Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. ^{I Tim. 6:11} When I read a verse like this it inspires me, and if I’m not intentional, I get busy doing my best. But the very next verse gives better direction.

Vs. 12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you
were also called.

We pursue by faith, and it’s a fight we do with the power of the life of God in us and with eternal perspective. It’s our calling.

Challenges of aging or life transitions can make us feel helpless, hopeless, diminished, without strength to face what lies ahead. But this verse shares a principle of diminishment that restores truth and perspective. (It is Well With My Soul by Shelly Beach, page 14)   John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease.

“Our own diminishments in God’s sovereign ordering of all things for His glory and our good are not only the prerequisites to our joy but may also be the means of enriching the lives of others.” Loneliness by Elizabeth Elliot, ^{page 142}

Kind of like glorying in weakness. Not our natural bent, but a place of blessing, the place where we decrease and He increases in us – transformation!

One of the ways I know God is trying to get my attention is that I run into the same truth everywhere I turn! It helps when He makes it hard to miss Him!!

Recently at church we sang How Deep the Father’s Love For Us, How vast beyond all measure? That He should give His only Son to make this wretch a treasure. How great the pain of searing loss? The Father turns His face away. As wounds which mar the Chosen One bring many sons to glory.

The Father turned His face away when Jesus was on the cross. When my mom was in the hospital with sepsis a couple of years before she died, she was in so much pain she couldn’t bear to be touched – and I couldn’t bear to watch. That’s when I
believed that was why the Father turned His face away. But today it hit me that
while I was praying for God to do whatever it takes in the lives of those I love, I was also asking that I be able to watch, to stand it. I realized that even if I find it unbearable, the Father walked that path in front of me.

Deut. 31:8
And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will
not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.

Amazing Grace!!!