(1)
God does not chide His tired child!
“And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him” (I Kings 19:5).
God does not chide His tried child when that weariness is a result of toil for Him: “I know thy toil” (Rev.2:2) – the Greek is “labor to weariness.” And what happened? “Behold, then an angel touched him.” There is no wilderness without its angels. Though Elijah knew it not, angels guarded him round about in his blackest depression; and were actually placing bread and water at his head while he was asking for death.
A man may have to cry in the midst of an apostate community, “I, even I only, am left;” but he is always companied by legions of holy angels. But more than that. Who is this angel? It is the Angel of the Lord, the Jehovah Angel; the One who centuries later in Gethsemane, had to have an angel to strengthen Him. He touched His exhausted child. Blessed exhaustion that can bring such a touch! As the Psalmist has said (Ps.127:2) “He giveth His beloved sleep”. And God does not chide His tired child. – The Dawn.
Dear Child, God does not say today, “Be strong:”
He knows your strength is spent; He knows how long
The road has been, how weary you have grown,
For He who walked the earthly roads alone,
Each bogging lowland, and each rugged hill,
And know that I am God.” The
hour is late,
And you must rest awhile, and you must wait
Until life’s empty reservoirs fill up
As slow rain fills an empty upturned cup.
Hold up your cup, dear child, for God to fill.
He only asks today that you be still. – Grace Noll Crowell.
(2)
We are with One who finds a path as He goes!
“Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters.” (Ps.77:19)
God’s path is in the sea – just where you would not expect it to be! So when He leads us out by unexpected ways, off the strong solid land, out upon the changing sea, then we may expect to see His ways. We are with One who finds a path as He goes. That is better than having a path already tracked out, for it makes us perfectly independent of circumstances.
There is an infinite variety in the paths God makes, and He can make them anywhere! Think you not that He, who made the spider able to drop anywhere and to spin its own path as it goes, is not able to spin a path for you through every blank, or perplexity, or depression? God is never lost amongst our mysteries. He sees the road, “the end from the beginning.”
Mystery and uncertainty are only to prepare us for deeper discipline. Had we no stormy sea, we should remain weaklings to the end of our days. God takes us out into the deeps; but He knows the track! He knows the haven! And we shall arrive.
“And with Jesus
Through the trackless deep move on!” – Rev.C.A.Fox
O fathomless abyss of God’s rich bounty, of His wisdom, of His knowledge! Who can explore His decisions? Who can track out His paths? (Rom.11:33).
(3)
Why are you to slack to go up and possess your land?
“Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you.” (Joshua 1:3).
This blessed inspiring word
greeted
Our Joshua gives us the same incentive for conquest: every promise in the New Testament that we put our feet upon is ours! The upland of spiritual power is yours though Anak may live there! It is yours if you will but go against him and drive him out of his strongholds, in the might of The Name.
If we dare to place our foot on anything God has promised He makes it real to us. So take Him as the supply for all your need: believe He is yours and never doubt it from this moment.
It may be your need for spiritual cleansing. His promise covers this: “Now ye are clean through the word I have spoken unto you.” M If you can believe this, you shall be sanctified and kept.
Take the promise that suits your need, and step out on it; not touching it timidly on tiptoe, but placing your foot flat down upon it. Do not be afraid it will not hold your weight. Put your whole need on the Word of the eternal God for your soul, for our body, for your work, for the dear ones for whom you are praying, for any crisis in your life: then stand upon it forever!
All the blessed promises of the Old Book are yours, and why are you to slack to go up and possess your land? The size of your inheritance depends upon how much land you have trodden under foot, really stood on or walked over. Between you and your possessions that huge mountain looms up. March up to it and make it yours! Go in this thy might and God will get glory; and you, victory. - Dr.A.B.Simpson.
Footprints mean possession, but it must your own footprints.
(4) How I ascertain the will of God?
“Righteousness shall go before Him; and shall set us in the way of His steps.” (Ps.85:13)
How I ascertain the will of God:
I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter.
Nine-tenths of the trouble with people is right here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord’s will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.
Having surrendered my own will, I do not
leave the result to feeling or simply impressions. If I do so, I make myself liable to great
delusions.
I seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures, and never contrary to them.
Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God’s will in connection with His Word and Spirit.
