August 6

“They never see that fullness, for they never look at it.  They cry out, ‘O Lord, reveal yourself’; but, instead of looking at God, they look at themselves, and keep their gaze steadily fixed on their own feelings, and then wonder at the ‘mysterious dealings’ of God in hiding His face from them.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, Daily Secrets, 8/6

I’m always looking for what I call natural, logical ways to understand things so that I can convince myself to do things in a different way.  If I don’t do that, I find it very difficult to change if the old way is still “working” for me.  Hannah has given me another aspect of why I need to quit looking at myself.  As long as I keep looking at myself--my mistakes, my successes, my whatever, I’m not going to be looking at God.  If I’m not looking at God, then I’m going to miss what I need to see in order to follow God.  Yes, God may intervene in such a way that I can’t help but see Him.  Those times only come in crises it seems.  I want to see God in all the moments of my life.  There I will experience the peace and the wonder of being in His presence.  It will make all things sweeter---even the good things, but especially the difficult things.  Bittersweet is a word I find myself using often.  I think it’s a good word because it acknowledges that we can find the sweetness in the bitter if we are looking at God.

“How sweet are thy words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”  Psalm 119:103

April 2

“One of the greatest obstacles to an unwavering experience in the spiritual life is the difficulty of seeing God in everything.  People say, ‘I can easily submit to things that I know come from God--but I cannot submit to man, and most of my troubles come through other men and women!’ ”  Hannah Whitall Smith, Safe Within Your Love, pg. 135

God’s not going to let me leave this subject I see! Hannah went on to say what is needed is to see God in everything and to receive everything directly from His hands. After writing yesterday’s devotion I found myself struggling once again with those things not within my control.  So I was up early reading my Bible and was led to the passage in Mark 2:22 where Jesus said you wouldn’t put new wine into old wineskins because it would cause them to break.  This made sense, but then I read the same passage in Luke 5:39 that adds, “And no one after drinking old wine desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’ ”  I know enough about wine to know old does taste better.  But if the new wine represents Christ and the new wineskin is our redeemed lives, what could this “old wine is better” mean?  And how did this relate to what Hannah was showing me?  Our "old skin”, the old man, will always want the old wine so we can’t pour the new wine into the old wineskin.  Therefore, as new creatures in Christ, everything that is poured into our lives will be this “new wine”, Christ Himself--and yes, it may taste bitter at first because it hasn’t aged yet--but this is the work of faith, to make it sweet.

“How sweet are thy words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”  Psalm 119:103