Reflections
The real you.
How do we deal with this crippling problem of inferiority? There are a number of approaches to this question but the one I have found most helpful is the one I am going to share with you now. See yourself in Christ!
There were three persons in Simon Peter: 
1.The person whom his friends and associates saw, 
2. the person  whom Simon Peter saw  
3. The person whom Jesus saw. (John 1:42)
Each thought he saw the true Simon. Who was right? The person whom Jesus saw was the true person for he turned out to be what Jesus predicted - not a reed but a rock! 
 Similarly, there are three people in you: the one your friends see; the one you yourself see; the one whom Jesus sees. Everything depends on which 'you' you focus upon. If you focus on the 'you' your friends see, you will get into bondage over the question of what others think about you. You will become an echo  rather than a voice . If you focus on the 'you' that you yourself see you will become downcast and discouraged by your inhibitions and your problems. But when  on the 'you' that Christ sees, then what a difference! It is a 'you' that is surrendered to God, linked to His Omnipotence and reinforced with divine energy. It is a 'you' that achieves things beyond your own capacities, and driven by a power outside of yourself.
You become what you focus upon. See yourself in Christ. You are wrapped around by His infinite resources. This the real 'you'.  Christ sees you as a complete in Him. See yourself in that position and you will become it.

Reflections
Our Resources In Christ.
  Let us take s look at our resources in Christ. This is very necessary, for in looking at problems we can, unless we are careful, allow those problems to get inside us, and then we become a problem both to ourselves and to others. We must gaze at Christ full-faced until His divine resources fill and flood our whole being, and until we are wholly and entirely possessed by His life-sustaining power.
  Someone has said, "The early Christians did not say in dismay, 'Look what the world has come to', but rather, 'Look what has come to the world'". They saw their problems as possibilities and their setbacks as springboards. They were realists, of course, and faced the fact that sin abounded, yet as true realists they also recognised that "where sin abounded grace did much more abound". On that assurance the early Christians went out and turned the world upside down, and this same attitude must possess you and I as we turn to consider the things which seek to destroy and invalidate our abundant life in Christ.
  I must explain that this positive attitude is not simply self-hypnosis (a fool's paradise) nor even
positive thinking,  but rather the confidence that comes from realising that our lives are linked to the God who created and sustains this vast universe. Someone has said that the whole secret of abundant living can be summed up in this sentence, "Not your responsibility, but your response to His ability".

Reflections

 Dealing with Guilt

Reflections
Getting the Best Out of Our Quiet Time
We look now at how to get the best out of our daily Quiet Time so that we develop an intimacy with the Almighty and that our souls may become sensitised to His guidance. It is important to fence off a part of our day so that we may commune with God, but we ask ourselves now: How should our devotional time be spent?
It should begin with the Bible. George Mueller regarded this simple fact as one of the most important discoveries he had made in fifty years. For the first ten years of his Christian experience he went straight to prayer, but the results were disappointing. He says: "I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half hour or even an hour on my knees before being conscious to myself  of having derived comfort, encouragement or humbling of soul; and often, after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then began really to pray. I scarcely ever suffer now in that way." Beginning with the Bible brings us swiftly into the Presence of the Lord. It prevents mind- wandering  and makes prayer that much easier. When you pray remember three aspects of drawing nigh to God, namely, confession, adoration and intercession. Prayer is not complete, however, unless having talked to God you let God talk to you. This is when you quietly wait upon God for the gentle impression of His Will to be imprinted on your mind. Remember, the Book first, prayer second, and listening third.

Reflections

Difficult Circumstances

Difficult circumstances  present no real problem to the man and woman in whom the life of Jesus Christ resides. Of these Edwin Markham says:
Defeat may serve as well as victory
To shake the soul and let glory out.
When the great oak is straining in the wind,
The boughs drink in new beauty and the trunk
Sends down a deeper root on the windward side.
Only the soul that knows the mighty grief, 

Can know the mighty rapture. Sorrows come

To stretch out spaces in the heart of joy.

Hudson Taylor knew this more than anyone. One day seated with a new missionary in a home in China he filled a glass full of water and then struck the table heavily with his fist. As the water splashed over he said to the young missionary. 'You will be stuck by the blows of many sorrows and troubles in China, but remember, they will only splash out of you what is in you'.

