Stumbling Blocks Part 2

STUMBLING BLOCKS (Part 2)

"Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."
Hebrews 12:1

Good morning, men. Today is a new day and another day to see God at work in our lives. Yesterday I shared the first part of a devotional reading from the book STREAMS IN THE DESERT (Zondervan) and now here is part 2.
I pray that today it will speak to someone's heart. If that someone was you, I'd love to hear from you.

"The devil has two very masterful tricks. The first is to tempt is to become DISCOURAGED, for then we are defeated and of no service to others, at least for awhile. The other is to tempt is to DOUBT, thereby breaking the bond of faith that unites us with the Father. So watch out!
Do not be tricked either way!

I like to cultivate the spirit of HAPPINESS! It restores my soul and it keeps it so perfectly in tune that Satan is afraid to touch it. The chords of my soul become so vibrant and full of heavenly electricity that he takes his fiendish fingers from me and goes somewhere else!
Satan is always wary of interfering with me when my heart is full of the happiness and joy of the Holy Spirit.

My plan is simply to shun the spirit of SADNESS as I would normally shun Satan, but unfortunately I am not always successful. Like the devil himself, sadness confronts me while I am on the highway of USEFULNESS.
And it stays face to face with me until my soul turns blue and sad! In fact, sadness discolors everything around me and produces a mental paralysis. Nothing has any appeal to me, future prospects seem clouded in darkness, and my soul loses all its aspirations and power!

An elderly believer once said, 'CHEERFULNESS in our faith causes any act of service to be performed with DELIGHT, and we are never more moved ahead as swiftly in our spiritual calling as when we are carried on the wings of happiness. SADNESS, however, clips those wings or, using another analogy, causes the wheels to fall off our chariots of service.
Our chariot then becomes like those of the Egyptians at the Red Sea, dragging heavily on its axle and slowing our progress."

Good words to consider this morning.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: "I am the visible part of the invisible Christ. He is the invisible part of the visible me!" - Dr. Adrian Rogers