Just needed to share this one.

2 Peter 1:4 

In this way he has given us the very great and precious gifts he promised, so that by means of these gifts you may escape from the destructive lust that is in the world, and may come to share the divine nature.

Last night as I climbed into bed exhausted from a day spent outdoors gardening, I felt the pull to grab a book I keep on my bedside table, My Utmost for His Highest.

This is a book of daily spiritual readings compiled from shorthand notes of Bible teacher Oswald Chambers' lectures. I don't read it every day. Well, I do for periods of a week or two at a time, but it gets to be a little overwhelming for me. It calls for a whole lot of self-examination and, admittedly, there are some days when I just don't want to dig that deep.

But then there are nights like last night when I feel like I'm not quite through with what I'm supposed to do for the day, so I pick it up.

After what I wrote in my last post about abundance, while still - and always - having that nugget, however small, of "what if" and worry in the back of my mind, I found Chambers' words last night quite apropos.

The reading for May 16 says, in part:

"We think it is a sign of true humility to say at the end of the day, 'Well, I just barely got by today, but it was a severe struggle.' And yet all of Almighty God is ours in the Lord Jesus! And He will reach to the last grain of sand and the remotest star to bless us if we will only obey Him. Does it really matter that our circumstances are difficult? Why shouldn't they be! If we give way to self-pity and indulge in the luxury of misery, we remove God's riches from our lives and hinder others from entering into His provision. No sin is worse than the sin of self-pity, because it removes God from the throne of our lives, replacing Him with our own self-interests. It causes us to open our mouths only to complain and we simply become spiritual sponges - always absorbing, never giving, and never being satisfied. And there is nothing lovely or generous about our lives.

Before God becomes satisfied with us, He will take everything of our so-called wealth, until we learn that He is our Source; as the psalmist said, 'All my springs are in You' (Psalm 87:7). If the majesty, grace, and power of God are not being exhibited in us, God holds us responsible. 'God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you ... may have an abundance ...' (2 Corinthians 9:8) - then learn to lavish the grace of God on others, generously giving of yourself. Be marked and identified with God's nature, and His blessing will flow through you all the time."

I am challenged by those words in a couple of ways. First, I recognize that I have a duty to see every aspect of life as a gift, every circumstance as something delivered with a purpose. Second, I am reminded that all the "wealth" in my life comes from one source: to God be the glory.

It was a lot for my exhausted brain to chew on last night, and it still is today. But what a wonderfully-timed reminder.