Matthew 23:37  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

Acts 3:19  Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; 20  And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 21  Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. 22  For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. 23  And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. 24  Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. 25  Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. 26  Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

you say you want Jesus
If you knew the gift of God... (John 4:1-15)
Lenten Reflections: Who hath believed?
No other ~ Never shall the merit of Christ decay
The Dove's Resting Place | What kind of dove are you?
the children of God will never say of Him: "Got stood up big time!"
Letter 25 on assurance and fighting for joy (a strong craving ≠ His joy)
true repentance leads to joy (Letter 37 on assurance & fighting for joy)
You whine and complain (Letter 70 on assurance & fighting for joy)
Are you a radiant Christian or a drunken old woman? (letter 82 on assurance & fighting for joy)
"yet you did not return to ME" ~ (Amos 4:6-11) | letter 126 on assurance & joy
We have all been unwise, like a mule, Your commandments we have refused
If I look (looking at him, loved him - Mark 10:17-22) ~ ministry's sorrow

Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Photo credit: "More chicks" found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:More_chicks.jpg  / CC BY-SA 3.0 - PD

  
Amos 4
6  “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and lack of bread in all your places,
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.
7  “I also withheld the rain from you
when there were yet three months to the harvest;
I would send rain on one city,
and send no rain on another city;
one field would have rain,
and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
8  so two or three cities would wander to another city
to drink water, and would not be satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.
9  “I struck you with blight and mildew;
your many gardens and your vineyards,
your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.
10  “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
and carried away your horses,
and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.
11  “I overthrew some of you,
as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the LORD.

In His merciful kindness to us, there are times that God withholds from His own people and allows such trials and difficulties to come into our lives.

Why?

– And why would I say that is part of God's merciful kindness to us?

That we might return to the LORD.

To explain...

It grieves our heavenly Father, it crushes His heart as we gad about, as we seek in vain to find satisfaction in this world – and all the while He is more than ready to freely and bountifully supply for us from His inexhaustible riches, so we might be filled to overflowing with Him!

Amos 5:6  Seek the LORD and live...

Your eternal hunger can never be sated with the false bread of this passing world.
Your eternal thirst can never be slaked with the false drink of this passing world.
Your eternal soul can never be satisfied with the meager, counterfeit provisions of this passing world.

John 6:27  “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28  Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29  Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30  So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31  Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32  Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33  For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34  They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

35  Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36  But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37  All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38  For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40  For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

John 6:41  So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42  They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43  Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44  No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45  It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46  not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48  I am the bread of life. 49  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50  This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51  I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

52  The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53  So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55  For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57  As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58  This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

Jesus is describing a quality of life that is available only to the Christian. Have you ever tasted and drunk of Him and begun to know without a doubt His bread and His drink is far superior to the best the world can offer you – that HE is far superior to the best the world can offer you?

Charles Wesley spoke of Jesus Christ like this:

Have you ever had a real sense imparted to your soul that the love of Christ is truly divine, that His is a love that is unlike any love you'll find in this world?

Have you ever had a real sense imparted to your soul that the joy of Christ is truly heavenly, that His is a joy that is unlike any joy you will find in this world?

If you've never had such an experience of the love and joy of the living God, will you go to Him and ask Him to help you to know such true and deep and transcendent love and joy through more intimate fellowship with Him?

Revelation 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Isaiah 55
1  “Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3  Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.

Hosea 2
6  Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns,
and I will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
7  She shall pursue her lovers
but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
but shall not find them.
Then she shall say,
‘I will go and return to my first husband,
for it was better for me then than now.’ ...

16  And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17  For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18  And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19  And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20  I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.

If you are frustrated, if you feel God is crossing you at every turn and hedging up your way like that, if you are tempted to whine and complain and doubt and question His goodness and love for you and His plan for you, I pray that He would give you the assurance that He is working all things for your good...

Psalm 73:28a  But for me it is good to be near God...

It is for your soul's supreme good that you return to Him!

If you are hungering and thirsting today, that is a mercy of God to your soul. Will you return to Him? Will you seek Him diligently so you might be near Him, so your soul might truly live? The Lord Jesus Christ has promised that all who hunger and thirst for Him will be satisfied!

If you are feeling like Gomer today, if you cannot find your paths, or if you cannot find your lovers, if you are unable to find fulfillment, love, peace, joy and contentment in this world, now is the time to set your mind on things above and seek wholeheartedly after your Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, the true and everlasting lover of your soul, the God who loved you before the foundation of the world and hung on the cross in your place as a whole burnt offering for your sin. Our God has unsearchable riches prepared to pour out upon you through Jesus Christ to provide for all your need, to fill you to overflowing, to satisfy the deepest desires and greatest longings of your heart.

Jeremiah 31:14  I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,
and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
declares the LORD.

These other posts in my series of letters on assurance & fighting for joy:

As a deer pants ... Is your soul panting for God? (Psalms 42 & 43)
If you knew the gift of God... (John 4:1-15)
Embittered, pricked in heart? Go into the sanctuary of God (Psalm 73)
How's your spiritual appetite? (Jonathan Edwards)
Lenten Reflections: When he broke all supply of bread (My breaking is for your blessing)
God, Love & Cookies ~ Have you abandoned your first Love? (Revelation 2:4)
A Hymn for "Shelf" Times..."Lord, We Know That Thou Art Near Us"
disaster's hidden call
Two Fountains ~ Where are you drinking? What is flowing? Don't waste your drinking!
the children of God will never say of Him: "Got stood up big time!"
Don't Waste Your Singleness | Single one ... be single-eyed
Still This Weekend, Still This Night
"And Jacob was left alone" ~ Don't waste your loneliness
Be not an Esau (Genesis 25:29-34, Hebrews 12:15-17)
Where do you go when the world is unlovely? (Psalm 84 & the theology of Biblical counseling)
All things (even bad things) work together for good...
Bible Reading-Isaiah: When We Think the LORD Has Forsaken and Forgotten Us
♥ Valentine's Day Posts ♥ (Series Links)

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Emphasis mine.

