“We shall never be delivered from all
our enemies till we get to heaven;
and to that heavenly kingdom God will preserve all that are his.”
Matthew Henry (1662-1714)
My Soul Is Weary
My soul is weary with sorrow;
strengthen me according to your word.
Psalm 119: 28
“The men of the world are so far from this disposition, that if they
have health and wealth, they marvel what it is should make a man heavy:
they are not acquainted with the exercise of a feeling conscience; they
know not the defects of the spiritual life, and are not grieved at them:
being dead in sin they feel not that they want life; all their care is
to eat and drink and make merry.
But miserable are they; for in their best
estate they are as oxen fed for the slaughter. Woe be to them who laugh now,
they shall mourn; but blessed are they who mourn now, for they shall be
comforted.”
William Cowper
I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws.
Psalm 119:30
“I have chosen the way of truth.” Religion is not a matter of chance,
but of choice. Have we weighed things in the balance, and, upon mature
deliberation, made an election,- “We will have God upon any terms?”
Have we sat down and reckoned the cost,- or what religion must cost us,
-the parting with our lusts; and what it may cost us, – the parting with
our lives?
Have we resolved, through the assistance of grace, to own
Christ when the swords and staves are up?
and to sail with him, not
only in a pleasure-boat, but in a man-of-war?
This choosing God speaks him to be ours: hypocrites profess God out of worldly design, not religious choice.
Thomas Watson, In ” The Morning Exercises.”
From the “Treasury of David Classic Reflections of the Wisdom of the Psalms” Hendrickson Publishers p.201,203
by Charles H. Spurgeon
A Hero
A hero is not fed sweets,
Daily his own heart he eats;
Chambers of the great jails,
And head winds right for royal sails. – Emerson
When the enemy meets us at the threshold of any great work for God, let us accept it as “a token of salvation,”
and claim double blessing, victory, and power. Power is developed by resistance.
The cannon carries twice as far
because the exploding power has to find its way through resistance. The way electricity is produced in the powerhouse
yonder is by sharp friction of the revolving wheels.
And so we shall find some day that even Satan has been one of God’s
agencies of blessing. – Days of Heaven Upon Earth.
From Streams In The Desert Vol 1 by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman Zondervan Publishing House p.24
Sorrow
Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.
Ecclesiastes 7:3
“When sorrow comes under the power of Divine grace, it works out a manifold ministry
in our lives. Sorrow reveals unknown depths in the soul, and unknown capabilities of
experience and service. Gay, trifling people are always shallow, and never suspect
the little meannesses in their nature.
Sorrow is God’s plowshare that turns up and subsoils the depths of the soul, that it may
yield richer harvests. … Hence it is sorrow that makes us think deeply, long, and soberly.
Sorrow makes us go slower and more considerately, and introspect our motives and dispositions.
It is sorrow that opens up within us the capacities of the heavenly life, and it is sorrow
that makes us willing to launch our capacities on a boundless sea of service for God and our
fellows. … So it is with many souls who indolently live on the outer edge of their own natures
until great thunderstorms of sorrow reveal hidden depths within that were never hitherto suspected.
God never uses anybody to a large degree, until after He breaks that one all to pieces. Joseph had
more sorrows than all the other sons of Jacob, and it led him out into a ministry of bread for all
nations.
For this reason, the Holy Spirit said of him,”Joseph is a fruitful bough…by a well,
whose branches run over the wall” (Gen.49:22). It takes sorrow to widen the soul.
– The Heavenly Life
From Streams In The Desert Vol 1 by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman Zondervan Publishing House p. 22