Christian Fellowship Community Group
A safe place for Christians who Love Jesus Christ to meet and ask for prayer and share scriptures from the bible. We value the posting of Christian music, poems, stories and also personal testimonies. Please let us know your needs, concerns and have some fun getting to know each other. We treat each other with respect.
The wisdom of the fathers
WINGS OF SURRENDER AND TRUST
... Is there, then, no way to escape for us when in trouble or distress? Must we just plod wearily through it all and look for no relief? I rejoice to answer that there is a glorious way of escape for every one of us, if we will but mount up on wings, and fly away from it all to God. It is not a way east or west, or north or south, but it is a way upwards. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint" (Isa. 40:31).
All creatures that have wings can escape from every snare that is set for them, if only they will fly high enough, and the soul that uses its wings can always find a sure "way to escape" from all that can hurt or trouble it.
What, then, are these wings? Their secret is contained in the words, "They that wait upon the Lord." The soul that waits upon the Lord is the soul that is entirely surrendered to Him, and that trusts Him perfectly.
Therefore we might name our wings the wings of Surrender and of Trust. I mean by this, that, if we will only surrender ourselves utterly to the Lord, and will trust Him perfectly, we shall find our souls "mounting up with wings as eagles" to the "heavenly places" in Christ Jesus, where earthly annoyances or sorrows have no power to disturb us.
The wings of the soul carry it up into a spiritual plane of life, into the "life hidden with Christ in God," which is a life utterly independent of circumstances, one that no cage can imprison and no shackles bind.
The "things above" are the things the soul on wings cares about, not the "things on the earth"; and it views life and all its experiences from the high altitude of "heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Things look very different according to the standpoint from which we view them. The caterpillar, as it creeps along the ground, must have a widely different "view" of the world around it, from that which the same caterpillar will have when its wings are developed, and it soars in the air above the very places where once it crawled.
And similarly the crawling soul must necessarily see things in a very different aspect from the soul that has "mounted up with wings." The mountain top may blaze with sunshine when all the valley below is shrouded in fogs, and the bird whose wings can carry him high enough, may mount at will out of the gloom below into the joy of the sunlight above.
And this is what the soul on wings does. It overcomes the world through faith. To overcome means to "come over," not to be crushed under. The soul on wings flies over the world and the things of it. These lose their power to hold or bind the spirit that can "come over" them on the wings of Surrender and Trust. That spirit is made in very truth "more than conqueror" (Rom. 8:37).
Birds overcome the lower law of gravitation by the higher law of flight, and the soul on wings overcomes the lower law of sin and misery and bondage by the higher law of spiritual flying. The "law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:2) must necessarily be a higher and more dominant law than the law of sin and death. Therefore the soul that has mounted into this upper region of the life in Christ cannot fail to conquer and triumph.
But it may be asked how it is, then, that all Christians do not always triumph. I answer that it is because a great many Christians do not "mount up with wings" into this higher plane of life at all. They live on the same low level with their circumstances. Instead of flying over them, they try to fight them on their own earthly plane. On this plane the soul is powerless. It has no weapons with which to conquer there. Instead of overcoming, or coming over, the trials and sorrows of the earthly life, it is overcome by them and crushed under them.
(From the "Christian's Secret of Happy Life" by Hannah Withall Smith)
WINGS OF SURRENDER AND TRUST
... Is there, then, no way to escape for us when in trouble or distress? Must we just plod wearily through it all and look for no relief? I rejoice to answer that there is a glorious way of escape for every one of us, if we will but mount up on wings, and fly away from it all to God. It is not a way east or west, or north or south, but it is a way upwards. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint" (Isa. 40:31).
All creatures that have wings can escape from every snare that is set for them, if only they will fly high enough, and the soul that uses its wings can always find a sure "way to escape" from all that can hurt or trouble it.
What, then, are these wings? Their secret is contained in the words, "They that wait upon the Lord." The soul that waits upon the Lord is the soul that is entirely surrendered to Him, and that trusts Him perfectly.
Therefore we might name our wings the wings of Surrender and of Trust. I mean by this, that, if we will only surrender ourselves utterly to the Lord, and will trust Him perfectly, we shall find our souls "mounting up with wings as eagles" to the "heavenly places" in Christ Jesus, where earthly annoyances or sorrows have no power to disturb us.
The wings of the soul carry it up into a spiritual plane of life, into the "life hidden with Christ in God," which is a life utterly independent of circumstances, one that no cage can imprison and no shackles bind.
The "things above" are the things the soul on wings cares about, not the "things on the earth"; and it views life and all its experiences from the high altitude of "heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Things look very different according to the standpoint from which we view them. The caterpillar, as it creeps along the ground, must have a widely different "view" of the world around it, from that which the same caterpillar will have when its wings are developed, and it soars in the air above the very places where once it crawled.
And similarly the crawling soul must necessarily see things in a very different aspect from the soul that has "mounted up with wings." The mountain top may blaze with sunshine when all the valley below is shrouded in fogs, and the bird whose wings can carry him high enough, may mount at will out of the gloom below into the joy of the sunlight above.
And this is what the soul on wings does. It overcomes the world through faith. To overcome means to "come over," not to be crushed under. The soul on wings flies over the world and the things of it. These lose their power to hold or bind the spirit that can "come over" them on the wings of Surrender and Trust. That spirit is made in very truth "more than conqueror" (Rom. 8:37).
Birds overcome the lower law of gravitation by the higher law of flight, and the soul on wings overcomes the lower law of sin and misery and bondage by the higher law of spiritual flying. The "law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:2) must necessarily be a higher and more dominant law than the law of sin and death. Therefore the soul that has mounted into this upper region of the life in Christ cannot fail to conquer and triumph.
But it may be asked how it is, then, that all Christians do not always triumph. I answer that it is because a great many Christians do not "mount up with wings" into this higher plane of life at all. They live on the same low level with their circumstances. Instead of flying over them, they try to fight them on their own earthly plane. On this plane the soul is powerless. It has no weapons with which to conquer there. Instead of overcoming, or coming over, the trials and sorrows of the earthly life, it is overcome by them and crushed under them.
(From the "Christian's Secret of Happy Life" by Hannah Withall Smith)
NYyankeedeb
thanks for sharing....
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