We Pray That The Seeds Of Truth Contained In This Blog Will Penetrate The Good Soil Of Your Heart And Bear Much Fruit.

Monday, January 30, 2017

Don't Worry

When you are inclined to worry...don't do it! That is the first thing.

No matter how much reason there seems to be for worrying still, there is your rule. Do not break it—don't worry!
 

Matters may be greatly tangled, so tangled that you cannot see how they ever can be straightened out; still, don't worry!

Troubles may be very real and very sore, and there may not seem a rift in the clouds; nevertheless, don't worry!

You say the rule is too high for human observance-that mortals cannot reach it;

Or you say there must be some exceptions to it-that there are peculiar circumstances in which one cannot but worry.

But wait a moment. What did the Master teach?

I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.

He left no exceptions.

What did Paul teach?

Don't worry about anything!

He did not say a word about exceptions to the rule-but left it unqualified and absolute.

A good bit of homely, practical, common-sense wisdom, says that there are two classes of things we should not worry about...things we can help, and things we cannot help.

Evils we can help-we ought to help.

If the roof leaks-we ought to mend it;

If the fire is burning low and the room growing cold-we ought to put on more fuel;

If the fence is tumbling down, so as to let our neighbor's cattle into our wheat field-we had better repair the fence than sit down and worry over the troublesomeness of people's cows;

If we have dyspepsia and it makes us feel badly-we had better look to our diet and our exercise.

That is, we are very silly if we worry about things we can help.

Help them!

That is the heavenly wisdom for that sort of ills or cares-that is the way to cast that kind of burden on the Lord.

But there are things we cannot help. "Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying?"

What folly, then, for a short man to worry because he is not tall, or for a woman to worry about the color of her hair, or for anyone to worry because of any physical peculiarities he may have?

These are types of a large number of things in people's lives—which no human power can change. Why worry about these? Will worrying do any good? No!

So we come to the same result by applying this common-sense rule.

Things we can make better-we should make better, and not fret about them!

Things we cannot help or change-we should accept as God's will for us, and make no complaint about them.

This very simple principle, faithfully applied, would eliminate all worrying from our lives!

As children of our heavenly Father-we may go a step farther.

If this world were governed by chance-no amount either of philosophy or of common sense could keep us from worrying; but we know that our Father is taking care of us!

No little child in best and most caring home, was ever carried so carefully or so safely in the love and thought and care of earthly parents-as is the least of God's little ones in the heavenly Father's heart!

Mat 6:31  Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

Mat 6:32  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

The things we cannot help or change are in his hand, and belong to the "all things" which, we are assured, "work together for good to those who love God."

In the midst of all the great rush of events and circumstances, in which we can see no order and no design we well know that each believer in Christ, is as safe as any little child in the arms of the most loving mother!

It is not a mere blind faith that we try to nourish in our hearts as we seek to school ourselves to quietness and confidence amid all life's trials and disappointments:

It is a faith that rests upon the character and the infinite goodness of God-the faith of a little child in a Father whose name is "Love" and whose power extends to every part of his universe.

So here we find solid rock upon which to stand, and good reason for our lesson that we should never worry.

Our Father is taking care of us!

But if we are never to worry, what shall we do with the things which incline us to worry?

There are many such things in the life, even of the most warmly sheltered.

There are disappointments which leave the hands empty after days and years of hope and toil.

There are resistless thwartings of fondly cherished plans and purposes.

There are bereavements which seem to sweep away every earthly joy.

There are perplexities through which no human wisdom can lead the feet.

There are experiences in every life-whose natural effect is to disquiet the spirit and produce deep and painful anxiety.

If we are never to worry, what are we to do with these things which naturally tend to cause us worry?

The answer is easy...we are to put all these disturbing and distracting things into the hands of our Father!

Of course, if we carry them ourselves...we cannot help worrying over them!

But we are not to carry them; we cannot if we would!

Up to the measure of our wisdom and our ability-we are to calculate our lives, and shape our circumstances.

What people sometimes call trust is only indolence; we must meet life heroically. But when we have done our whole simple duty—there both our duty and our responsibility end!

