Out Of Any Circumstance

Yes, I must and will pray. What else can I do! What better can I do?

Betrayed, forsaken, grieved, baffled, O my LORD, I will call upon Thee.

My Ziklag is in ashes, and men speak of stoning me; but I encourage my heart in the LORD, who will bear me through this trial as He has borne me through so many others.

Jehovah shall save me; I am sure He will, and I declare my faith.

The LORD and no one else shall save me. I desire no other helper and would not trust in an arm of flesh even if I could.

I will cry to Him evening, and morning, and noon, and I will cry to no one else, for He is all sufficient.

How He will save me I cannot guess; but He will do it, I know.

He will do it in the best and surest way, and He will do it in the largest, truest, and fullest sense.

Out of this trouble and all future troubles the great I AM will bring me as surely as He lives;

And when death comes and all the mysteries of eternity follow thereon, still will this be true: "the LORD shall save me."

This shall be my song all through this autumn day. Is it not as a ripe apple from the tree of life?

I will feed upon it. How sweet it is to my taste!

~Charles Spurgeon~

Food And Rest

Eze 34:15  I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.

Under the divine shepherdry saints are fed to the full. Theirs is not a windy, unsatisfying mess of mere human "thought," but the LORD feeds them upon the solid, substantial truth of divine revelation. 

There is real nutriment for the soul in Scripture brought home to the heart by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Himself is the true life-sustaining Food of believers. Here our Great Shepherd promises that such sacred nourishment shall be given us by His own self. 

If, on the LORD's Day, our earthly shepherd is empty-handed, the LORD is not.

When filled with holy truth the mind rests.

Those whom Jehovah feeds are at peace. No dog shall worry them, no wolf shall devour them, no restless propensities shall disturb them.

They shall lie down and digest the food which they have enjoyed.

The doctrines of grace are not only sustaining but consoling: in them we have the means for building up and lying down.

If preachers do not give us rest, let us look to the LORD for it.

This day may the LORD cause us to feed in the pastures of the Word and make us to lie down in them.

May no folly and no worry but meditation and peace mark this day.

~Charles Spurgeon~

He That Watereth Shall Be Watered Also Himself

Pro 11:25  The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.

We are here taught the great lesson, that to get, we must give; that to accumulate, we must scatter; that to make ourselves happy, we must make others happy; and that in order to become spiritually vigorous, we must seek the spiritual good of others.

In watering others, we are ourselves watered. How? Our efforts to be useful, bring out our powers for usefulness.
 
We have latent talents and dormant faculties, which are brought to light by exercise.

Our strength for labor is hidden even from ourselves, until we venture forth to fight the Lord’s battles, or to climb the mountains of difficulty.

We do not know what tender sympathies we possess until we try to dry the widow’s tears, and soothe the orphan’s grief.

We often find in attempting to teach others, that we gain instruction for ourselves. 

Oh, what gracious lessons some of us have learned at sick beds! We went to teach the Scriptures, we came away blushing that we knew so little of them.

In our converse with poor saints, we are taught the way of God more perfectly for ourselves and get a deeper insight into divine truth.

So that watering others makes us humble. 

We discover how much grace there is where we had not looked for it; and how much the poor saint may outstrip us in knowledge.

Our own comfort is also increased by our working for others. We endeavour to cheer them, and the consolation gladdens our own heart.

Like the two men in the snow; one chafed the other’s limbs to keep him from dying, and in so doing kept his own blood in circulation, and saved his own life.
 
The poor widow of Sarepta gave from her scanty store a supply for the prophet’s wants, and from that day she never again knew what want was.

Give then, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, and running over.

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Just Shall Live By Faith

Heb 10:38  Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.  

Seemings and feelings are often substituted for faith. 

Pleasurable emotions and deep satisfying experiences are part of the Christian life, but they are not all of it.

Trials, conflicts, battles and testings lie along the way, and are not to be counted as misfortunes, but rather as part of our necessary discipline.

In all these varying experiences we are to reckon on Christ as dwelling in the heart, regardless of our feelings if we are walking obediently before Him.

Here is where many get into trouble; they try to walk by feeling rather than faith.

One of the saints tells us that it seemed as though God had withdrawn Himself from her. His mercy seemed clean gone.