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From "Memoir, Select Thoughts and Sermons of the Late Rev. Edward Payson, Volume 1" by Edward Payson (1783-1827) and Asa Cummings, 319-321, emphasis mine:

A letter of counsel to a candidate for the ministry:—

" My Dear Brother :—I rejoice to learn that you are in part released from the bondage in which you have been so long held. That you are released, I infer, first, from the fact that you are preaching; and, secondly, from your having written me a letter. But what a request does your letter contain ! That I should write to you systematically ! I, who never did any thing systematically in my life, but have always lived extempore! If I write to you, it must be in the same way. It will be the easiest thing in the world to give you plenty of good advice. All the difficulty will be, to make you follow it. If you are like me, you will never learn any thing to any purpose, till it is beaten into you by painful experience; and even then, you will probably forget it in a tenth part of the time which it took you to learn it. However, I will tell you one thing, which experience has taught me. If you will believe it, on my word, it will save you some suffering. If not, you must learn it, as I did, under the scourge.

" Some time since, I took up a little work, purporting to be the lives of sundry characters, as related by themselves. Two of those characters agreed in remarking, that they were never happy until they ceased striving to be great men. This remark struck me, as you know the most simple remarks will strike us, when Heaven pleases. It occurred to me at once, that most of my sins and sufferings were occasioned by an unwillingness to be the nothing which I am, and by consequent struggles to be something. I saw that if I would but cease struggling, and consent to be any thing, or nothing, just as God pleases, I might be happy. You will think it strange, that I mention this as a new discovery. In one sense, it was not new ; I had known it for years. But I now saw it in a new light. My heart saw it, and consented to it; and I am comparatively happy. My dear brother, if you can give up all desire to be great, and feel heartily willing to be nothing, you will be happy too. You must not even wish to be a great Christian; that is, you must not wish to make great attainments in religion, for the sake of knowing that you have made, or for the sake of having others think that you have made them. Very true, very good, you will say, though somewhat trite; but how am I to bring myself to such a state ? Let me ask, in reply, why you are not troubled, when you see one man receive military, and another masonic honors? Why are you not unhappy, because you cannot be a colonel, a general, or a most worshipful grand high priest. Because, you answer, I have no desire for these titles or distinctions. And why do you not desire them? Simply because you are not running a race in competition with those who obtain them. You stand aside, and say, 'Let those who wish for these things have them.' Now if you can, in a similar manner, give up all competition with respect to other objects; if you can stand aside from the race which too many other ministers are running, and say, from your heart, ' Let those who choose to engage in such a race divide the prize; let one minister run away with the money, and another with the esteem, and a third with the applause, &c.; I have something else to do; a different race to run; be God's approbation the only prize for which I run; let me obtain that, and it is enough ; I say, if you can, from the heart, adopt this language, you will find most of your difficulties and sufferings vanish. But it is hard to say this. It is almost impossible to persuade any man to renounce the race, without cutting off his feet, or, at least, fettering him. This God has done for me; this he has been doing for you. And you will, one day, if you do not now, bless him for all your sufferings, as I do for mine. I have not suffered one pang too much. God was never more kind than when I thought him most unkind; never more faithful than when I was ready to say, His faithfulness has failed. Let him fetter you, then, if he pleases. Consent that he should cut off your feet, if he pleases. Any thing is a blessing which prevents us from running the fatal race, which we are so prone to run; which first convinces us that we are nothing, and then makes us willing to be so."

Psalms 110:3  Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.

Psalm 149:4  For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.

Psalm 131:1  LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. 2  Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. 3  Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever.

I Corinthians 9:25  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

Isaiah 29:19  The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

What Is Christian Contentment?
"the aim in life is God's, not mine" (Oswald Chambers)
Kingdom-Obsessed People don't seek "great things" for themselves
Lent V. - You follow me! (Are we steadfastly setting our faces to His will?)
My love affair . . . whose trumpet, whose glory & incomplete joy
Lenten Reflections: Climbing (the minister's descent)
What is your attitude toward trials and sufferings? ~ Whitefield's Journals
"Blessed is the Man that endureth Temptation" by Joseph Hart
"So you led your people to make for yourself a glorious name" (Isaiah 63:14b)
but made Himself of no reputation ~ O, for grace to be a doorkeeper! (Philippians 2, Psalm 84)
Where do you go when the world is unlovely? (Psalm 84 & the theology of Biblical counseling)
All things (even bad things) work together for good...
Bible Reading-Isaiah: When We Think the LORD Has Forsaken and Forgotten Us
A Hymn for "Shelf" Times ..."Lord, We Know That Thou Art Near Us"
Why I blog and the only kind of recommendation I should seek
Birthday reflections ~ "Keep me an infant" (Isaiah 46:1-4)
Letter 16 on assurance and fighting for joy (our prayers, His wise denials and joy)
Letter 25 on assurance and fighting for joy (a strong craving ≠ His joy)
our Father's discipline, William Cowper on trials & sufferings (letter 61 on assurance & joy)
Are you a radiant Christian or a drunken old woman? (letter 82 on assurance & fighting for joy)
Rejoicing here on the Potter's Wheel (Psalm 66) | Letter 96 on assurance & joy
dreams grasped, dreams released | letter 104 on assurance & fighting for joy

Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.