Faith~Only Believe!

Where Faith begins, anxiety ends; Where anxiety begins, Faith ends.

Ponder these words of the LORD Jesus,"Only believe."

As long as we are able to TRUST in GOD, holding fast in heart, that he is able and willing to help those who rest on the LORD Jesus for salvation, in all matters which are for His glory and their good, the heart remains calm and peaceful.

It is only when we practically let go faith in His power or His love, that we lose our peace and become troubled.

This very day I am in great trial in connection with the work in which I am engaged; yet my soul was calmed and quieted by the remembrance of GOD'S power and love; and I said to myself this morning:

As David encouraged himself in Jehovah his GOD, when he returned to Ziklag, so will I encourage myself in GOD;"

And the result was peace of soul...It is the very time for faith to work, when sight ceases.

The greater the difficulties, the easier for faith.

As long as there remain certain natural prospects, faith does not get on even as easily (if I may say so), as when all natural prospects fail.

~George Mueller~

Travail Reveals “Heart” or “Hollow”

The LORD allows travail - indeed, He not only allows it, but appoints it - in order to find out whether really there is a heart-relationship to His things.

A few months ago, I found a tree lying at the side of the road, not far from my house.

The day before, it had been upright and growing, and looking like all the other trees.

It had all the leaves of profession, all the proximity of association with other trees, and outwardly it could pass off as being the real thing.

But a storm came, and now it was lying there; and when I looked at it I found that it had no heart: it was a completely hollow thing - there was only a framework.

That is a parable. That is what is happening, and what is going to happen, and what GOD will cause to happen everywhere.

The travail will come...the suffering, persecution, trials, whatever it may be; and, whatever may be its form, whether it be within or without, it is going to come in order to discover whether there is a heart there for GOD...

Or whether, after all, it is hollow, it is profession, it is simply association on the outside, and not real on the inside.

GOD must expose what is not real, and GOD must test everything to prove it.

But what had happened to the other trees... those that stood near the fallen one?

Well, they survived the storm, and they are still standing.

But is that all? Not a bit of it! The next storm that comes will probably find that it has got a little harder work to do than last time to move these.

Those roots have felt the strain and they have reached down and taken a tighter hold.

They have got a grip on things; they have realized that storms are realities, and that it is a matter of life and death as to whether they stand.

It is so easy, is it not, when things get difficult, to walk out, give up?

How often we pray that the LORD will protect from difficulties and troubles! - but the LORD never answers prayers like that.

These things come to us personally, and they come to us in our little companies...storms, shaking storms, things calculated to devastate and scatter, destroy and finish what is there... and the LORD does not protect.

But what is He doing? On the one side He is finding out whether there is a heart for Him, and whether there is reality in every member, or whether it is only outward show and hollow inside.

On the other hand, He is seeking to bring out the expression of preciousness: that this thing is too precious to let go easily; it means far too much for us to abandon at the first onset of adversity and trial.

That is the meaning of it, and it explains very much, does it not?

~T. Austin Sparks~

Go Forward

Joshua 3:13  And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap.

The people were not to wait in their camps until the way was opened, they were to walk by faith.

They were to break camp, pack up their goods, form in line to march, and move down to the very banks before the river would be opened.

If they had come down to the edge of the river and then had stopped for the stream to divide before they stepped into it, they would have waited in vain.

They must take one step into the water before the river would be cut off.

We must learn to take God at His Word, and go straight on in duty, although we see no way in which we can go forward.

The reason we are so often balked by difficulties is that we expect to see them removed before we try to pass through them. 

If we would move straight on in faith, the path would be opened for us.

We stand still, waiting for the obstacle to be removed, when we ought to go forward as if there were no obstacles.

~Evening Thoughts~

What a lesson Columbus gave to the world of perseverance in the face of tremendous difficulties!

Behind him lay the gray Azores, Behind the gates of Hercules; Before him not the ghost of shores, Before him only shoreless seas.

The good Mate said: "Now we must pray, For lo! the very stars are gone.

Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?" "Why, say, 'Sail on! sail on! and on!'"

My men grow mutinous day by day; My men grow ghastly wan and weak!

The stout Mate thought of home; a spray Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek.

What shall I say, brave Admiral, say, If we sight naught but seas at dawn?

Why, you shall say at break of day, 'Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!'"

They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the Mate: This mad sea shows its teeth tonight.

He curls his lip, he lies in wait, With lifted teeth, as if to bite!

Brave Admiral, say but one good word; What shall we do when hope is gone?

The words leapt like a leaping sword: "Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!"

Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck And peered through darkness.

Ah! that night Of all dark nights! And then a speck-A light! A light! A light! A light!

It grew, a starlit flag unfurled! It grew to be Time's burst of dawn.

He gained a world; he gave that world its grandest lesson: "On! sail on!"

~Joaquin Miller~

Faith that goes forward triumphs.

Cast Down

Psa 43:5  Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.  

Is there ever any ground to be cast down? There are two reasons, but only two.

If we are as yet unconverted, we have ground to be cast down; or if we have been converted and live in sin, then we are rightly cast down.

But except for these two things there is no ground to be cast down, for all else may be brought before GOD in prayer with supplication and thanksgiving.

And regarding all our necessities, all our difficulties, all our trials, we may exercise faith in the power of GOD, and in the love of GOD.

Hope thou in GOD.  Oh, remember this: There is never a time when we may not hope in GOD. 

Whatever our necessities, however great our difficulties, and though to all appearance help is impossible, yet our business is to hope in GOD, and it will be found that it is not in vain.

In the LORD'S own time help will come.

Oh, the hundreds, yea, the thousands of times that I have found it thus within the past seventy years and four months!

When it seemed impossible that help could come, help did come; for GOD has His own resources. He is not confined. 

In ten thousand different ways, and at ten thousand different times GOD may help us.

Our business is to spread our cases before the LORD, in childlike simplicity to pour out all our heart before GOD, saying,

I do not deserve that Thou shouldst hear me and answer my requests, but for the sake of my precious LORD Jesus; for His sake answer my prayer, and give me grace quietly to wait till it please Thee to answer my prayer.

For I believe Thou wilt do it in Thine own time and way.

For I shall yet praise him. More prayer, more exercise of faith, more patient waiting, and the result will be blessing, abundant blessing.

Thus I have found it many hundreds of times, and therefore I continually say to myself, "Hope thou in GOD."

~George Mueller~

Division...Who's Work Is It?

2Co 2:10  To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;

2Co 2:11  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

Perhaps one of the most significant things to any who are “not ignorant of his ("Satan’s devices”) is that there never has been a specially spiritual movement of GOD in the earth, calculated to serve Him in a particularly useful way, but what Satan’s animosity thereto has been manifested along the line of division, schism, discord, separation, and a breaking down of fellowship.
 
And how often has the real sting and stigma been modified by a feigning love unbroken and preserved, when the divided parties should have no association with each other in the things of GOD.

Love, let us again say emphatically, is incumbent upon the LORD'S people toward “all men,” whether of the “household” or otherwise (Gal. 6:10), but fellowship is something more.
 
It is the most spiritual things which suffer the greatest shocks in this matter, and again we say this carries its own satanic significance.

The methods of the enemy are numberless, the “wiles” unfathomable by human wit.

A suggestion of suspicion, if it finds lodgment, is enough to completely paralyze the work of GOD and spiritual progress.

Have a doubt and you are done.

There never was a time when positive spiritual work was more jeopardized by suspicion than now.

It would seem that hell is largely employed in issuing forth smoke, clouds, vapors, mists of suspicion, question, reservation, in order to infect with uncertainty, mystification, prejudice, fear, discrediting, distrust, aloofness.

It is in the “heavenlies” that this is most registered; that is, the higher ranges of spiritual things.

It is an atmosphere, and it is everywhere. You sense it wherever you go.

In some places it is stifling-there is no clear breath of the Spirit, and a word of Life is almost choked back.

