"You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness...." (Psalm 30:11)
This can only happen when the New Birth produces conversion, which means, "to turn to another or a particular...purpose...."
Bob Mumford recently wrote, "Many are miserable simply because they cannot control God and make Him do what they think is reasonable....Our certitude, both religious and philosophical, forms strongholds that are mental pre-suppositions that prevent us from knowing God." I have met many in my lifetime who reflect Mumford's statement. One thing for us all to remember is that "reasonable" and presuppositional strongholds infect us all. Those who walk in victory over such strongholds, however, are those who accept, "The Word of God," as their source, suppositions, reason. Again, this can only happen through Biblical conversion.
The main result of conversion is acceptance of the Bible as our guide, and not just the saying or nodding of this. Rather, when we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, we "turn to another... particular... purpose." Tolstoy said, "I ceased desiring for what I had wished for before." Jesus in His Words changes our life style, our purpose, direction. "Mourning" is usually the result of living a life of the "certitude [of our] mental presuppositions." They just seem to follow us wherever we go, competing with, "the Words of God." Whom and what we choose to obey and live by determines how we can "dance."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I have no qualms about agreeing with the psalmist. My, "mourning," my, "sackcloth," were only, "put off," by You. Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
