A wonderful word of encouragement

I recently had a meeting with some important people that did not go well. Oh the meeting was civil, but the fall out from that meeting has been very discouraging.

Today I came across this from Derek Prince, Rules of Engagement :

"Sometimes it may take a crisis—or even a seeming disaster—to bring us to the place where we fully acknowledge our dependence on God. I think of Paul’s journey to Rome, described in Acts 27–28. God had a special plan for Paul to go to Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire. As the “apostle of the Gentiles,” he had a unique contribution to make to the Church there.
Yet Paul traveled as a prisoner in chains. The ship he traveled on encountered a storm so terrific that for two weeks they never saw the sun by day or the stars by night. Finally, they were all shipwrecked on the rugged coast of Malta. There—to cap it all—Paul was bitten by a poisonous snake! If it was God’s will for Paul to go to Rome, why did he experience such extraordinary trials on his journey there?
As I pondered this, I recalled a phrase in Acts 27:20: “All hope that we would be saved was finally given up.” That was the purpose of Paul’s trials: to bring him to the place where all hope was given up. Now Paul had nothing left to hope in but God Himself. That was when he proved in experience that God is all-sufficient. God brings us to the place of total dependence upon Himself to demonstrate that He is totally dependable.
Having come to this place of total dependence, Paul was ready for his ministry to the Christians in Rome. His journey there had prepared him. Emptied of all self-sufficiency, he was a yielded channel through which God’s blessings could flow. We tend to forget that although Paul was an apostle, he was also still a disciple—under the Lord’s discipline.
Gradually—through the years—I have been learning this lesson of total dependence. I have to confess that I have been a slow learner. God has used different circumstances at different times to enforce the lesson. But I have discovered that the more completely I depend on God, the more He surprises me by the results that follow—results that I could never have achieved as long as I depended on my own efforts."

Amen! I don’t wish to relate the particulars of my meeting or of my resulting discouragement, except to say that all of this wants to drag me back to where I was many years ago. But this is a good word! I need to trust in the Lord, to completely depend on Him, and He will bring to pass His will in my life. In His time. In His way. And it will be “results that I could never have achieved as long as I depended on my own efforts.”

Thank you, Lord!

And this portion of Psalm 34

I will bless the LORD at all times: 
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.  
My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: 
the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.  
O magnify the LORD with me, 
and let us exalt his name together.  
I sought the LORD, 
and he heard me, 
and delivered me from all my fears.  
This poor man cried, 
and the LORD heard, 
and saved him out of all his troubles.  
O taste and see that the LORD is good: 
blessed is the man that trusteth in him.  
O fear the LORD, ye his saints: 
for there is no want to them that fear him.  
The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: 
but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.  
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; 
and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.  
The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants: 
and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

Amen and amen!