We cannot hold back the wave which the sea flings upon the beach;

We cannot control the winds and the clouds and the other forces of nature;

We cannot keep away the frosts which threaten to destroy our summer fruits;

We cannot shut out of our doors, that sickness which brings pain and suffering; or that sorrow which leaves its poignant anguish!

We cannot prevent the misfortune which comes through others, or through public calamity.

In the presence of all this class of evils-we are utterly powerless; they are irremediable by any wisdom or strength of ours!

Why, then, should we endeavor to carry them, only to vex ourselves in vain with them!

Besides, there is no reason why we should even try to carry them!

It would be a very foolish little child, in a home of plenty and of love-which would worry about its food and clothing or about its father's business affairs, and be all the while in a state of anxiety and distress concerning its own safety and comfort.

The child has nothing whatever to do with these matters! Its father and its mother are attending to them.

Or imagine a great ship on the ocean and the child of the ship's captain on board.

The child goes about the vessel anxious concerning every movement and worried lest something may go wrong-lest the engines may fail, or the sails give out, or the sailors not do their duty, or the provisions become exhausted, or the machinery break down.

What has the captain's child to do with any of these things!

The child's father is looking after them!

We are God's children, living in our Father's world-and we have nothing more to do with the world's affairs than the shipmaster's little child has to do with the management and care of the great vessel in mid-ocean.

We have only to stay in our place and attend to our own little personal duties, giving ourselves no shadow of anxiety about anything else!

That is what we are to do instead of worrying when we meet things that would naturally perplex us.

We are just to lay them in God's hands-where they belong-that he may look after them, while we abide in quiet peace, and go on with our little daily duties.

We have high scriptural authority for this.

This is what Paul teaches in his immortal prison letter when he says: "Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus!

The points here shine out very clearly.

We are not to worry about anything!

In no possible circumstances are ever to worry!

Instead of worrying we are to take everything to God in prayer.

The result will be peace: "And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus!"

Peter's counsel is similar, though more condensed.

1Pe 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

In the Revised Version its meaning comes out more clearly: Casting all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you!

God is taking care of you-not overlooking the smallest thing, and you have but to cast all your cares and anxiety upon him...and then be at peace.

It is trying to carry our own cares, which produces worry!
Our duty is to cast them all upon Christ, giving ourselves thought only about our duty.

This is the secret of peaceful living.

There is a practical suggestion which may be helpful in learning this lesson.

The heart in its pressure of care or pain, cannot well remain silent-it must speak or break.

Its natural impulse is to give utterance to its emotion, in cries of pain or in fretful complainings and discontented murmurings.

It will be a great relief to the overburdened heart, if in time of pain or trial, the pent-up feelings can be given some other vent than in expressions of worry or anxiety.
 

It is most suggestive, therefore, that in Paul's words, already quoted, when he says we should take our anxieties to God in prayer, he adds "with thanksgiving."

The songs of thanksgiving carry off the heart's suppressed pain and give it relief.

It is better always to put pain or grief into melody than into wails.

It is better for the heart itself-it is a sweeter relief.

There are no wings like the wings of song and praise to bear away life's burdens!

It is also better for others, for us to start a song-than to let loose a shriek or a cry of anguish to fly abroad.

We remember our Lord Jesus when he was nailed to the cross, where his sufferings must have been excruciating;

Instead of a cry of anguish-he turned the woe of his heart into a prayer of intercession for his murderers!

Paul, too, in his prison, his back torn with the scourge and his feet fast in the stocks, uttered no word of complaint and no cry of pain-but gave vent to his great suffering in midnight hymns of praise which rang through all the prison.

These illustrations suggest a wonderful secret of heart peace in the time of distress, from whatever cause.

We must find some outflow for our pent-up emotions; silence is unendurable.

We may not complain nor give utterance to feelings of anxiety-but we may turn the bursting tides into the channels of praise and prayer!

We may also find relief in loving service for others.
Indeed, there is no more wonderful secret of joyful endurance of trial, than this!

If the heart can put its pain or its fear into helping and comforting those who are in need and in trouble-it soon forgets its own care!

If the whole inner story of lives were known, it would be found that many of those who have done the most to comfort the world's sorrow, and bind up its wounds, and help it in its need-have been men and women whose own hearts found outlet for their pain, care or sorrow-in ministries to others in Christ's name.