I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me aright. Thus, thorough prayer to God, the study of His Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters, and in transactions involving most important issues, I have found this method always effective. – George Muller.
(5) I came alone to my
“He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for oour iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
“He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.”
“Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him.” (Is.53:5,7,10).
I came alone to
my
And the load I bore was too great for me;
The stones were sharp and pierced my feet,
And my temples throbbed with the withering heat.
But my heart was faint with the toil that day,
So I sat down to think of an easy way;
Loomed sharply before me that tortuous trail –
No use to try – I would only fail.
I turned back in sorrow, clothed with defeat,
For my load was too heavy; I would retreat
To easier highways, with scenery more fair –
Yet a moment I lingered watching there.
As I held my gaze on that flinty side,
A Man came up to be crucified;
He toiled all the way of that painful road,
And the Cross that He bore far surpassed my load:
His brow with thorns was pierced and torn;
His face had a look of pain and was worn;
He stopped for a moment and looked on me –
And I followed
in rapture to
(6) “He is able to keep you from falling”
“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” (Jude 24).
Take that word, keep and hold it close to your heart tonight and tomorrow. It is one of the great and magnificent messages of the Gospel – “He is able to keep you from falling.” Put into the word you all the weakness, all the unworthiness, all the sinfulness which belongs to man since the fall; yet, he is able to keep you. He does not underrate the disadvantage of its being you when he bids His messengers say He is “able to keep you from falling.” It would be impossible, utterly impossible, were it not undertaken by Infinite love, Look out, and up, then, perhaps of your mysteriously inherited weakness. Look out of your failure under some temptation, inward or outward, inherited so to speak from yourself, from your own unfaithfulness in the past. Look up, out of your ruined purposes – unto Himself.
Being what He is, keeper of Israel, God of the promises, Lord of the Sacrifice, Prince of life, present Savior, indwelling Power, He is able to keep you, that your feet shall not totter. They shall stand “in a large room;” they shall hold on straight, until at last they enter, step by step – for it is one step at a time even then – “through the gates into the city.”
“He shall never give thy feet to tottering.” – Rev. H.C.G.Moule, D.D.
We may step firmly down upon the temptation which Another has crushed for us, and we are conquerors in Him.
“Behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadows
Keeping watch above His own.”
(7)
“Lord, whither goest Thou?”- Peter
“And He went down with them….and was subject unto them.” (Luke 2:51).
An extraordinary exhibition of submissiveness! And “the disciple is not above his Master.”
Think of it! Thirty years at home with His brothers and sisters who did not believe in Him! We fix on the three years which were extraordinary, and forget altogether the thirty years of absolute submissiveness.
If God is putting you through a spell of submission, and you seem to be losing your individuality and everything else, it is because Jesus is making you one with Him.
Let Dr.A.J.Gossip, the great
gifted Scottish preacher, tell us how once on a day in
He had been for weeks amid the appalling desolation and sickening sights of the war front. Then they had gone back to rest where there were budding hedgerows, a shimmer of green on living trees, grass and flowers – glorious flowers in the first splendor of spring. It seemed Heaven! Then came the order to return to Passchendaele and the battle front.
“It reached us.” Says Dr.Gossip, “on a perfect afternoon of sunshine; and with a heart grown hot and hard I turned down a little lane with a brown burn wimpling beside it and a lush meadow – all brave sheets of purple land golden flowers – on either side. The earth was very beautiful, and life seemed very sweet, and it was hard to look back into the old purgatory and face death again.
And, with that, that the gap in the hedge, there came a shepherd boy tending his flock of some two dozen sheep. He was not driving them in our rough way, with two barking dogs: he went first, and they were following him; if one loitered, he called it by name and it came running to him. So they moved on down the lane, up a little hill, up to the brow and over it, and so out of my life. I stood staring after them, hearing as if the words were spoken aloud, to me, first, and to me only:
“And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them.”
Peter, outworn,
And menaced by the sword,
Shook off the dust of
And, as he fled,
Met One, with eager face,
Hastening cityward,
And, to his vast amaze,
It was the Lord.
“Lord, whither goest Thou?”
He cried, importunate;
And Christ replied,
“Peter, I suffer loss,
I go to take thy place,
To bear thy cross.”
