God Deals Mysteriously With Me!

Just so, God deals mysteriously with me. 

His footsteps, His judgments, His methods, are often untrackable, like the untried sea. 

What though I cannot comprehend all His winding mazes?

It is enough that He comprehends.

I rest in His wise-heartedness and love.

I know that if He surrounds me with change, He gives me a hold on what is permanent and stable. 

Every breath of wind, every passing shadow, every ray of sun, alters the sea. 

And, meanwhile, by God's will, nothing in my life continues unchangeable. 

The very mutableness of things, drives me into closer communion with Himself. 

Standing on the Rock of Ages, I am rooted in an element that is indestructible.

I know that if He permits me to be assailed by storm, He can keep my heart in peace. 

It is His decree that I am driven hither and thither over moonless waters by contrary winds.

But the certainty is mine, that He makes all things to work together for my good.

He is my holy Father, my unerring Father, my Father of immeasurable grace. 

He makes no mistakes now, and, by and by He will bring me to His house not made with hands, where I will sing with everlasting joy!

~Alexander Smellie~
                                    

Song Of Confidence

Psa 138:7  Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.

Wretched walking in the midst of trouble...

Nay, blessed walking, since there is a special promise for it. 

Give me a promise, and what is the trouble? 

What doth my LORD teach me here to say? Why this -- "Thou wilt receive me." 

I shall have more life, more energy, more faith. 

Is it not often so, that trouble revives us, like a breath of cold air when one is ready to faint?

How angry are my enemies and especially the archenemy!

Shall I stretch forth my hand and fight my foes! 

No, my hand is better employed in doing service for my LORD.

Besides, there is no need, for my God will use His far-reaching arm, and He will deal with them far better than I could if I were to try. 

Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the LORD.

He will with His own right hand of power and wisdom save me, and what more can I desire?

Come, my heart, talk this promise over to thyself till thou canst use it as the song of thy confidence, the solace of thy holiness. 

Pray to be revived thyself and leave the rest with the LORD, who performeth all things for thee. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Worry Tree

The black walnut tree has a peculiar quality that affects the soil about its roots with a poisonous substance very unfavorable to the growth of many kinds of vegetation. 

Some grasses may grow under it but many other plants shrivel and die.

Something in many lives corresponds to the black walnut tree. 

In its baneful influence, the godly life cannot develop.

This noxious tree grows in the land of unbelief. 

It is found nowhere else. 

It is the worry tree. 

Many lives are cursed with this tree. 

It is one of their most prominent characteristics. 

It spreads its shadow over everything. 

It shuts out the sunlight.

It poisons the soil. 

It draws up into itself the resources of the soul as a natural tree draws water from the soil, leaving spiritual faculties and powers parched and impoverished...

It prevents their proper development and fruition.

Worry is one of the worst things that can come into a life...

Perhaps only sin is worse; worry may even become sinful. 

It is a form of fear. 

Fear, worry, anxiety, foreboding...are all the same in effect and will all be treated together here.

The worry tree does not grow in the land of faith. 

But in the land of unbelief and questioning...

It spreads its great roots of doubt deeply into the soil. 

The results of worry are too numerous to be recounted in full.

One result is that wherever worry is given place, it stops the song of joy. 

We cannot be glad, when we worry. We cannot be free and happy. 

The moment we worry...then peace, joy, satisfaction, comfort, all vanish. 

The sun goes behind a cloud. A chill wind blows. 

Many people make themselves utterly wretched through worry. 

Its effects are not merely spiritual. 

The whole being is poisoned by it. 

Perhaps it would be well to consider some of the effects worry produces. 

If we know those effects then it may help us to avoid their causes.

We note first, the physical effects...

Certain glands that control the bodily functions are excited to action by fear. 

They secrete a powerful substance that is poured into the blood stream and produces immediate effects. 

It is this that enables one to run faster when danger threatens, or to expend greater energy than at any other time. 

A good purpose is served by these glands...but when they are constantly over-stimulated by fear, worry, anxiety, or any other emotion--then they produce too great an effect upon the nerves. 

This tends to make one nervous, and nervousness in turn reacts to produce fear and worry. 

This action and reaction continued, repeated over and over, breaks down the nerves.

A great many nervous people are what they are, simply because they have given way to worry. 

It upsets the whole course of nature.

Many physical disorders are the direct result of worry. 

A few quotations from medical authorities may help to make this plain...

Doctor McCoy says, "The mind can have a powerfully stimulating effect toward either health or disease."

When the mind is properly used and controlled--then health may be maintained under many adverse conditions...

But...when the mind is torn by conflicting, destructive emotion...then it kills the very cells it is supposed to guard over and control.

Again he says, "You must realize how important the mind is as a factor in the production of many chronic disorders."

Sometimes this process is so insidious as to be unrecognized except by the closest attention of a skilled diagnostician. 

In my practice I have seen a number of cases of paralysis which were induced by fear.

