This morning I just read this from Our Daily Bread and I was touched and quite agreeable to what it just said. I want to share this with you!!

     My Uncle Lester, who lives in Florida, was discouraged by the lack of fruit on his grapefruit tree. Someone told him he needed to whack the trunk of the tree a few times with a board.

     Apparently, there is some truth to this unusual method of encouraging growth. One gardening expert says: “At times, the flowering hormone in the tree seems to get stuck and no flowers appear. Carefully persuade the tree to flower by shocking it. Hit the trunk ... several times, [which will cause] small bruises in the bark.” This advice may stimulate growth.

     When trouble comes into our lives, we sometimes feel as if we’ve been hit broadside. We feel desperation and then we wonder, Why is this happening to me?

     One possibility is that God is using a painful experience to get our attention. In Psalm 119:71, David wrote, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.” And Hebrews 12:11 says that chastening “yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness.”

     Is God using pain in your life to lovingly persuade you to change? The season of trouble may not be easy, but if we let ourselves be trained by it, new growth will result as we become more like His Son {Phil. 3:10}.―Cindy Hess Kasper

恩典 （約書亞樂團）

我曾是如此的眷戀  似曇花一現的世界

以為黑夜最美  就算危險也無所謂

在罪惡邊緣  卻渾然不覺  看不見身上 已經傷痕累累

我怎麼總是沒察覺  你一直在我身邊

等待著我每一天  直到我能夠體會

你尋尋覓覓 從不曾放棄，每時每刻 都有你愛我的痕跡

是你的憐憫  深厚無可比

主啊  你慈愛聲音  呼喚我如影隨形

你為我流血  洗淨我的罪

我越是不配  你卻顯明你恩典 你恩典

我曾是你所愛  在你強褓中的小孩

我卻以為可以靠自己  活得更加精彩

我掙開了你的手  想要用力飛向天空

直到遍體鱗傷  才想起有個地方  等我回家