is not the God I worship, not at all.

The God I worship comprehends the need for freedom to choose, making us something MORE than slaves to a master, puppets to a puppet master. God never wanted puppets, He wanted counterparts and to be a real counterpart that freedom to choose had to be involved and that freedom made sin possible.  The results of sin became known and our God made a way possible to escape the penalty that sin demanded, that disobedience demanded.  This is the love of our God to forgive when the only other option was complete and utter annihilation of the creatures HE created.

By the grace of God may we abound in HIS GRACE always!

In the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

None of us are undamaged

How is our strength perfected? In weakness.

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Some would quickly argue that you cannot be strong and weak at the same time. They would say it's impossible to use weakness to strengthen us. Yet time and time again it truly is adversities that make us stronger, emotionally, mentally, spiritually.  I'm definitely not saying this is always the case because it isn't. Because it is also true that some times adversities destroy us.  With our Savior and His amazing grace it is possible for our strength to be made perfect in our weak sinful, human state.

Paul states here that he will glory in his infirmities. 

Do we glory in our infirmities? 

We all have infirmities don't we? Not necessarily physical but emotional and mental as well. None of us are undamaged by the world we've grown up into.  We truly need to LEARN to glory in our infirmities because the POWER of Christ rests upon us as we do. It is HIS power because we are TOTALLY relying on HIM and HIS promises that by HIS GRACE we will be saved. We have HOPE beyond our infirmities. Every single infirmity we possess is cause to give glory to God because truly our spiritual strength is made perfect in our weakness. The more we truly believe and comprehend that we are WEAK and HELPLESS to SAVE OURSELVES the more we rely upon the only source of salvation. JESUS CHRIST, OUR LORD, OUR SAVIOR.

Paul said- 'Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong.'

Infirmities.

Reproaches.

Necessities.

Persecutions.

Distresses.

Who among us hasn't felt these same things?

I will NEVER say that others don't have it a million times worse than I do, I know they do, I'm not delusional. My life has been one of great blessings. My infirmities, my reproaches, my necessities, my persecutions, and my distresses have been miniscule compared to many others.  But I can't in all truthfulness say I haven't had any infirmities, or reproaches, or necessities, or persecutions, or distresses- I have.  Have I taken pleasure in them? No, I really haven't. It's hard to take pleasure in things that make your stomach tie up in painful knots and your mind race wildly as panic sets in. Yet as my life goes on and I, through the grace of my Savior, I learn, I hope and pray that in future infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions, and distresses I can take pleasure in them knowing that my weakness only reveals the strength of the grace of my Savior more and more.

People have it wrong when they believe if God really exists and loves them that they wouldn't suffer. They say they don't want to believe in a God who lets them suffer. They want a God that can alleviate their pain, their anguish by ridding their lives of all that causes them that pain and suffering. They want a magic wand waved over them and their loved ones, in fact most go as far as to include the entire world. They want the all the suffering in all the world to be gone- if God exists and they want it done yesterday, in fact they say they there should never have been pain and suffering in the first place. They play God, but at the heart of their belief is the desire for dictatorship, for a puppet master, for someone to arrange things so there is no free choice, no possibility of disobedience, no freedom at all whatsoever because freedom brings with it the risk of disobedience. People don't want to have that freedom to choose, they want it to have been taken from them from the start so no pain exists. 

From our limited experiences with dictatorship, with slavery, most of us have agreed they are not good things. Who would choose to be the slave if given a choice? Don't most choose rather to be the master of the slave? And there we have it, most would rather be the God then have a God. And many would rather create their own sort of God, a God that suits them and allows for their whims, their ways- a false God who is really just their slave, and not a God at all.

The truth is- most would love to call evil good and do, and they wish to call good evil and do. 

Yes, we need to learn to take pleasure in our anguish states, but ONLY through the grace of God, only so that our strength is made perfect in our weakness.

Please, Father, bless us to this end. In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ our Lord, now and forever. Amen.