For six weeks her desolation lasted, and then the Heavenly Lover seemed to say:

Catherine, thou hast looked for Me without in the world of sense, but all the while I have been within waiting for thee; meet Me in the inner chamber of thy spirit, for I am there.

Distinguish between the fact of God's presence, and the emotion of the fact.

It is a happy thing when the soul seems desolate and deserted, if our faith can say, "I see Thee not. I feel Thee not, but Thou art certainly and graciously here, where I am as I am."

Say it again and again: Thou art here: though the bush does not seem to burn with fire, it does burn. 

I will take the shoes from off my feet, for the place on which I stand is holy ground.

~London Christian~

Believe God's word and power more than you believe your own feelings and experiences. Your Rock is Christ, and it is not the Rock which ebbs and flows, but your sea.

~Samuel Rutherford~

Keep your eye steadily fixed on the infinite grandeur of Christ's finished work and righteousness. 

Look to Jesus and believe, look to Jesus and live! Nay, more; as you look to him, hoist your sails and buffet manfully the sea of life. 

Do not remain in the haven of distrust, or sleeping on your shadows in inactive repose, or suffering your frames and feelings to pitch and toss on one another like vessels idly moored in a harbor.

The religious life is not a brooding over emotions, grazing the keel of faith in the shallows, or dragging the anchor of hope through the oozy tide mud as if afraid of encountering the healthy breeze.

Away! With your canvas spread to the gale, trusting in Him, who rules the raging of the waters.

The safety of the tinted bird is to be on the wing. If its haunt be near the ground-if it fly low-it exposes itself to the fowler's net or snare.

If we remain grovelling on the low ground of feeling and emotion, we shall find ourselves entangled in a thousand meshes of doubt and despondency, temptation and unbelief.

Pro 1:17  Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

Hope thou in God. 

~J. R. Macduff~

When I cannot enjoy the faith of assurance, I live by the faith of adherence.

~Matthew Henry~

Be Sure Of His Promises

1Ch 17:23  Therefore now, LORD, let the thing that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his house be established for ever, and do as thou hast said.
 
1Ch 17:24  Let it even be established, that thy name may be magnified for ever, saying, The LORD of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel: and let the house of David thy servant be established before thee.

This is a most blessed phase of true prayer. Many a time we ask for things which are not absolutely promised.

We are not sure therefore until we have persevered for some time whether our petitions are in the line of God's purpose or no. 

There are other occasions, and in the life of David this was one, when we are fully persuaded that what we ask is according to God's will.

We feel led to take up and plead some promise from the page of Scripture, under the special impression that it contains a message for us.

At such times, in confident faith, we say, "Do as Thou hast said."

There is hardly any position more utterly beautiful, strong, or safe, than to put the finger upon some promise of the Divine word, and claim it.

There need be no anguish, or struggle, or wrestling; we simply present the check and ask for cash, produce the promise, and claim its fulfillment; nor can there be any doubt as to the issue.

It would give much interest to prayer, if we were more definite. It is far better to claim a few things specifically than a score vaguely.

~F. B. Meyer~

Every promise of Scripture is a writing of God, which may be pleaded before Him with this reasonable request: "Do as Thou hast said."

The Creator will not cheat His creature who depends upon His truth; and far more, the Heavenly Father will not break His word to His own child.

Remember the word unto thy servant, on which thou hast caused me to hope, is most prevalent pleading.

It is a double argument: it is Thy Word. Wilt Thou not keep it?

Why hast thou spoken of it, if Thou wilt not make it good.

Thou hast caused me to hope in it, wilt Thou disappoint the hope which Thou has Thyself begotten in me?

~C. H. Spurgeon~

Rom 4:21  And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 

It is the everlasting faithfulness of God that makes a Bible promise "exceeding great and precious." 

Human promises are often worthless.

Many a broken promise has left a broken heart.

But since the world was made, God has never broken a single promise made to one of His trusting children.

Oh, it is sad for a poor Christian to stand at the door of the promise, in the dark night of affliction, afraid to draw the latch, whereas he should then come boldly for shelter as a child into his father's house.

~Gurnal~

Every promise is built upon four pillars: God's justice and holiness, which will not suffer Him to deceive; His grace or goodness, which will not suffer Him to forget; His truth, which will not suffer Him to change, which makes Him able to accomplish.

