"The will of the Almighty shall prevail in our own time..."

Ron Sider's EPistle starts with a good quote today.

Every individual who seeks the truth faces a struggle. Each of us has some sort of devil raging within, wanting to deaden and destroy something in us. We are all in danger of thinking we are doing God a service, when in fact we are just following our own will. That is why, over and again, we must tell ourselves: “Keep a tight rein on yourself! Stand by the truth when it dawns on you, even if it hurts, even when it denies everything the world has accepted as true until now!” God’s kingdom comes through struggle and tribulation, the defiant challenging of the whole age. It is advancing, and people have no taste for it. But in the end Jesus Christ — the Truth, the Life, and the Way — will win. So let us be comforted; for the will of the Almighty shall prevail in our own time, as surely as in the time of the apostles.- C. F. Blumhardt

I am constantly aware of how easily we are misled by our own agendas. As I grow spiritually I see an increasing need for humility and repentance. We can do things for good reasons that are not in line with where God is leading. The struggle for the Kingdom of God begins in the very deepest corner of my heart. And while it hurts to revisit areas that I thought were laid to rest, it's a sweet pain that brings with it the joy of knowing that the Spirit is alive and well and at work in my life. Joyful pain. Dying to live. It's all part of following Jesus.