I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you . . . Colossians 2:1
With what do I strive in my prayers?
(a) With all that says to me, what is the use of your praying? So many others, who know more of prayer than you do, are praying, what difference does it make whether you pray or not? Are you sure that your Lord is listening? Of course He is listening to the other prayers, but yours are of such small account; are you really sure He is "bending His ear" to you?
(b) With all that suggests that we are asked to give too much time to prayer. There is so much to do. Why set aside so much time just to pray?
(c) With all that discourages me personally--perhaps the remembrance of past sin, perhaps spiritual or physical tiredness; with anything and everything that keeps me back from what occupied Paul so often--vital prayer.
"Lord, teach us to pray." Luke 11:1)
What will help me most in this striving?
(a) The certain knowledge that our insignificance does not matter at all, for we do not come to the Father in our own name, but in the Name of His beloved Son. His ear is always open to that Name. Of this we can be certain.
(b) The certain knowledge that the suggestion that prayer is waste of time is Satan's lie; he is much more afraid of our prayer than of our work. (This is proved by the immense difficulties we always find when we set ourselves to pray. They are much greater than those we meet when we set ourselves to work.)
(c) The application of God's sure promises to meet our need. (Isaiah 44:22, 40:29-31,45:19, Psalm 27:8) "Whereunto I also labour, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily." (Colossians 1:29) "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." (1 John 4:4).
Let us count on the greatness of God. Edges of His ways - Amy Carmichael
N.J. Hiebert - 20487
November 9
CHRIST ENTERED OUR SORROWS
Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. Psalm 69:20
There is no comfort like the thought that Jesus has entered into all our sorrows. This is the very way God has met the need, and want, and wretchedness of our nature. Supposing that Adam had never fallen, we could not speak of God with the comfort that we now can, since He has come in sympathy to us, through the means of the incarnation of our blessed Lord.
The Lord Jesus having become a man is the source of all comfort. The Lord has entered into all the depths of sorrow, so as to give us all the depths of comfort, in order that we may know that God knows the very secret of our case.
He lets us see the feeling of Jesus in entering into it, and in the expression of His thoughts and feelings while in this place; so we come to see how He entered into all our sorrows. And this is the channel for all His love to flow into our souls. J. N. Darby - The Lord is Near
We think of Thy devotion, Thy blest obedience rare;
Thy holy, deep emotion, Thy grief that none could share. G. A. Lucas
N.J. Hiebert - 20488
November 10
THE OLD TESTAMENT PREPARES FOR THE NEW TESTAMENT
O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself." Luke 24:25-27
Yes, we are all "slow of heart to believe." If God had wished, He could have made no preparation before sending His Son into the world to be the Redeemer. To see how God did prepare for the advent of His Son was a very great help to me when I was struggling to get a firm foundation for my soul.
How patient God is! How considerate! Do you remember what the Lord said to the two doubting disciples as they took that never-to-be-forgotten journey to Emmaus. They were dubious of His divine mission. They did not know of His resurrection, and "their eyes were holden" (v.16) as He walked by their side.
It is a very big thing indeed that we are called upon to believe in the Scriptures. First, that the record is inspired. Second, that Jesus is the Son of God; Who became man, dying on the cross to be the world's Redeemer, and that He is risen from the dead, and ascended to glory, and coming again to reign over the earth.
I am profoundly thankful for the patience of God in teaching us these wonderful things. For about four thousand years He was patiently preparing the minds of men to receive the revelation of Himself in Christ, and the necessity and meaning of Christ's sacrificial death on the cross of Calvary.
Why I Believe the Bible - A. J. Pollock
N.J. Hiebert - 20489
November 11
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1
Bible biographies are intensely human. There, you have set before you, not flawless saints, not sinners without a redeeming quality, but creatures of clay like ourselves. It tells of men who could scale the highest heights of devotional aspiration on the one hand but who, at other times, fell into the depths of sin.
For this reason we shall find, as we examine them, warnings as well as example, admonition as well as instruction.
- Thus we have the story of the duplicity of the upright man, Abraham;
- Of the weakness of the mot powerful man, Samson;
- Of the cowardice of the bravest man, Elijah;
- Of the sensuality of the most devoted man, David;
- Of the folly of the wisest man, Solomon;
- Of the vindictiveness of the loving-hearted man, John;
- And of the instability of the rock-like man, Peter.
Verily, Scripture is Nature's sternest painter, and its best.
The Wonderful Word - George Henderson
N.J.Hiebert - 20490
November 12
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