~Selected~

Hold On Until The End

Heb 3:14  For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
 
It is the last step that wins; and there is no place in the pilgrim's progress where so many dangers lurk as the region that lies hard by the portals of the Celestial City.

It was there that Doubting Castle stood. It was there that the enchanted ground lured the tired traveler to fatal slumber.

It is when Heaven's heights are full in view that hell's gate is most persistent and full of deadly peril. 

Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. So run, that ye may obtain.

In the bitter waves of woe Beaten and tossed about By the sullen winds that blow From the desolate shores of doubt, Where the anchors that faith has cast Are dragging in the gale, I am quietly holding fast To the things that cannot fail.

And fierce though the fiends may fight, And long though the angels hide, I know that truth and right Have the universe on their side; And that somewhere beyond the stars Is a love that is better than fate.

When the night unlocks her bars I shall see Him...and I will wait.

~Washington Gladden~

The problem of getting great things from God is being able to hold on for the last half hour.

~Selected~

Christ's Certain Knowledge Of His Limited Time

John 11:9  Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.

There were many reasons for that wholehearted zeal which it does not fall to me to touch on here.

But one was the certain knowledge of the Lord that there were only twelve hours in His day.

Before His birth, in His pre-existent life, there had been no rising or setting of the sun.

After His death, in the life beyond the grave, the day would be endless, for "there is no night there."

But here on earth with a mighty work to do and to get finished before His side was pierced, Christ was aroused into triumphant energy by the thought of the determined time. "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work."

What is it but the shadow of sunset and the breath of the twilight that was soon to fall?

A day at its longest...what a little space!

Twelve hours - they are ringing to evensong already!

Under that power the tide that seemed asleep moved on "too full for sound or foam."

It is always very wonderful to me that Christ thus felt the shortness of the time.

This Child of Eternity heard with quickened ear the muffled summons of the fleeting hours.

It is only occasionally that we hearken to it; far more commonly we seek to silence it.

Most men, as Professor Lecky says, are afraid to look time in the face.

But Christ was never afraid to look time in the face; steadily He eyed the sinking sands, till moved to His depths by the urgency of days, the zeal of the house of His Father ate Him up.

Have you awakened to that compelling thought, or do you live as if your sun would never set?

There are but twelve hours in the day, and it will be sunset before you dream of it.

Get done what God has sent you here to do.

Wait not for the fool's phantom of tomorrow...Act, act today, act in the living present!

~George H. Morrison~

It Is Never Safe To Make Pets Of Tigers!

Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

Gen 4:5  But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him!

Gen 4:8  And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

See here, the fearful growth of the evil feeling in Cain's heart.

It was only a thought at first...but it was admitted into the heart and cherished there. Then it grew until it caused a terrible crime!

We learn here, the danger of cherishing even the smallest beginning of bitterness; we do not know to what it will grow!

Some people think lightly of bad temper, laughing at it as a mere harmless weakness; but it is a perilous mood to indulge, and we do not know to what it may lead.
 
Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you!  In His reproof of Cain, the Lord likens his sin to a wild beast lying in hiding by his door, ready to leap on him and devour him.

This is true of all sin which is cherished in the heart. It may long lie quiet and seem harmless but it is only a wild beast sleeping!

There is a story of a man who took a young tiger and resolved to make a pet of it. It moved about his house like a kitten and grew up fond and gentle.

For a long time its savage, blood-thirsty nature seemed changed into gentleness, and the creature was quiet and harmless.

But one day the man was playing with his 'pet', when by accident his hand was scratched and the beast tasted blood.

That one taste, aroused all the fierce tiger nature, and the ferocious animal flew on his master and tore him to pieces!

So it is, with the passions and lusts of the old nature, which are only petted and tamed and allowed to reside in the heart.

They will crouch at the door in treacherous lurking, and in some unguarded hour they will rise up in all their old ferocity!

It is never safe to make pets of tigers!

It is never safe to make pets of little sins!

We never know what sin may grow into if we let it abide in our heart!

Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him!

That is what came of the passion of envy in Cain's heart!

It was left unrebuked, unrepented of, uncrushed and in time it grew to fearful strength.

Then in an evil moment, its tiger nature asserted itself!

We never know to what dreadful stature  a little sin may grow!

~J. R. Miller~

How Do I Mortify The Flesh?