Of course, this is no new thing, although now so intensified. The New Testament is full of it.

The LORD Jesus met it–not in spiritual people, only in religious people.

John met it. Paul met it in every direction. It was made to circle round his person, his methods, his character, and his message.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Satan's Tools

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,  

There are weights which are not sins in themselves, but which become distractions and stumbling blocks in our Christian progress.

One of the worst of these is despondency. The heavy heart is indeed a weight that will surely drag us down in our holiness and usefulness.

The failure of Israel to enter the land of promise began in murmuring, or, as the text in Numbers literally puts it, "as it were murmured."

Just a faint desire to complain and be discontented. This led on until it blossomed and ripened into rebellion and ruin. 

Let us give ourselves no liberty ever to doubt GOD or His love and faithfulness to us in everything and forever.

We can set our will against doubt just as we do against any other sin; and as we stand firm and refuse to doubt, the Holy Spirit will come to our aid and give us the faith of GOD and crown us with victory.

It is very easy to fall into the habit of doubting, fretting, and wondering if GOD has forsaken us and if after all our hopes are to end in failure.

Let us refuse to be discouraged. Let us refuse to be unhappy.

Let us "count it all joy" when we cannot feel one emotion of happiness. Let us rejoice by faith, by resolution, by reckoning, and we shall surely find that GOD will make the reckoning real.

~Selected~

The devil has two master tricks. One is to get us discouraged; then for a time at least we can be of no service to others, and so are defeated. 

The other is to make us doubt, thus breaking the faith link by which we are bound to our Father. 

Lookout! Do not be tricked either way.

~G.E.M.~

Gladness! I like to cultivate the spirit of gladness! It puts the soul so in tune again, and keeps it in tune, so that Satan is shy of touching it--the chords of the soul become too warm, or too full of heavenly electricity, for his infernal fingers, and he goes off somewhere else!

Satan is always very shy of meddling with me when my heart is full of gladness and joy in the Holy Ghost.

My plan is to shun the spirit of sadness as I would Satan; but, alas! I am not always successful. Like the devil himself it meets me on the highway of usefulness, looks me so fully in my face, till my poor soul changes color!

Sadness discolors everything; it leaves all objects charmless; it involves future prospects in darkness; it deprives the soul of all its aspirations, enchains all its powers, and produces a mental paralysis!

An old believer remarked, that cheerfulness in religion makes all its services come off with delight; and that we are never carried forward so swiftly in the ways of duty as when borne on the wings of delight; adding, that Melancholy clips such wings; or, to alter the figure, takes off our chariot wheels in duty, and makes them, like those of the Egyptians, drag heavily.

Desperate Situations

Act 12:7  And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands.

Act 16:25  And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
 
Act 16:26  And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.

This is GOD'S way. In the darkest hours of the night, His tread draws near across the billows.

As the day of execution is breaking, the angel comes to Peter's cell. When the scaffold for Mordecai is complete, the royal sleeplessness leads to a reaction in favor of the favored race.

Ah, soul, it may have to come to the worst with thee ere thou art delivered; but thou wilt be delivered!

GOD may keep thee waiting, but He will ever be mindful of His covenant, and will appear to fulfill His inviolable Word.

~F. B. Meyer~

There's a simplicity about GOD in working out His plans, yet a resourcefulness equal to any difficulty, and an unswerving faithfulness to His trusting child, and an unforgetting steadiness in holding to His purpose.

Through a fellow-prisoner, then a dream, He lifts Joseph from a prison to a premiership. And the length of stay in the prison prevents dizziness in the premier. It's safe to trust GOD'S methods and to go by His clock.

~S. D. Gordon~

Providence hath a thousand keys to open a thousand sundry doors for the deliverance of His own, when it is even come to a desperate case.

Let us be faithful; and care for our own part which is to suffer for Him, and lay Christ's part on Himself, and leave it there.

~George MacDonald~

Difficulty is the very atmosphere of miracle--it is miracle in its first stage. If it is to be a great miracle, the condition is not difficulty but impossibility.

