file: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db941013.txt
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OUR DAILY BREAD                   Thursday, October 13, 1994
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READ: Hebrews 12:1-17

                   "ARE YOU STRUGGLING?"

           No chastening seems to be joyful ... ;
           nevertheless, afterward it yields the
             peaceable fruit of righteousness.

                      - Hebrews 12:11

I was in my second year of widowhood and I was struggling.
Morning after morning my prayer life consisted of one daily
sigh: "Lord, I shouldn't be struggling like this!" "And
why not?" His still, small voice asked me from within one
morning.

Then the answer came - unrecognized pride! Somehow I had
thought that a person of my spiritual maturity should be
beyond such struggle. What a ridiculous thought, since I
had never been a widow before and needed the freedom to be a
true learner, even a struggling learner.

At the same time, I was reminded of the story of a man who
took home a cocoon so he could watch the emperor moth em-
erge. As the moth struggled to get through the tiny open-
ing, the man englarged it with the snip of his scissors.
The moth emerged easily - bit its wings were shriveled. The
struggle through the narrow opening is God's way to force
fluid from its body into its wings. The "merciful" snip, in
reality, was cruel.

Hebrews 12 describes the Christian life as an effort that
involves discipline, correction, and training in righteous-
ness. Surely such a race could not be run without a holy
striving against self and sin. Sometimes the struggle is
exactly what we need.

Author: Joanie E. Yoder

 When God allows His chastening hand
 To give us little rest,
 His only purpose is our good -
 He wants from us His best.

                   - Dennis J. De Haan


THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
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God's chastening is compassionate,
   never cruel.

The Bible in One Year: Nehemiah 10-13

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