“For ye have need of patience.”
(Hebrews 10:36)
There are times when great waves of trouble sweep over us, wave upon wave.
There are calm times when all goes peacefully, and then suddenly something distressing happens.
Satan seems to be having things all his own way. Sometimes
those whom we wholly trusted disappoint us terribly,
and we are tempted to say,
“Whom can I trust?”
But this is fatal. There are many on whom we can count even in the worst times.
Let us never look only at the clouds and forget the blue in the sky.
There is far more blue than gray.
We are here because we are needed to fight through to victory. We never asked for ease.
Well, this is not ease, so it is what we expected—not play,
but war. It is and always must be a fight of faith.
Hebrews 2:9 has a word for us;
We se Jesus . . . CROWNED.
Nothing can touch that. We follow an undefeated Lord.
Love won on Calvary.
But we have need of patience. Give us Thy patience, Lord.
(Whispers of His Power - Amy Carmichael)
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August 21
“Men ought always to pray and not to faint.”
(Luke 18:1)
Paul exhorts “that men pray every where” (1 Timothy 2:8).
Here we are exhorted to pray “at all seasons.” Prayer is the
constant attitude of dependence upon God.
Under all circumstances, in all places, and at all times, we are to pray.
Prayer however, may become a mere formal expression of need; it is therefore linked
with “supplication”, which is is the earnest cry of the soul conscious of its need. It is, moreover,
to be under the guidance of the Spirit, and to be accompanied with the faith that watches for God’s answer.
When Peter was in prison “prayer was made without ceasing unto God for him.”
But apparently the church failed somewhat in “watchfulness”,
for when God answered their prayer it was only with
difficulty that they believed that Peter was free.
Further, pray in the Spirit will embrace “all saints”, and yet come down
to the need of a special servant. So the Apostle exhorts the Ephesian saints
not only to pray for “all saints”, but also for himself.
to the need of a special servant. So the Apostle exhorts the Ephesian saints
not only to pray for “all saints”, but also for himself.
(Hamilton Smith)
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August 22
“I will trust and not be afraid.”
(Isaiah 12:2)
Satan gets entrance for his full power in the soul the moment there is a shade of distrust in God.
When unbelief is in action it only produces troubles and sorrows.
When there remains in the heart any groan which is not uttered to God as to a God of grace,
any distrust of Him, it is the flesh and work of the enemy. . . .
We may be cast down at times (although scarcely ever without some want of faith)
and yet everything goes on well if we bring it all to God.
Anxiety which anticipates evil is not the faith which faces the difficulties
through which God sees well to make us pass.
When the soul is distressed or cast down, that is not sin in itself.
But sin comes in when there is distrust of God.
(J. N. Darby)
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August 23
“His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.”
(Psalm 112:7)
“Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.”
(John 11:5)
We may always trust the tenderness of the Lord, and fail as we may we may trust Him.
The Spirit brought home to me the other morning an old scripture with great power.
“Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.”
(John 11:5).
In this very chapter Martha does nothing save to blunder, and exhibit her blindness
to the glory of the Person of her Lord, and yet the chapter is prefaced
by the statement that Jesus loved her.
It touched me deeply as I saw a little of the significance of the statement,
and it taught me that the Lord’s love to us rises above all our
failures, and that, therefore, we may count upon it
and rest in it at all times.
(Edward Dennett)
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August 24
“He hath filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich He hath sent empty away.”
(Luke 1:53)
And hungry souls there are, that find and eat God’s manna day by day,
And glad they are, their life is fresh and sweet, for as their food are they.
(C. T. S.)
Our unceasing cry to God should be for power, power, power,
spiritual power—without this all is thorough vanity.
We must either be gathering with Christ or scattering abroad.
If we are not engaged for Christ, we are engaged
against Him—to do nothing for Christ
is to do something for Satan.
(C. H. Macintosh)
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August 25
"Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
(1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
Our long-expected change from mortality to immortality will take place “in a moment”.
The Greek word for a moment is “en atomo”, meaning in an atom of time.
In the smallest possible amount of time, we will be changed at the trumpet’s blast.
How exciting when our mortal bodies shall put on immortality.
“We shall be changed.”
As we await the moment of transformation, let us live as those who have
experienced the change of the new birth.
(Arnot McIntee)
The Lord Himself shall come, and shout the quickening word;
Thousands shall answer from the tomb,
"Forever with the Lord.”
(Anon)
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August 26
“My soul thirsteth for God.”