The clinging hand of His child makes a desperate situation a delight to Him.

Prayer The Time Of Adjustment

Jas 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

There are many ways in our Christian life where we have to get adjusted to the will of the LORD. 

The will of the LORD is not always an easy thing for our flesh; and so very often, we have to have a real battle to get adjusted to the will of the LORD on some particular matter; and prayer is the time in which that adjustment has to be done.

It is just possible that some of us are having a battle over the will of GOD on something. Well, this is the time to get through with that issue.

Our prayer times give us the great opportunity of getting right into line with the will of GOD on all matters....

True prayer is the prayer of confession and humiliation!

True prayer is the time of absolute committal and surrender and submission to the LORD!

True prayer is the time for getting right into line with the will of GOD on all matters!

Now these three things, we could call negative things. Of course they are not negative when we have to face them, they are very positive matters.

But when we come to the fourth thing, we move over a bit to another side; and I am sure that this first time of prayer in the case of Paul was a time of deep worship.

What does worship come out from? What is it that leads us to worship? What is the true nature and spirit of worship?

Is it not a deep unspeakable gratitude for the grace of GOD?

We only worship in the measure in which we appreciate the grace of GOD....

You remember that a favorite way to Paul of opening his letters was with three words: "Grace, mercy, and peace, be unto you."

That was the foundation of everything for Paul.

Wonderful grace, grace that could never be explained; boundless mercy; and peace with GOD.

That was surely the consciousness of this man during his prayer.

It was the prayer of deep worship for the grace of GOD, and that must have a place in all true prayer.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Mixed Among The People

Hos 7:8  Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

It is a great thing to learn to take GOD first, and then He can afford to give us everything else, without the fear of its hurting us.

As long as you want anything very much, especially more than you want GOD, it is an idol.

But when you become satisfied with GOD, everything else so loses its charm that He can give it to you without harm, and then you can take just as much as you choose, and use it for His glory.

There is no harm whatever in having money, houses, lands, friends and dearest children, if you do not value these things for themselves.

If you have been separated from them in spirit, and become satisfied with GOD Himself, then they will become to you channels to be filled with GOD to bring Him nearer to you.

Then every little lamb around your household will be a tender cord to bind you to the Shepherd's heart. 

Then every affection will be a little golden cup filled with the wine of His love. 

Then every bank, stock and investment will be but a channel through which you can pour out His benevolence and extend His gifts.

~A. B. Simpson~

Thou Hast Disobeyed The Mouth Of The LORD

1Ki 13:21  And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God commanded thee,
 
1Ki 13:22  But camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the LORD did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcass shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.

WE are inclined at first sight to pity this unknown prophet, and to justify his return; but as we look closer into the story, we not only discover the reason for the severe penalty that overtook him, but we are warned lest we make a similar mistake.

When we have received a direct command fresh from the lips of Christ, we must act on it, and not be turned aside by a different suggestion, made to us through the lips of professing Christians. 

GOD does not vacillate or alter in the thing which proceeds from his mouth.

When we know we are in the line of his purpose, we must not allow ourselves to be diverted by any appeal or threat, from whomsoever it may emanate. 

Deal with GOD at first hand.

The rule for determining the true worth of the advice which our friends proffer us, is to ask, first, whether it conflicts with our own deep seated conviction of GOD'S will; and, secondly, whether it tends to the ease and satisfaction of the flesh, as the old prophet's suggestion certainly did. 

Beware of any one who allures you with the bread and water that are to break your fast.

That bait is likely enough to disturb the balance of your judgment.

When a voice says spare thyself, be on the alert; it savors the things that be of man, not of those that be of GOD.
     
Learn to deal with GOD at first hand. Do not run hither and thither to human teachers, or to the Church.

Be still before GOD, and what He says in the depths of thy soul, do.

His Holy Spirit shall guide you into all truth; and when once his way has been revealed to thee, go straight on, listening to no other voice, however much it professes Divine inspiration.

~F. B. Meyer~