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August 31, 2009

More Than

In Achieving The Impossible with God Dr. Forrest said he could not remember a word that was spoken between him and E. P. Simpson as they rode back to Toccoa on the day he agreed to purchase Haddock Inn. What he did remember was how he felt: his heart was light and his mind was full of thoughts about what he could do with the old inn and with the property surrounding the falls. As he boarded the train for Atlanta, he couldn’t help but think of God’s goodness and provision. Though he had obligated himself to a debt of $24,990.00, he was sure that he had found the perfect location for Toccoa Falls College. And he was right.

Richard Forrest did not spend time thinking about the possible roadblocks he would face. He knew they would come. Everyone who steps out on faith has to deal with difficulty. Thinking back on those days, he said, “I don’t know how we lived, but we did by God’s grace. We didn’t even have a chicken. My salary with the Christian and Missionary Alliance was pro rata, which means if it wasn’t there when it was time to pay, it wasn’t paid. But we had no complaint; rather we were hilariously happy. What dreams I dreamed; what visions I had for the school!”

In Psalm 4, David writes, “You have put gladness in my heart, more than when the grain and new wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety” (vs. 7-8).

It is the “more than” in these verses that grabbed Amy Carmichael’s attention. She wrote: “What David offered to his God was a heart that was utterly satisfied with His will. There were no private reservations, no little whispered ‘if’ —‘if only I can be where I want to be, and have what I want to have, then there will be gladness in my heart, O God.’ . . . David flew right out of all the restricting thoughts that might have caged his spirit up and up into the free air of God. He said, ‘You have put a new kind of gladness in my heart.’ It was a gladness that was not dependent on what he had, it was more than that sort of gladness. And it was a joy that was entirely independent of circumstances.”

Few people alive then or now are more content than Dr. and Mrs. Forrest. Like David, they found the secret to life and peace and hope. The more they gave of themselves, the more they received through Jesus Christ, who had “put gladness in their hearts, more than when the grain and new wine abound.”

Taken from the online devotional book A Present Peace © 2009 tfchistory.com