It was said of the quaint Cornish preacher Billy Bray that the more troubles he had the more he would shout 'Glory'. On one occasion he is reported to have said. "If you put me in a barrel I will shout 'Glory' through the bunghole." Troubles and difficulties bring out what is inside us. An old Christian travelling in a train stood up to get his suitcase as the train pulled into the station. It came to a sudden stop causing him to lurch from one side to the other. When he hit one side the passengers heard him say "Glory", and when he hit the other side, "Hallelujah"! The jolting shook the Glory out. Does it do the same in you?

Reflections
Victors-Not Victims
The question of God's abundant life flowing into our attitudes is extremely important. Those who have learned the secret of turning setbacks into springboards and stumbling blocks into stepping stones are those who have learned how to truly live. If you do not learn it then life will be frustrating, and you will become a victim rather that a victor.
Look at this illustration: Jesus has just learned that His friend John the Baptist  had been beheaded and the account continues, "As soon as Jesus heard the news He went by Himself in a boat to a remote area to be alone . But the crowds saw where He was headed and followed by land from many villages. So... He pitied them and healed their sick." ( Matt. 14:13-14). Jesus must have felt keenly the death of John the Baptist and quite naturally wanted to be alone to express His grief to God, His Father. The wound in His heart, however, did not deter Him from looking out on the multitude that had followed Him with great pity and compassion. The
Scripture says, "He pitied them and healed their sick". Christ did not allow the wound in His own heart to block His love and concern for others, but it became the prelude not only the healing of the multitude, but the miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand.
A nightingale, I am told, sings much more sweetly when a torn presses into its side. And so can you. If you have to work with a thorn in your side then let it bring out, by God's Grace, the sweetest note your life has ever sounded.

Reflections
Changing our minds
You must have heard the story of the grim-looking woman who offering a tract to a passerby, said, 'Would you like to become a Christian?' 'No thank you,'  said the other person, taking a look at her sour face, ' I have enough troubles of my own'.
Why is it that so many people who claim to belong to Christ present such a gloomy image to the world? In the main they are not hypocrites for their lives have no blemish, and their characters are spotless. Yet somehow their lives are not radiant, and they fail to put a desire in the hearts of others to reach out to Christ. Somehow or other we have given the men and women of our generation the impression that to become a Christian is to carry a heavy load, dress in black and live a life that is bleached of all colour. It is true that we do not cheat, swear, get drunk, or
philander with the opposite sex- but neither do thousands of people who are not Christians.
If we claim that a Christian is someone in whom Christ lives, then why is it that we give so little evidence that He is inside us? One possible answer to this is that we have not passed through the experience of which Paul speaks in Rom.12:2. We have surrendered our wills to Christ but there has been no transformation in our minds. Our thinking has never been reshaped. The Bible says it quite plainly, by the renewing of our minds we are transformed. And how is this achieved? By giving our minds to Him, then He gives  His mind to us. 'Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus... and be renewed'.

Reflections

Why did God let evil happen

In looking at the apparent defeat of God's purposes in the garden of Eden,  (Gen 3) people sometime say, "why didn't God put out His hand to prevent these things from taking place? Why didn't the Almighty intervene to prevent such a catastrophe?" There are several answers to this question.

1. God made us as free agents and is obliged to respect that freedom. If His heart of love would have been content with marionettes, and not men, then He could have had  a sinless and perfect world.

2. God rules the world by inflexible laws which apply equally to everyone. The universe would be greatly unbalanced if there was no principle of cause and effect. If quinine killed malaria germs on one occasion, and killed the patient on another, no medical service would be possible. Having established the universe on firm laws, God would violate His own nature if He intervened to change them.

3. God foresaw that he would transform evil into good and made the gain greater than the loss. A young army officer said, "Weather in war is always favourable, if you know how to use it."  That is the point, - if you know how to use it. Infinite wisdom  knew how to use man's sin and rebellion to further the divine goal, and  there is, therefore, no sin, no suffering, no frustration, no disappointment that cannot be gathered up by Him  and used for higher ends. God is never nonplussed - He always has a way out. If He  can't do this, then He can do that -  and both are equally good in the final results. When God is faced with problems He does not break up - He breaks out.