Then Peter bowed his head,
Discomforted;
Then, at the Master’s feet,
Found grace complete,
And courage, and new faith,
And turned, with Him
To death. – John Oxenham.
(8)
God’s ploughing is a proof He is FOR and not against you!
“For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be
tilled and sown.” (Eze.36:9).
The ploughing and harrowing are painful processes. And surely the Divine Ploughman is at work in the world as never before. He ploughs by His Spirit, by His Word, and by His providences. Though painful be the processes of cultivation, they are essential.
Could the earth speak, it would say, “I felt the hard plough today; I knew what was coming; when the plough-point first struck me I was full of pain and distress and I could have cried out for very agony for the point was sharp and driven through me with great energy; but now, I think me, this means the blade, the ear, the full corn in the ear, the golden harvest and harvest-home.”
When the plough of God’s providence first cuts up a man’s life, what wonder if the man should exclaim a little; yea, if he should give way to one hour’s grief! But the man may come to himself, ere eventide, and say, “Plough on, Lord! I want my life to be ploughed all over, that it may be sown all over, and that in every corner there may be the golden grain or the beautiful flowers. Pity me that I exclaimed when I first felt the ploughshare. Thou knowest my frame; Thou rememeberest that I am dust. But now I recollect; I put things together; I see Thy meaning; so drive on, Thou Ploughman of Eternity!”
He does not use the plough and harrow without intention. Where God ploughs, He intends to sow. His ploughing is a proof He is FOR and not against you.
Let us never forget that the Husbandman is never so near the land as when He is ploughing it, the very time when we are tempted to think He hath forsaken us.
His ploughing is a proof that He thinks you of value, and worth chastening; for He does not waste His ploughing on the barren sand. He will not plough continually, but only for a time, and for a definite purpose. Soon will He close that process. “Doth the ploughman plough continually to sow? Doth he continually open and break the clods of His ground?” (Is.28:24). Verily, No! Soon, aye soon, we shall, through these painful processes and by His gentle showers of grace become His fruitful land.
“The desolate land shall be tilled, and they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden.” (Eze.36:34, 5) and thus we shall be a praise unto Him.
Come ill, come well, the cross, the crown,
The rainbow or the thunder –
I fling my soul and body down
For God to plough them under.
- A Prince of the Captivity – John Buchan.
(9)
God climbs the hill beside you; lean upon Him!
“A little past the top of the hill.” (2 Sam.16:1).
It was a hard climb up that hill for a man with a burdened heart; he was tired and done. Then came God’s provision for him through Ziba.
Are you a little past the top of the hill? Feeling tired and almost done? Take heart! God has something ready at the precise moment! God’s help will meet you!
Just a little farther on – and all who honor Me, with joy shall prove My promise true; they too shall honored be. Full well I know thy heart’s desire, the heights to which thou dost aspire; thy love which burns with holy fire – and all to honor Me.
Just a little father on – the “Victor’s song will then be sung by all who honor Me.” Thou hast done well, yet still press on – and greater works I will trust to thee, and grander glories thou shalt see; thus thou shalt fully honored be – a little farther on! (John 12:26; Ps.91:15).
Just over the hill, by the climbing way,
Is a place where all good travelers stay –
Just over the hill and up along.
At the side of the road is a garden-gate,
Which is always open, early and late –
Just over the hill and up along.
And inside the gate is a House of Rest,
Where the Host will give you His very best –
Just over the hill and up along. – John Oxenham.
God never permits any of His children to come up a steep hill along life’s pathway without having provided at the foot of the hill a cooling spring from which the traveler may drink in refreshment and strength ere he begins to climb.
He climbs beside you; lean upon Him!
God has no road without its
springs!
(10)
“Child, child, who is doing your work down there?”
“And being in an agony He prayed….Father, if Thou be willing, remove
this cup from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Thine be done. And there appeared an angel unto Him from
heaven, strengthening Him.” (Luke 22:42-44).
