{"id":6672,"date":"2024-05-22T10:06:22","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T10:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=6672"},"modified":"2024-05-22T10:06:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T10:06:22","slug":"restraining-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=6672","title":{"rendered":"Restraining Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Restraining Grace<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John MacDuff<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSatan hath desired to have you-that he may sift you as wheat.<br>&nbsp;But I have prayed for thee-that thy faith fail not.\u201d Luke 22:31, 32<br><br>What a scene does this unfold!<br>Satan tempting-Jesus praying!<br>Satan sifting-Jesus pleading!<br>\u201cThe strong man assailing\u201d-\u201cthe stronger than the strong\u201d beating him back!<br><br>Believer! here is the<em>&nbsp;past history<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>present secret<\/em>&nbsp;of your safetyin the midst of temptation! An<em>&nbsp;interceding Savior&nbsp;<\/em>was at your side, saying to every threatening wave, \u201cThus far shall you go-and no farther!\u201d God often permits His people to be on the very&nbsp;<em>verge&nbsp;<\/em>of the precipice, to remind them of their own weakness; but never farther than the brink! The restraining hand and grace of Omnipotence is ready to rescue them, \u201cAlthough he stumbles-yet he shall not be utterly cast down.\u201d And why? \u201cFor the Lord upholds him with His right hand!\u201d<br><br>The&nbsp;<em>wolf&nbsp;<\/em>may be prowling for his prey; but what can he do, when the almighty Shepherd is always there, tending with the watchful eye that \u201cneither slumbers nor sleeps!\u201d<br><br>Who cannot subscribe to the testimony, \u201cWhen my foot slipped, Your mercy, O Lord, held me up!\u201d Who can look back on his past pilgrimage, and fail to see it crowded with&nbsp;<em>Ebenezers<\/em>, with this inscription: \u201cYou have delivered my&nbsp;<em>soul&nbsp;<\/em>from death, my&nbsp;<em>eyes&nbsp;<\/em>from tears, and my&nbsp;<em>feet&nbsp;<\/em>from falling!\u201d My soul, where would you have been this day-had you not been \u201ckept\u201d by the power of God?<br><br>\u201cHold Thou me up-and I shall be safe!\u201d Psalm 119:117<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Restraining Grace John MacDuff \u201cSatan hath desired to have you-that he may sift you as wheat.&nbsp;But I have prayed for thee-that thy faith fail not.\u201d Luke 22:31, 32 What a scene does this unfold!Satan tempting-Jesus praying!Satan sifting-Jesus pleading!\u201cThe strong man assailing\u201d-\u201cthe stronger than the strong\u201d beating him back! Believer! here is the&nbsp;past history&nbsp;and&nbsp;present secret&nbsp;of your [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-john-macduff","category-believers-assurance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6673,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672\/revisions\/6673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}