Thus they found blessing for themselves, in the peace which ruled in their lives and they became blessings to the world by giving it songs instead of tears and helpful service instead of the burden of discontent and complaining!

If a bird has to be in a cage-it is better to fill its place of imprisonment with happy song, than to sit moaning within the wire walls, in inconsolable distress.

If we must have cares and trials, it is better that we should be rejoicing Christians...

Brightening the very darkness of our environment with the bright light of Christian faith...

Than that we should succumb to our troubles and get nothing but worry out of our life-and give nothing to the world, but murmurings and the memory of our miserable discontent!

~J. R. Miller~

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

He Acts On Honest Confession

Job 33:27  He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not;
 

Job 33:28  He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.

This is a word of truth, gathered from the experience of a man of God, and it is tantamount to a promise. 

What the LORD has done, and is doing, He will continue to do while the world standeth.

The LORD will receive into His bosom all who come to Him with a sincere confession of their sin;

In fact, He is always on the lookout to discover any that are in trouble because of their faults.

Can we not endorse the language here used?

Have we not sinned, sinned personally so as to say, "I have sinned"?

Sinned willfully, having perverted that which is right?

Sinned so as to discover that there is no profit in it but an eternal loss?

Let us, then, go to God with this honest acknowledgment. He asks no more. We can do no less.

Let us plead His promise in the name of Jesus.

He will deliver us from the pit of hell which yawns for us; He will grant us life and light.

Why should we despair?

Why should we even doubt?

The LORD does not mock humble souls.

He means what He says.

The guilty can be forgiven.

Those who deserve execution can receive free pardon.

LORD, we confess, and we pray Thee to forgive! 

~Charles Spurgeon~

Friday, January 20, 2017

The Psalmist Was Deceived

Psa 55:23  But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee.  

Observe, he was a man deceived. Somebody he trusted had proven false, and it had almost broken David's heart.

Psa 55:12  For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:

Psa 55:13  But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.

Psa 55:14  We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

A man his equal, his guide and his acquaintance to whom he used to turn for loving counsel;

A man with whom, on quiet Sabbath mornings, he used to walk unto the house of God;

A man whose friendship he had never doubted and on whose loyalty he would have staked his life had played the part of Iscariot to the psalmist.

What a devastating revelation!

What a tragic and desolating hour!

How many people have lost their faith in God when they have lost it in a man or woman?

Yet David, amid the ruins of that friendship, deserted by one he clung to as a brother, says, "But I will trust in thee."

~George H. Morrison~

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Made Rich By Faith

Poverty is a hard heritage; but those who trust in the LORD are made rich by faith.

They know that they are not forgotten of God, and though it may seem that they are overlooked in His providential distribution of good things, they look for a time when all this shall be righted. 

Lazarus will not always lie among the dogs at the rich man's gate, but he will have his recompense in Abraham's bosom.

Even now the LORD remembers His poor but precious sons, "I am poor and needy; yet the LORD thinketh upon me," said one of old, and it is even so.

The godly poor have great expectations.

They expect the LORD to provide them all things necessary for this life and godliness;

They expect to see things working for their good;

They expect to have all the closer fellowship with their LORD, who had not where to lay His head; 

They expect His second advent and to share its glory.

This expectation cannot perish, for it is laid up in Christ Jesus, who liveth forever, and because He lives, it shall live also.

The poor saint singeth many a song which the rich sinner cannot understand.

Wherefore, let us, when we have short commons below, think of the royal table above.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Divine Recompense

If I carefully consider others, God will consider me, and in some way or other He will recompense me.

Let me consider the poor, and the LORD will consider me.

Let me look after little children, and the LORD will treat me as His child.

Let me feed His flock, and He will feed me.

Let me water His garden, and He will make a watered garden of my soul.

This is the LORD's own promise; be it mine to fulfill the condition and then to expect its fulfillment.
 
I may care about myself till I grow morbid; I may watch over my own feelings till I feel nothing; and I may lament my own weakness till I grow almost too weak to lament.

It will be far more profitable for me to become unselfish and out of love to my LORD Jesus begin to care for the souls of those around me.

