{"id":113,"date":"2026-05-02T15:21:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T07:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/purestream-ministries.com\/newsite\/?p=113"},"modified":"2026-05-02T15:21:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T07:21:49","slug":"september-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purestream-ministries.com\/?p=113","title":{"rendered":"September 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Blows And Beatings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

06\/09\/19 00:00<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBlows that would cleanse away evil; beatings make clean the innermost part\u201d <\/em>(Pro 20:30. NRSV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George MacDonald, a nineteenth-century Scottish writer, pastor, and novelist was a spiritual mentor to C.S. Lewis. His 366 sonnets, hand-written and later published as Diary of An Old Soul <\/em>has been my devotional companion for many years. The richness of meaning and spiritual depth of these sonnets have light penetrating into every corner of the human heart. One of the sonnets that has settled deeply within me and resonates over and over again is as follows:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a coward sparing in the heart,
Offspring of penury and low-born fear-
Prayer must take heed nor overdo its part,
Asking too much of him with open ear!
Sinner must wait, not seek the very best,
Cry out for peace, and be of middling cheer-
False heart, thou cheatest God, and dost thy life molest.\u00a0<\/em>(91)1<\/sup>

With the unimpeded rise of Christian triumphalism, this sonnet turn prayer is more urgent than ever. Triumphalism is an over confident brand of religious enthusiasm that is disguised as faith and concern for God and His glory. In reality, this fa\u00e7ade is success-oriented and is preoccupied with the believer\u2019s personal victory. Inherently, it is an assumption of victory based on zeal and personal vision rather than on a Biblical calculation of God\u2019s ultimate purpose and intention.

The last person we ever come to confront is ourselves.\u00a0\u201cThere is a coward sparing in the heart\u201d\u00a0<\/em>\u2013 that\u2019s the reason. We\u2019ll do anything to avoid locating this coward and calling it out by name. It lurks and maneuver in all the possible terrains of life. In all likelihood, we have not in the days of grace plunged deep enough to know that we\u2019re\u00a0\u201coffspring of penury and low-born fear,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and that\u00a0\u201cprayer must take heed nor overdo its part.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Triumphalism is the overdoing of a self-centered heart bent on achieving all I can in the name of God. In such a mode and pattern, we are set on a course of a self-assured mantra of \u201cGod will give and God will bless.\u201d Due to this, we\u2019re ever further away from realizing that\u00a0\u201csinners must wait, not seek the very best, cry out for peace, and be of middling cheer.\u201d<\/em>

In the wise Providential ordering of the Father, \u201cblows and beatings\u201d permissively come visiting our souls, seeking and searching out the\u00a0\u201cfalse heart\u201d<\/em>\u00a0that\u00a0\u201ccheatest God\u201d<\/em>\u00a0in ways we have purportedly convinced ourselves to be God\u2019s ways. A man cannot sustain a life having cheated God and not come to a form of self-abuse and eventually conceit \u2013\u00a0\u201cdost thy life molest\u201d.<\/em>

His \u201cblows\u201d and His \u201cbeatings\u201d are the safest. They have only one end in view:\u00a0\u201cto make clean the innermost part\u201d<\/em>.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1\u00a0<\/sup>MacDonald, George.\u00a0Diary of an Old Soul.\u00a0<\/em>Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1994. Print.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blows And Beatings 06\/09\/19 00:00 \u201cBlows that would cleanse away evil; beatings make clean the innermost part\u201d (Pro 20:30. NRSV). George MacDonald, a nineteenth-century Scottish writer, pastor, and novelist was a spiritual mentor to C.S. Lewis. His 366 sonnets, hand-written and later published as Diary of An Old Soul has been my devotional companion for many years. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotionals"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purestream-ministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purestream-ministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purestream-ministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purestream-ministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purestream-ministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/purestream-ministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115,"href":"https:\/\/purestream-ministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions\/115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purestream-ministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purestream-ministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purestream-ministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}