Faithful

I have slowly been reading Thou Givest...They Gather by Amy Carmichael. I am still only half way through this book, but not because I dont have time to read it. I read it slowly on purpose. The words are so rich and there is so much wisdom to take in. I read something yesterday and I think I will share it here. I felt it was meant specifically for me.

Amy Carmichael writes:

I have been reading 1 Thessalonians over again today, the first letter of St. Paul's that the Holy Spirit has preserved for us. I had not noticed before that in this letter for the first time the joy of God the Holy Ghost is mentioned. That joy is bound up with trial for Christ's sake: "Having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost."

Nothing we are called to go through can compare with the terrific trials of those days, and yet we may lose something by forgetting that even in our far lesser experiences we may know this special joy. And to those who have lately begun their service, the rendings of the first year, the pull of home thoughts and longings, the struggle through the ineffectiveness of speaking in a new language, the desperate feeling of limitation and the temptations that belongs to that feeling, all those together do make a trial keen enough to require something very special in the way of help. Here it is in this letter:

1) You are beloved by God and...He has chosen you. Ch 1.4

2) None of you should waver in these afflictions; since you know yourselves that such is our appointed lot. Ch 3.3

3) May God Himself, who gives peace, make you entirely holy; and may your spirits, souls and bodies be preserved  complete and be found blameless at the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He will also perfect His work. Ch 5.23, 24

I write this so that I can come back to it when things do get hard. God first showed me Ch 5.23, 24 when we were preparing for our first term in Vietnam. Now...I love seeing it again. Brings a smile to my face to know how faithful he has been to us since those early days. May I remember these writings of Amy Carmichael in the upcoming year and persevere like never before!