There is a story of a woman who had had many sorrows: parents, husband, children, wealth, all were gone. In her great grief, she prayed for death, but death did not come. She would not take up any of her wonted work for Christ. One night she had a dream: she thought she had gone to heaven. She saw her husband and ran to him with eager joy, expecting a glad welcome. But, strange to say, no answering joy shone on his face – only surprise and displeasure. “How did you come here?” he asked. “They did not say that you were to be sent for today; I did not expect you for a long time yet.” With a bitter cry, she turned from him to seek her parents. But instead of the tender love for which her heart was longing she met from them only the same amazement and the same surprised questions. “I will go to my Savior”, she cried. “He will welcome me if no one else does.” When she saw Christ, there was infinite love in His look, but His words throbbed with sorrow as He said: “Child, child, who is doing your work down there?” At last she understood: she had no right yet to be in heaven; her work was not finished; she had fled away from her duty.
This is one of the dangers of sorrow: that in our grief for those who are gone we lose our interest in those who are living, and slacken our zeal in the work which is allotted to us. However great our bereavements we may not; drop our tasks until the Master calls us away. - Dr.J.R.Miller
“Finish thy work, the time is short;
The sun is in the west,
The night is coming down; till then
Think not of rest.
“Rest? Finish thy work, then
rest;
Till then, rest never.
The rest prepared for thee by God
Is rest forever.
“Finish thy work, then sit thee down
On some celestial hill,
And of heaven’s everlasting bliss
Take thou thy fill.
“Finish thy work, then go in peace,
Life’s battle fought and won;
Hear from the throne the Master’s voice,
‘Well done! Well done!”
“Finish thy work, then take the harp,
Give praise to God above;
Sing a new song of mighty joy
And endless love!”
Take not your rest too soon, else you will never enter into your real rest. It is not here on this plank amid the billows, but yonder on that shore. – George Bowen.
Nothing ever happens but once in this world. What I do now I do once and forever. It is over, lit is gone with a still eternity of solemn meaning.
(11)
Faith is the lily's root, and love is the lily's bloom.
"That Christ may dwell in
your hearts by faith."-Ephesians 3:17
Beyond measure it is desirable that we, as believers, should have the person of
Jesus constantly before us, to inflame our love towards Him, and to increase
our knowledge of Him. I would to God that my readers were all entered as
diligent scholars in Jesus' college, students of Corpus Christi, or the body of
Christ, resolved to attain unto a good degree in the learning of the cross. But
to have Jesus ever near, the heart must be full of Him, welling up with His
love, even to overrunning; hence the apostle prays "that Christ may dwell
in your hearts." See how near he would have Jesus to be! You cannot get a subject closer to you than
to have it in the heart itself. "That He may dwell"; not that He may
call upon you sometimes, as a casual visitor enters into a house and tarries
for a night, but that He may dwell; that Jesus may become the Lord and Tenant
of your inmost being, never more to go out.
Observe
the words - that He may dwell in your heart, that best room of the house of
manhood; not in your thoughts alone, but in your affections; not merely in the
mind's meditations, but in the heart's emotions. We should pant after love to
Christ of a most abiding character, not a love that flames up and then dies out
into the darkness of a few embers, but a constant flame, fed by sacred fuel,
like the fire upon the altar which never went out. This cannot be accomplished
except by faith. Faith must be strong, or love will not be fervent; the root of
the flower must be healthy, or we cannot expect the bloom to be sweet. Faith is
the lily's root, and love is the lily's bloom. Now, reader, Jesus cannot be in
your heart's love except you have a firm hold of Him by your heart's faith;
and, therefore, pray that you may always trust Christ in order that you may
always love Him. If love be cold, be sure that faith is drooping. -
C.H.Spurgeon
(12)
“A Christian should so shine in his life…..”
"In the midst of a crooked
and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world”-(Philippians
2:15)
We use lights to make manifest. A Christian man should so shine in his
life, that a person could not live with him a week without knowing the gospel.
His conversation should be such that all who are about him should clearly
perceive whose he is, and whom he serves; and should see the image of Jesus
reflected in his daily actions.
Lights
are intended for guidance. We are to help those around us who are in the dark.
We are to hold forth to them the Word of life. We are to point sinners to the
Saviour, and the weary to a divine resting-place. Men sometimes read their
Bibles, and fail to understand them; we should be ready, like Philip, to
instruct the inquirer in the meaning of God's Word, the way of salvation, and
the life of godliness.
