Needed Needs

The circumstances in which we learn most are those which most expose our weaknesses. As a rule we are placed in circumstances which demand that which we are most defective in. We are set in such and such situations, not because we can handle them, or behave in them better than anyone else; but on the contrary, because we need to be invigorated by grace in the defects which they are fitted to expose. They disclose to us where we need grace, so that constantly we are failing where we are expected to excel. We are put there to cast us on the Lord, and to teach us that we can do nothing of ourselves.

If we could excel there, we should glory in our success, but when we find that we are placed in the very circumstances that, perhaps, more that any others expose our weakness, we then see that we have no hope of being able to stand or succeed, unless we obtain grace to do so. I am not placed where I could excel most, but subjected to those difficulties in which I can best know my need of grace, and best learn dependence.

If I could get on without grace, I should grow elated with myself. But when I find that unless the Lord maintains me I shall surely fail, then I am humbled as to myself while at the same time deepened in dependence which the demand of my circumstances has, in a way, forced on me; and having learned the blessing of dependence, instead of regretting the difficulties which made it necessary to seek help, I am the more cheered and encouraged to go on in them.

For learning or service everyone is placed where there is demand on him. The boy at school is not in the easy circumstances of home or the playground. The horse in a harness is not in the ease of being in the stable or at the grass.

The situations we are subjected to are the ones in which we can best learn and be most useful. It is not because we have nothing to learn or nothing to do for others. If we had naught to learn, there would be no difficulty in the lessons required of us every day. The fact that there is difficulty in them proves that we are not proficient, and that it is necessary that we should be subjected to that which discloses to us what we require to learn, or to draw from us what we can render.

Your weakness is exposed that you may acquire strength, and having received of the Lord, you will then be called on to render unto others—to comfort others, as you have been comforted of God; so that whether learner or servant, you are always set in circumstances where there is exaction, and not ease. If the learner were to keep at the same lesson always he might feel his difficulty is over, but so would his learning be over.

Are you learning? Are you useful? Whenever you are either, you will find that you are in exacting circumstances, and therefore not those where you are most at home and at your ease; but the more you turn them to profit, the more you are learning of grace, and the more useful you are in sharing what you have acquired.

- J B Stoney



MJS devotional excerpt for Sep. 12:
"The Scriptures tell me what the Father gives me, but they do not give it to me. The Spirit applies the Word to me in its divine meaning, and then I possess what Scripture tells me is mine through God’s grace. For instance, the Word tells me that if I behold the Lord’s glory I shall be transformed. It doesn’t transform me, however clearly I may see what it states. It communicates to me a very great thing, but it is the Spirit who makes it experiential to me." -J.B.S.
http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/

 

Hi U, always appreciate your replies and comments! I see those passages referring to those who had yet to trust (faith) God and thus were used as examples of unbelievers, even though they partook of the same provisions as the believers.

I believe the issue is not sinning but possessing the sin nature, because this is where the evil originates. Even if one could live without sinning (an impossibility of course) the guilt would yet remain due to the sin nature (old man). The sinning merely manifests this nature, and those in Christ are kept from the desire of sinning, which is where the incurred guilt rests. Hence we are not in this nature (Rom 8:9) but it is in us and some of its affects are still unavoidable, but never the believer's desire due to the new nature and the Spirit.

God always has the believer prepared to endure the difficulties that arise from our hatred for that which we do in our old nature.

I would relate this only to those not born again, and some of it temporarily to immature believers whom the Spirit is always teaching to progress unto maturity.

 

Actuality shows that Christians still have the sin nature, which means sinning will continue to be inevitable. Not sure what you're alluding to, but as I stated it's the nature that incurs guilt of sin, not the sinning. Unless we're discussing different issues.

Not sure of you're meaning concerning "God's presence."

The "temptation" usage here in 1 Co 10:13 is in reference to difficulties, not the desire for doing evil. To me this means that every hardness (i.e. discouragement, distress, etc.) believers encounter will never exceed their maturity level of endurance, because God ensures it by already having prepared you for it.

 

Below is a good example to what I'm referring.

James 1:12; 'peirasmos' Strong's G3986

James 1:13; 'peirazō' G3985

 

It depends on what the word "tempt" means in this passage. There are two usages of the same word (tempt). Tempt can mean "to test" or "to entice." Since Jesus cannot possess the temptation to do evil (Jam 1:13), He was being tested.

You made an instructional point here, in that Scripture can often obscure meaning due to the way it can read. This is as you've shared, often confusing to the believer during Bible study.

I've come to understand that these difficulties cause us to increasingly depend on the Spirit's teaching, by being patient in awaiting understanding while continuing Biblical studies.

Concerning sinning, I believe the outcome of all that a believer does is good and not evil. Though occasionally our methods and messages will be old-man-derived (from the sinful nature), the final intention is what determines evaluation, in which the majority of our "desires" will always be God-centered (Phl 2:13).

When the believer sins, it's with the nature in which he is no longer after (Rom 8:9), and its with his new nature ("seed" - 1 Jhn 3:9) he lives apart from sin. "So then, with the mind I (with my new nature) myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh (with my old nature) the law of sin" (Rom 7:25).

The "I" in this passage is all that God regards, thus we need no to allow our old nature to trouble us (Jhn 14:1). The sins of an unbeliever are not against his will and therefore is not as a captive but are a subject of being dominated, because they desire to sin. Believers sin against their will and therefore are subjects of being free from the desire to sin (Rom 7:23). The greatest test and application of faith concerning our sin is trusting in Christ's expiation for it--esp. in spite of "the sin that dwelleth in me (Rom 7:17, 20).

Love You Brother! Thanks for your Word-inspiring replies, and for being patient with my replies!