Although these patients had been to many different doctors and undergone many different kinds of treatments, they were not cured until this fear factor was recognized, and then the cure took place almost instantly."

Doctor Copeland, once health commissioner of New York City, says, "Worry has a pronounced effect upon the organisms."

The digestion is upset because the nerves controlling the circulation and muscular structures are 'jumpy' and disturbed in function. 

The intestinal action is disturbed...

The brain and nervous system are upset...

The glands operate irregularly...

The whole system is deranged...

Good teeth, as indeed good eyes and ears and heart and blood vessels and liver and kidneys--are dependent on lack of worry and plenty of restful sleep. 

Worry is deadly to vigor and usefulness.

A whole book of this sort of quotations could easily be selected...

Dr. G.H. McIntosh says, "If men could wipe out all fear from their minds...then nine-tenths of them would be free from sickness."

Henry Ward Beecher said, "It is not work that kills men--it is worry!"

Worry is rust upon the blade.

The mental effect of worry and fear, is equally as great as the physical effect. 

Through worry people often work themselves up into a sort of mental fever so that their nerves "go to pieces." 

When we worry, the mind cannot think clearly...

Minor difficulties seem out of proportion...

They do not seem natural--but appear altogether different from what they do when the mind is in a normal condition.

Sometimes worry produces great mental distress...

Sometimes it partly or entirely unfits one for work. 

Have you not heard people say, "I am so upset I just cannot do anything!"

This mental condition reacts upon the body...

The physical effects of worry react upon the mind; and we have a harmful set of actions and reactions set up, destructive alike to mind and body. 

An agitated state of the mind, affects the brain and tissues....

The poison created in the body through fear and worry, reacts upon the brain tissues and the mind becomes still more troubled.

These things are not imaginary. 

They are being suffered by thousands of individuals. 

People get up in the morning tired out. 

They have no energy. 

They have to drive themselves. 

This is one common effect of worry. 

Another common result of worry is lack of mental control, so that the mind cannot concentrate on anything.

Worry also has a spiritual effect...

It destroys faith. 

In fact, faith and worry are mutually destructive...

Faith will destroy worry and  Worry will destroy faith. 

So whichever is given ascendancy, will destroy the other...

Worry stimulates doubts. 

The more we worry the more we doubt. 

We have heard people talk about blind faith...

Faith is not nearly so blind as doubt. 

Doubt cannot see favorable circumstances...

It sees everything in an unfavorable light, and magnifies it. 

There may be ever so many favorable elements in a situation but doubt sees none of them. 

Worry sees none of them.

Worry brings gloom and discouragement...

It makes one moody, forgetful of God's goodness and mercy and helpfulness.

In fact, worry shuts God out of the picture. 

It causes us to forget him or makes us doubt him. 

Under the influence of worry, we draw the most gloomy mental pictures. 

We clothe everything in somber shades.

Worry also prevents us from exercising our abilities. 

With worry, there is a great troop of evils...

They cluster around it and add to its damaging influence. 

Worry is always evil. 

It never serves any good purpose. 

It never aids us in accomplishing anything. 

It never makes anything easier. 

It has nothing to recommend it.

More than that, worry is never necessary. 

Mark well that statement. 

It is a positive truth. Worry is never necessary.

First, worry never can help us. 

It can never make things easier or better. 

It never did any good.

It never cured any trouble.

Second, we do not have to worry...

There is always a better way. 

We shall attempt to point out that way later.

Worry is altogether folly. 

It not merely does no good--it always makes matters worse. 

It weakens every good thing. 

It strengthens every bad thing. 

Worry is a noxious tree and it bears poisonous fruits.

Have you one of these poisonous worry trees? 

You must rid yourself of it before you can sing the glad songs of rejoicing that come from a free soul. 

One of the secrets of the singing heart, is the remedy for worry.
 
~Charles Naylor~

Much Of The Service Of Some So-Called Christians

Mat 6:1  Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
 
Mat 6:2  Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

Our service to God must be an unostentatious. 

Service which springs from true love to God-never desires to display itself. 

Genuine service is not done for the eyes of men to behold; it is done as a loving tribute to God, the object of its love.

The principle here set forth is that what is done with the purpose of being seen by men, brings only the reward that men give...

In other words, it is not accepted by the Lord as service to Him. 

Judged by this rule, much of the service of some so-called Christians is never, I fear, recognized in Heaven at all. 

Our good deeds are to be done-not that men may see them-but that God, who sees in secret, may see, and reward according to His own will...

And that He may regard them as service done to Himself and not for the reward of men's praise.

It is simple, single-hearted service which pleases the Lord.

The man who is truly godly, has no desire to put himself upon exhibition. 

He thinks, "Not I, but Christ!" and not only thinks it, but feels it in the depths of his heart.

Mat 6:1  Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
 
Mat 6:2  Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

~Charles Naylor~