Excerpts from Andrew
Murray's commentary on Hebrews 10:23
“Faith and Hope ever go together.”
“Life in the Holiest, in the nearness of God, must
be characterized by an infinite hopefulness.”
“We must live in faith, not looking to ourselves,
but to God, and Hoping in Him.”
“Faith will still be tried, will perhaps most be
tried when God wants most to bless.”
“Hope is the daughter of Faith, the messenger it
sends out to see what is to come; it is Hope that becomes the strength and
support of faith.”
“We must confess and give expression to our Hope.
The confession strengthens the Hope; what we utter becomes clearer and more
real to us. It glorifies God. It helps and encourages those around us. It makes God, and men, and ourselves,
see that we are committed to it.”
I have been mulling over Hebrews 10:23 the past few
weeks. Carol found Andrew Murray’s
commentary on this passage. I have
excerpted several key phrases from his commentary shown above. These phrases clarified for me the
message that God has been working on in my heart. Before I go into an explanation of what all that means, I
need to elucidate what God has been doing in my life since April 24th,
the day I was released from Baylor Grapevine Hospital after a six day
stay. April 24th was
the day that God moved me from the “Waiting Room” to the “Intensive Care
Room” or as I like to call it, the “Trying Room”. What I mean by “Trying Room” is the room where I wait for
the doctors to figure out what to try next in my treatment and I seek God to
receive His blessings during the times of trials and testing. It was a testing time when I tried so
hard but was not able to meet my dietary requirements and was losing weight at
an alarming rate. As a result the
doctors wanted me to get a J-tube in a simple 15 minute procedure. This was a testing time because the
procedure was instead another seven days in the hospital, this time at
Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
This brings me to Hebrews 10:23 and the message
that God has placed on my heart. From the very beginning God’s provision for me has been very
gentle. I took comfort in this
because I could feel God by my side. It is much harder to realize God is by our side when it feels like the
gentleness has been removed. The
time spent in Spiritual Intensive Care has given me a new found understanding
and appreciation of the suffering cancer patients go through. I believe that revelation was one of
the primary purposes God has me in Spiritual Intensive Care. As Andrew Murray stated, faith and hope
ever go together. Faith will still
be tried, will perhaps most be tried, when God wants most to bless. God’s message to me during this time
was that I needed to confess my hope.
I am doing this through this update. I totally agree that hope is the daughter of faith, the
messenger it sends out to see what is to come. I had not made that connection before, nor had I understood
that I need to verbalize my confession of hope, to do so blesses those around
us and strengthens the hope within us. Most importantly, it glorifies God. My hope is in God the Father, the Healer, and the provider
of Salvation. Further, my hope is
that this season of Spiritual Intensive Care I am currently going through will
encourage others just as it has given me a new found appreciation of the suffering
cancer patients go through.
When God has me in Spiritual Intensive Care there
are two choices I can make. One
is to seek an even closer walk with God by letting Jesus work in me every
minute by asking the Holy Spirit to give me hope so that I can confess it
to myself and to the world. The
other choice is to blame God, call it unfair, and reject the blessing God has
in store for me. Those actions
tend to reduce our level of faith and put us in the very position the accuser
wants a Christian in, estranged from God. I was blessed by God with Unshakable Faith so my choice was easy. I am receiving God’s blessing,
confessing my hope and letting Jesus work in me every minute of every day.
Please continue to pray for me and my family as God
ordains. God is continuously using
you to support, encourage, and lift me up. That is such a comfort to me and my family.
Thank
you,
Price
Carol here! I wanted to add a little love letter to the end of Dad's post.
We have had several special visitors come to the house last week to pray over and just spend time with us. We are so grateful for each visit. After everyone leaves, we always find ourselves thanking God for such an amazing community who truly knows how to live out the gospel in tangible ways.
One specific dear visit was from Cindy Shirley and Gary Swindle (friends from my parents church) who brought with them Helen and Timothy Addah. Helen and Timothy are from Nigeria where God has given them an amazing ministry as a pastor to the pastors of Nigeria. The way God is using them for his Kingdom was phenomenal to learn about. And the prayers they prayed over dad were so powerful. It was a dear moment I know I will treasure for a long time. Thank you guys for coming and loving on this family so well.
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| Cindy, Gary, Pastor Timothy, Helen, and Price |
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