Tuesday's Trust - Greater is HE than the Damage in Me... ~Tommy and Angie Prince

{Johnson wildfire in an aspen grove on the Fishlake National Forest in southern Utah}

Tuesday's Trust

Greater is HE than the Damage in Me...

~Tommy and Angie Prince

Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.

~1 John 4:4

Greater is HE than the Damage in Me...

Though Satan looks like he's won,

You've only just begun.

My Kingdom's not built in a day...

He will not have the last say.

My work is oft done in deepest darkness,

Where Satan lurks and seeks to oppress.

Sufferings, deaths, persecutions will test.

You will oft feel stuck in th' wilderness.

Remember, many seeds grow in darkness,

So dark, no growth can you assess.

But My best work Satan will contest...

New life will spring up despite pain's weariness.

The damage in you will produce life for Me

E'en when you feel defeated by the Vile Enemy!

Just trust Me to do My work in you;

I often use sufferings to grow you too.

Do not despair. Do not lose hope.

I'll be with you. I'll help you cope.

It is by faith not by sight My work is done:

Though your works seem in vain, they'll be seeds sown...

Never doubt. By faith, what is sown in darkness grows ~

What is done by faith is completed by Light shown from Me,

And I will water and nurture so My grace bestows

Life to what once seemed Death from Vile Enemy.

The damage in you produces life for Me

E'en when you feel defeated by the Vile Enemy,

For just as I gave life --amidst death-- to your baby girl,

Remember,

"Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world!"

*****

{The area burned by the Johnson wildfire, a year after the fire (2005), Fishlake National Forest, Utah}

It is this sense of being damaged, rather than the immediate horror of the trauma, that many victims describe as the worst aspect of their ordeal in the long-term.

~Bessel A. van der Kolk, Traumatic Stress

This is what the Lord says:

"In the time of My favor I will answer you,

and in the day of salvation

I will help you."

Isaiah 49:8a

For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body.

~2 Corinthians 4:11

Not only is the outcome of our progression in the kingdom not under our control, but we are not told in any systematic way how do do our part in the process. This is because the process is to be a walk with a Person. But it is also because what is needed is very much an individual matter, a response to the particular needs of individual disciples.

~Dallas Willard, Divine Conspiracy

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

~Romans 5:2b-5

{Aspen sprouting in an area in the Johnson wildfire, two years after the fire (2006), Fishlake National Forest, Utah}

We are pressed on every side by troubles but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God.We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed . . . That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.

~2 Corinthians 4:8-9,16

*****

And I close with a prayer for you from Jesus as imagined by Nancy Guthrie, Hearing Jesus Speak into Your Sorrow

...I hear you prayers, asking for your path to be smooth and asking the Father to bless your plans with success. But I have to tell you, that is not how I am praying for you. I love you too much for that. I am praying that when your plans go awry and your efforts fail, your faith will not. I am asking the Father to give you the good gift you have asked Him for--more of My Holy Spirit at work in the interior of your life and character.

I am praying that you will walk in the truth and complete the work that has been entrusted to you--not so you can revel in the glory, but so you can experience the joy of giving the glory back to Me. I am praying that the truth of My Word will teach you and refine you, even though that refining may be painful, because I know your greatest happiness will come as you become holy as I am holy.

The day is coming when you will see and share in the glory I have shared with My Father since before Creation. I'm praying that God will purify you and protect you until that coming Day.

(capitalizations added)

Photos by B. Campbell

Poem - Greater is HE than the Damage in Me... - Angie Bennett Prince - 10/11/10

~Bessel A. van der Kolk, Traumatic Stress, p. 177

~Dallas Willard, Divine Conspiracy, p. 350

~Nancy Guthrie, Hearing Jesus Speak into Your Sorrow, pp. 21-22 (2009)