The τυχαίος Blog

The Focus of Faith

When the eye of the heart is fixed on the world and the self, everything eternal and invisible is blurred and obscure. No wonder we can’t focus on God.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Make my heart pure, Lord, that I may will to do your will. Give me the courage to see my world with all its evil and pain, but change the focus of my life.

Lord Jesus, make Thyself to me
A living, bright reality,
More present to faith’s vision keen
Than any outward object seen,
More dear, more intimately nigh
Than e’en the sweetest earthly tie.
—(J.B. French)

The Thought of It

It’s 2 am and I lay here.
A million thoughts run through my head.
A part of me wants to scream and cry.
While the other part knows the Truth and needs to cling to it.
It’s 2 am and I’m still here.
I have come to the conclusion that I don’t miss him.
I miss the idea of him.
I don’t know how that’s possible,
But that’s how I feel.
I miss having what him and I had.
But in the end, I wouldn’t except us to be that way ever again.
I don’t except it to be normal again.
I just really miss that someone.

“I’ll never say, that I’ll never love. But I don’t say a lot of things. And you my love are gone.”

Pray with Jesus

Because I am “of the earth, earthy,” I find that my prayers for the people I love are mostly bound by very earthy concerns—Lord, help P. to find a good wife, show G. which college to attend, provide money for W.’s house and E.’s car, help T. with his book, give X. a better job. It is meet and proper to pray for such things, but not to pray only for such things. There are prayers of far more lasting import which we must also learn to pray. We can find words for those in the prayer of Jesus for the people He loved:

that they may be one;
that they may find his joy completed in themselves;
that they may be kept from evil;
that they may be made holy by the truth;
that they may live in Christ;
that they may grow complete into one;
that they may be with him;
that the love which God has for Christ may be in their hearts.
If we learn to pray that kind of prayer, it will perhaps amend the “lesser” prayers.

Lord, teach me to pray. Open my eyes to see beyond the earthly to the heavenly. Let my primary concerns be heavenly ones, that your kingdom may come on earth, your will be done in me and in those I love. Teach me to pray with Jesus, for his sake. Amen.

Detours

When we are puzzled by delays and detours, let us think about the great purpose of life: to glorify God. The lessons He wants to teach us “in the wilderness” are priceless means of providing us with a song we could not otherwise have sung: “In Thy constant love Thou hast led the people!” (Ex 15:13).

But he’d rather make it hard.

“How can I explain myself, as painful as this thing has been…”

Trying to be Christ to an old friend is hard, but it would be a lot easier if he would let me. But Jesus never said it would be easy. So even so…I shall do it.

I thought this was so funny.

Conversation that goes on while my brother is rebuking me.

Luis: you are the girl who want to marry a King but doesn’t want to be/behave like a Queen.

Me: umm. I don’t want to get married. I don’t understand your point.

Bahahahaha.

The Glory of God

When God’s power is manifested in the world, in his creation, or in his people, God is glorified. When we pray that our lives may glorify Him, we are asking that the self may be put down, for it is not possible to show the power of God and at the same time to glorify what George MacDonald called “the bastard self.” We must be prepared to lose ourselves, whatever that may entail, that God may be all in all. Losing an argument for his sake, losing something we held dear, losing “face,” reputation, a position of power or superiority, losing a claim on someone or on his affection or respect—can these be a part of the answer to our prayer to glorify God in our lives? Assuredly they can, for assuredly the Son Himself laid aside all such assets when He came to do the will of the Father.

“I have glorified Thee on the earth” (Jn 17:4 AV), He said—and that glory was manifested through weakness, loss, and suffering. What a privileged position we are called to share.

Lord, lift up our eyes, away from ourselves and our small losses, up to that glory yet to be revealed. Teach us that it is only out of weakness that we are made strong, only as we suffer that we may reign, only as we lose that we may gain.

Author: Elisabeth Elliot