The flesh is a bosom traitor; it is like the Trojan horse within the walls, which does all the mischief.

The flesh is a sly enemy...it kills by embracing.

The embraces of the flesh are like the ivy embracing the oak; which sucks out the strength of it for its own leaves and berries. 

So the flesh by its soft embraces, sucks out of the heart all good.

The pampering of the flesh, is the quenching of God's Spirit.
 
The flesh chokes and stifles holy motions...the flesh sides with
Satan.

There is a party within us, which will not pray, which will not believe.

The flesh inclines us more to believe a temptation than a promise.

The flesh is so near to us, its counsels are more attractive. 

There is no chain of adamant which binds so tightly as the chain of lust.

In the best of saints, do what they can, sin will fasten its roots in them, and spring out sometimes with inordinate desires.

There is always something which needs mortifying.

Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

How do I mortify the flesh?

1. Withdraw the fuel that may make lust burn.

Avoid all temptations. Take heed of that which nourishes sin.
Those who pray that they may not be led into temptation must not lead themselves into temptation.

2. Fight against fleshly lusts with spiritual weapons...faith and prayer. 

The best way to combat with sin is upon our knees. Beg strength from Christ. 

Samson's strength lay in his hair; our strength lies in our head...Christ.

This is a mystery to the major part of the world...who gratify the flesh rather than mortify it.

~Thomas Watson~

Brooks Dry Up, Cisterns Become Broken

I am your inheritance, says our loving Lord; and
as we live by faith, we find that we have a treasure in the heavens which fails not.

Brooks dry up, cisterns become broken but the all-fullness treasured in Jesus is inexhaustible!
 
And in the greatest outward straits we may be living in plenty and rejoicing in Him!

Hab 3:17  Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:

Hab 3:18  Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

We can rejoice in Him whether He bestows or
withholds...spiritually or temporally. 

~Ruth Bryan~

The Religion Of This Poor Hottentot Woman

It is the practice of some of the Christian Hottentots, in order to enjoy the privilege of secret prayer with greater privacy and freedom than they could do in their own confined and incommodious dwellings-to retire among the trees and bushes, that they may carry on their devotions without being intruded on by others, and also derive all that tranquilizing influence which would be produced by a spot, with which no other occupations, thoughts, and feelings are associated, than such as are holy.

Each individual selects for his own use a particular bush, behind which, and concealed by it, he may commune with his heavenly Father in secret.
 
By the others, this bush is considered as sacred to the one by whom it had been appropriated; and which, therefore, is never to be violated by the foot, or even by the gaze of another, during the season it is occupied by its proprietor.
 
The constant tread of the worshipers, in their repeated visits to these hallowed spots, would, of necessity, wear a path in the grass which lay between their huts, and the sylvan scene of their communion with God.

On one occasion, a Christian Hottentot woman said to another member of their little community, "Sister, I am afraid you are somewhat declining in piety."

The words were accompanied with a look of affection, and were uttered with a tone that savored nothing of accusation, nor of reproachful severity...but was expressive of tender concern, and the meekness of wisdom.

The individual thus addressed, asked her friend for the reason of her fears. 

Because, replied this good and gentle spirit, "the grass has grown over your path to your bush.

Nature carrying on its usual progress, had disclosed the secret.
 
The backslider could not deny the fact. There, in the growing grass, was the indisputable evidence that the feet which had once trodden it down had ceased to frequent the spot.

She did not attempt to excuse it, but fell under the sweet influence of this sisterly reproof, and confessed, with ingenuous shame and sorrow, that her heart had turned away from the Lord.

The admonition had its desired effect...the sinner was converted from the error of her ways, and her watchful and faithful reprover had the satisfaction and reward of seeing the wanderer restored-not only to the path to the bush, but to the renewed favor of that God with whom she there again communed in secret.

Note the value of private prayer, and the connection between its regular and spiritual performance, and a healthy state of the soul.

When the bush was neglected, and the path to it forsaken-then did the religion of this poor Hottentot woman begin to spiritually decline.

And how could it be otherwise? Who ever kept up a vigorous piety when secret prayer was neglected?

It is in the closet of private devotion, that our cares are lightened, our sorrows mitigated, our corruptions mortified, our graces strengthened, and we shake off the dust of the earth!

~John Angell James~