Lights are also used for warning. On our rocks
and shoals a light-house is sure to be erected. Christian men should know that
there are many false lights shown everywhere in the world, and therefore the
right light is needed. The wreckers of Satan are always abroad, tempting the
ungodly to sin under the name of pleasure; they hoist the wrong light, be it
ours to put up the true light upon every dangerous rock, to point out every
sin, and tell what it leads to, that so we may be clear of the blood of all
men, shining as lights in the world.
Lights also have a very cheering
influence, and so have Christians. A Christian ought to be a comforter, with
kind words on his lips, and sympathy in his heart; he should carry sunshine
wherever he goes, and diffuse happiness around him.
Gracious Spirit
dwell with me;
I myself would gracious be,
And with words that help and heal
Would thy life in mine reveal,
And with actions bold and meek
Would for Christ my Saviour speak. – C.H.Spurgeon
(13)
"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Ps. 46:1).
The question often comes, "Why didn't He help me
sooner?" It is not His order. He must first adjust you to the trouble and
cause you to learn your lesson from it. His promise is, "I will be with
him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him." He must be with you in
the trouble first all day and all night. Then He will take you out of it. This
will not come till you have stopped being restless and fretful about it and
become calm and quiet. Then He will say, "It is enough."
God uses trouble to teach His children precious lessons. They are intended to
educate us. When their good work is done, a glorious recompense will come to us
through them. There is a sweet joy and a real value in them. He does not regard
them as difficulties but as opportunities.
--Selected.
Not always OUT of our troublous times,
And the struggles fierce and grim,
But IN--deeper IN--to our one sure rest,
The place of our peace, in Him.
--Annie Johnson Flint
We once heard a simple old colored man say something that we have never
forgotten: "When God tests you, it is a good time for you to test Him by
putting His promises to the proof, and claiming from Him just as much as your
trials have rendered necessary."
There are two ways of getting out of a trial. One is to simply try to get rid
of the trial, and be thankful when it is over. The other is to recognize the
trial as a challenge from God to claim a larger blessing than we have ever had,
and to hail it with delight as an opportunity of obtaining a larger measure of
Divine grace. Thus even the adversary becomes an auxiliary, and the things that
seem to be against us turn out to be for the furtherance of our way. Surely,
this is to be more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
--A. B. Simpson
(14) He Remains
By Charles E.Cowman
"Thou remainest" (Heb.
There are always lone hearth-fires; so many! And those who sit beside them,
with the empty chair, cannot restrain the tears that will come. One sits alone
so much. There is some One unseen, just here within reach. But somehow we don't
realize His presence. Realizing is blessed, but--rare. It belongs to the mood,
to the feelings. It is dependent on weather conditions and bodily conditions.
The rain, the heavy fog outside, the poor sleep, the twinging pain, these make
one's mood so much, they seem to blur out the realizing. But there is something
a little higher up than realizing. It is yet more blessed. It is independent of
these outer conditions, it is something that abides. It is this: recognizing
that Presence unseen, so wondrous and quieting, so soothing and calming and
warming. Recognize His presence--the Master's own. He is here, close by; His
presence is real. Recognizing will help realizing, too, but it never depends on
it. Aye, more, immensely more, the Truth is a Presence, not a thing, a fact, a
statement. Some One is present, a warm-hearted Friend, an all-powerful Lord.
And this is the joyful truth for weeping hearts everywhere, whatever be the
hand that has drawn the tears; by whatever stream it be that your weeping
willow is planted. --S. D. Gordon.
When from my life the old-time joys have vanished,
Treasures once mine, I may no longer claim,
This truth may feed my hungry heart, and famished:
Lord, THOU REMAINESTI THOU art still the same!
When streams have dried, those streams of glad refreshing--
Friendships so blest, so rich, so free;
When sun-kissed skies give place to clouds depressing,
Lord, THOU REMAINEST! Still my heart hath THEE.
When strength hath failed, and feet, now worn and weary,
On gladsome errands may no longer go,
Why should I sigh, or let the days be dreary?
Lord, THOU REMAINEST! Could'st Thou more bestow?
Thus through life's days--whoe'er or what may fail me,
Friends, friendships, joys, in small or great degree,
Songs may be mine, no sadness need assail me,
Lord, THOU REMAINEST! Still my heart hath THEE. --J. D. Smith