Leaning upon Jesus

This past week was filled with many temptations. Chris did end up getting sick, all night actually, then after a few hours of sleep I woke up to Taylor throwing up and Rylee continuing all day with her, well how to put it nicely "loose stools". It was a hard couple of days! My biggest temptation when it's gets hard to "suck it up" and try harder. I was convicted in this passage of my lack of "leaning". What happens when I don't lean? I fall into sin. Grumbling, complaining, I get impatient with the kids and angry at the world in general. Thankfully God doesn't leave me in this state!!!


Morning Thoughts: July 29th
Octavius Winslow

Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Song of Solomon 8:5

Was ever a poor pilgrim more honored? Was ever a lonely traveler in better company? How can you be solitary or sorrowful, in peril, or suffer in need, while you are journeying homewards in company with and leaing upon Jesus? ... This leaning upon the Beloved, then, is a daily coming up out of ourselves in the great matter of our salvatiotn, and resting in the finished work of Christ- more than that, in Christ Himself.

You are to lean upon the fullness of your Beloved. He is full and sufficient for all the wants of His people. A circumstance in your history canoot possibly occur, a necessity in your case cannot arise, in which you may not repair to the infinite fullness which the Father has laid up in Christ for His church in the wilderness. Why then, seek in your poverty what can only be found in Christ's riches? Why look to your emptiness when you may repair to His fullness? "My grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Cor. 2:19) is the cheering declaration with which Jesus meet every turn in your path, every crook in your lot, every want in your journey. Distrust then your own wisdom, look from your own self, and lean your entire weight upon the infinite fullness that is in Christ. The posture is expressive of conscious weakness and deep self-distrust.

Who is more feeble than a child of God? Taught the lesson of his weakness in the region of his own heart, and still leaning it in his stumbling, falls and mistakes, many and painful, in his self-inflicted wounds and dislocations, he is at length brought to feel that all his strength is outside of himself. He has the sentence of death in himself, that he should not trust in himself. " I am weak, yea, wekaness itself", is his language; "I am as a reed shaken of the wind; I stumble at a feather; I tremble at an echo; I jump at my own shadow; the smallest difficulty impedes me; the least temptation overcomes me. How shall I ever fight my way through this mighty host, and reach in safety the world of bliss?

By leaning daily, hourly, moment by moment, upon your Beloved for strength. Christ is the power of God and He is the power of the children of God... Lean, then, upon Jesus for strength. He has stength for all your weakness; He can strengthn your faith, strengthen your hope, strengthen your courage, strentghen your patience and strengthen your heart for every burden, for every trial and for every temptation. Lean upon Him, He loves to feel the pressure of your arm; He loves you to link your feebleness to His almightiness, to avail yourself of His grace. Thus leaning off yourself upon Christ!


AMEN! I pray that God would grow me this day in leaning hard into him for all my strength!