My tank is getting very low; no fresh rain comes to fill it; what shall l do.

I will pull up the plug and let its contents run out to water the withering plants around me.

What do I see? My cistern seems to fill as it flows. A secret spring is at work.

While all was stagnant, the fresh spring was sealed; but as my stock Rows out to water others the LORD thinketh upon me. 

Hallelujah!

~Charles Spurgeon~

Thursday, January 5, 2017

I Heard A Still Voice

Job 4:16  It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, 

A score of years ago, a friend placed in my hand a book called True Peace.

It was an old medieval message, and it had but one thought-that God was waiting in the depths of my being to talk to me if I would only get still enough to hear His voice.

I thought this would be a very easy matter, and so began to get still.

But I had no sooner commenced than a perfect pandemonium of voices reached my ears, a thousand clamoring notes from without and within, until I could hear nothing but their noise and din.

Some were my own voices, my own questions, some my very prayers.

Others were suggestions of the tempter and the voices from the world's turmoil.

In every direction I was pulled and pushed and greeted with noisy acclamations and unspeakable unrest.

It seemed necessary for me to listen to some of them and to answer some of them; but God said, "Be still, and know that I am God."

Then came the conflict of thoughts for tomorrow, and its duties and cares; but God said, "Be still."

And as I listened, and slowly learned to obey, and shut my ears to every sound, I found after a while that when the other voices ceased, or I ceased to hear them, there was a still small voice in the depths of my being that began to speak with an inexpressible tenderness, power and comfort.

As I listened, it became to me the voice of prayer, the voice of wisdom, the voice of duty, and I did not need to think so hard, or pray so hard, or trust so hard;

But that "still small voice" of the Holy Spirit in my heart was God's prayer in my secret soul, was God's answer to all my questions, was God's life and strength for soul and body, and became the substance of all knowledge, and all prayer and all blessing: for it was the living GOD Himself as my life, my all.

It is thus that our spirit drinks in the life of our risen Lord, and we go forth to life's conflicts and duties like a flower that has drunk in, through the shades of night, the cool and crystal drops of dew.

~A. B. Simpson~

Monday, January 2, 2017

What Gives The World Its Fatal Charms?

The world is one of the Christian's enemies which must be fought and conquered on the way to Heaven.

The Christian life is represented as a training school, in which to deny worldly desires is one part of its curriculum.

There is no more fundamental statement in Scripture, than that the world is to be renounced by every true disciple of Christ-and that to love the world and the things of the world, puts us in open and standing enmity to God.

By virtue of our love or friendship to the world-we are the enemies of God.

Christ Jesus lays it down as an obvious truth that between the world and His disciples, there would be hatred.

To serve two opposing masters is impossible.

The call of Christ when accepted and obeyed, becomes at once the secret and the source of the world's hatred.

Jesus declares the native and inevitable enmity of the world to His followers: "The world has hated them, because they are not of the world-even as I am not of the world."

Again, in His high-priestly prayer, He declares this distinct and eternal separation and conflict: "They are not of the world--even as I am not of the world."

By virtue of their relation to Christ-they are separated from, and are in conflict with, the world.

The love of the world is hostile to and destructive of, the love of God.

The two cannot co-exist.

Yet many modern church members and church goers are friends of the world-its advocates and lovers.

James 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Friendship with the world is God's greatest enemy.

Love of the world violates our marriage vows to Jesus.

Nothing is more explicit than this, nothing is more commanding, authoritative and more exacting. 

1John 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 

Nothing is more offensive to God, nothing is more criminal, more abominable, more violative of the most sacred relationship of the soul with God.

It remains true to this hour, that all the genuine disciples of Jesus are not of the world-but are chosen out of the world, have left the world, have renounced the world, and are crucified to the world.

What gives the world its fatal charms?


What makes its enchantment so lethal?

What makes it a deadly foe to Christ, and which poisons us against Heaven?

The world is the devil's pawn. The world gets its deadly and fascinating snares from the devil.

The world is not simply the ally, but is the instrument and the agent of Satan.

The world's opposition and enmity have been always against the Christian-and often its smiles are more fatal than its hate!

~E. M. Bounds~