(Psalm 42:2)
I believe it is joy to the heart of Christ when He sees us, as it were,
compelled to turn to Him.
He loves us so much that he is jealous of our
turning elsewhere.
When you are near Christ you cannot speak of your service.
The more we are with Christ, self will retire,
and Christ will take His rightful place.
He has His place in heaven.
Oh, that He might have it in our hearts.
(E. P. Corrin)
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August 27
OUR LIPS KEPT FOR JESUS
Keep my lips, that they may be filled with messages from Thee.
“Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth;
keep the door of my lips.”
(Psalms 141:3)
The days are past forever when we said, “our lips are our own.”
Now we know that they are not our own.
And yet how many of my readers often have the miserable consciousness that they have
“spoken unadvisedly with their lips!” How many pray, “keep the door of my lips!”
when the very last thing they think of expecting is that they will be kept!
They deliberately make up their minds that hasty words, or foolish words, or exaggerated words,
according to their respective temptations, must and will slip
out of that door, and that it can’t be helped.
The extent of the real meaning of their prayer was merely that not quite so many might slip out.
As their faith went no farther, the answer went no farther, and so the door was not kept.
Do let us look the matter straight in the face.
Either we have committed our lips to our Lord, or we have not.
This question must be settled first. If not, oh, do not let another hour pass!
Take them to Jesus, and ask Him to take them.
(Frances Ridley Havergal)
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August 28
Work and Rest
“I have filled him with the Spirit . . . to work.”
(Exodus 31:3-4)
"The sabbath of rest.”
(Exodus 31:15)
O may Thy Spirit teach my hands to toil, lest I be idle, or, unskilled, should spoil
With witless haste the task ordained to me. O teach me how to work, and work with Thee.
O may Thy Spirit teach my heart to rest; tranquil to share with Thee Thy sabbath blest;
Resting from all my work and want and care, resting in Christ, for Thou art resting there.
(Bells & Pomegranates - James M. S. Tait)
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August 29
“It pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief:
when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
and the pleasure of the LORD shall
prosper in His hand.”
(Isaiah 53:10)
Our blessed Lord might have come into this world of sin and sorrow.
He might have become a man. He might have been baptized in the Jordan—
anointed by the Holy Spirit—tempted of Satan in the wilderness.
He might have gone about doing good. He might have lived and laboured, wept and prayed, and,
at the close, gone back to heaven again, thus leaving us involved in deeper gloom than ever.
He might, like the priest or the Levite, in the parable, have come and looked upon us in our wounds and misery,
pass by on the other side and returned alone to the place whence He came.
And what if He had?
What, but the flames of an everlasting hell, for you and me?
For, be it well remembered, that all the living labours of the Son of God—
His amazing ministry—His days of toil and His nights of prayer—His tears,
His sighs, His groans—the whole of His life-work, from the manger up to, but short
of the Cross, could not have blotted out one speck of guilt from a human conscience.
“Without shedding of blood is no remission.”
(Hebrews 9:22)
(C. H. Mackintosh)
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August 30
“He stretcheth out the north over the empty place,
and hangeth the earth upon nothing.”
(Job 26:7)
“What is man, that Thou art mindful of him . . .?"
(Psalms 8:4)
How rich I am!
God is the Creator of the whole universe, yet is holding my life in His hands.
He ever guides the constellations of stars, and at the same time remembers man.
Wind and water also obey Him. And this is my God, my Father. I am His child.
Nobody is like this Lord, and He loves me.
How rich I am!
(This Day is the Lord’s - Corrie Ten Boom)
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August 31
There is none greater in this house than I (Joseph); neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? (Genesis 39:9)
When our son went to university we looked for books to help him face the
“Sodom and Gomorrah” of college life.
One sentence I read struck me forcibly,
“if a young person truly knows the Lord he will make it!
But if that one does not really know Christ in a personal way,
all your advice, as a parent, will not help.”
When far from home and loved ones, what will keep a young believer from sin?
Only a personal relationship with the Saviour and a close walk
with God will enable them to overcome temptation.
(David Croudace)
He that loves us bears us through, and makes us more than conquerors too.
Faith hath an overcoming power; that triumphs in the trying hour.
(Anon)
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September 1
“And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into
Thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee,
Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.”
(Luke 23:42-43)
When a prominent man dies, we are anxious to get
his last words and acts.
The last act of the Son of God was to save a sinner.
That was a part of the glory of His death.
He commenced His ministry by saving sinners,
and ended it by saving this poor thief.
(D. L. Moody)
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