Be Strong In The LORD

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

The Lord does not put us in glass houses to grow us, to be His trees...

The Lord does not protect us from the storms, the adversities... 

He exposes us to the bitter winds and the scorching suns of adversity and trial. 

The Lord is working in us that which is according to His own Nature...

Eternity, the enduring, the everlasting God...

That which will not be easily or hardly carried away. 

He is putting substance in you. 

Oh, today we fear that the appeal to become Christians is so often in terms of having an easy or a good time...

Being happy and enjoying yourself...

Well, thank God for ALL divine joy, but this is true to the House, to the City, that the first thing the Lord is working toward and seeking to work into His people is that substantial, steadfast, enduring faithfulness that is according to His own nature. 

Substantial! Oh for substantial Christians that don’t need coddling and nursing and running after all the time; being pandered to to get them to go on or stand up.

Men and women like cedars of Lebanon; like the hewn stones, weighty, accountable, and responsible to carry weight...

And all that is meant by strength.

I can only remind you again of what a large place that has in the Word of God...

Be strong, be strong in the Lord in the strength of His might...

Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Think again. 

Want to understand why the winds are allowed to blow so fiercely...the storms?

To get us away from that natural, easy-going-ness or cheapness, lightness, frivolousness and to make us people of weight. 

Strength through testing, through adversity...

Strength to endure throughout all ages. 

There is much which is going to be carried away in the last great testing...

And if, therefore, trial and adversity is the only way to deepen us...

To put caliber into us...

I suppose we must expect more of it as the time shortens.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

No Need To Stint

The book of Proverbs is also a book of promises.

Promises ought to be proverbs among the people of God.

This is a very remarkable one.

We are accustomed to think of our good things as in reversion...

But here we are told that we shall have them in possession.

Not all the malice and cunning of our enemies can work our destruction...

They shall fall into the pit which they have digged.

Our inheritance is so entailed upon us that we shall not be kept out of it...

Nor so turned out of the way as to miss it.

But what have we now?

We have a quiet conscience through the precious blood of Jesus. 

We have the love of God set upon us beyond all change.

We have power with God in prayer in all time of need.

We have the providence of God to watch over us...

The angels of God to minister to us...

And, above all, the Spirit of God to dwell in us.

In fact, all things are ours.

Whether things present or things to come: all are yours.

Jesus is ours.

Yea, the divine Trinity in unity is ours.

Hallelujah.

Let us not pine and whine and stint and slave, since we have good things in possession.

Let us live on our God and rejoice in Him all the day.

Help us, 0 Holy Ghost!

~Charles Spurgeon~

Faith Is Given To Guard Life In Everything; Not From Everything

Eph 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

But if faith be a protecting shield, what then of the apostle's own experience? 

So far from being defended from life's ills, he knew them all in an abounding measure. 

He was not protected from cold or heat or hunger, nor from shipwreck, nor from the hand of robbers (2Co 11:1-33). 

He was not protected from bodily infirmity, for he suffered from his lacerating thorn (2Co 12:1-21). 

Everything that makes life bitter was mingled in the cup of the apostle, and yet he dares to speak of faith's protection. 

I think there are many who have still to learn that faith was never intended for exemption. 

Faith is not given to guard the life from anything; it is given to guard the life in everything. 

It empowers one to bear, and to bear cheerfully, what otherwise would break the heart and darken the loving ordering of God. 

To pass through the very worst that life can bring, undismayed in soul, and unembittered; 

To tread the darkest mile and sing in it; never to lose heart, or hope, or love; 

That is what faith achieved for the apostle and can achieve for everyone of us, and that is the shielding power of faith. 

So was it with our blessed Lord. When He came here, He was offered no exemption. 

He was a man of sorrows, and He suffered, and He was tempted in all points like as we are. 

Yet to the end, in a faith that never faltered, He was loving, tranquil, and forgiving and under the cross spoke about His peace. 

~George H. Morrison~

You Have Been Long A-Gathering Rust!

Psalm 39:9  I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.

Oh! but my afflictions are greater than other men's afflictions are!
 

Oh! there is no affliction like my affliction! How can I not murmur?

It may be that your sins are greater than other men's sins.

If you have sinned against...more light, more love, more mercies, more promises, than others...then it is no wonder if your afflictions are greater than others!
 

If this is your case, then you have more cause to be mute than to murmur! 

It may be that the Lord sees that it is very needful that your afflictions should be greater than others.

It may be that your heart is harder and stouter than other men's hearts...

Or prouder than other men's hearts...

Or more impure than other men's hearts...

Or more carnal than other men's hearts...

Or more selfish and worldly than other men's hearts...

Or more deceitful and hypocritical than other men's hearts...

Or more cold and careless than other men's hearts...

Or more formal and lukewarm than other men's hearts.

Now, if this is your case, certainly God sees it very necessary, for the breaking of your hard heart...

And the humbling of your proud heart...

And the cleansing of your foul heart...

And the spiritualizing of your carnal heart, etc...

That your afflictions should be greater than others...

And therefore do not murmur! 

Where the disease is strong, the remedy must be strong or else the cure will never be wrought!

God is a wise physician, and He would never give strong medicine if a weaker one could effect the cure!

The more rusty the NAIL is, the oftener we put it into the fire to purify it; and  the more crooked it is, the more blows and the harder blows we give to straighten it. 

You have been long a-gathering rust! Therefore, if God deal thus with you, you have no cause to complain. 

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

~Thomas Brooks~