Desires Of The Righteous Granted

Pro 10:24  The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted.

Because it is a righteous desire it is safe for God to grant it. 

It would be neither good for the man himself, nor for society at large, that such a promise should be made to the unrighteous.

Let us keep the LORD's commands, and He will rightfully have respect to our desires.

When righteous men are left to desire unrighteous desires, they will not be granted to them.

But then these are not their real desires; they are their wanderings or blunders, and it is well that they should be refused.

Their gracious desires shall come before the LORD, and He will not say them nay.

Does the LORD deny us our requests for a time? 

Let the promise for today encourage us to ask again.

Has He denied us altogether? 

We will thank Him still, for it always was our desire that He should deny us if He judged a denial to be best.

As to some things, we ask very boldly. Our chief desires are for holiness, usefulness, likeness to Christ, preparedness for heaven. 

These are the desires of grace rather than of nature -- the desires of the righteous man rather than of the mere man. 

God will not stint us in these things but will do for us exceeding abundantly. 

Delight thy self also in the LORD, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

This day, my soul, ask largely!  

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Cross Seeks To Remove Whatever Serves Satan

Why has the Holy Spirit come? Oh! Not that we might have blessings and what we call power and influence and opportunity and service.

No, He has come as Representative and Agent of the Christ, who has secured the rights of God in His own Person. 

To bring about the recognition and realization of the rights in this earth, that is the work of the Holy Spirit.

The second thing that comes out of this is that the Holy Spirit always demands the ground of the Cross for His activity, if the glory of God is in view.

But then, the Cross registers the removal of all that serves Satan. 

What was it that served Satan in Cain? Covetousness, personal ambition, jealousy, pride!

That worked itself out in the murder of Abel which was an expression of hatred for God. 

What was it that served Satan in Balaam? Greed, covetousness, world-gain. 

The Cross registers the removal by destruction of all that served Satan, and for us it is gathered up in one word: SELF.

What a wide word that is - what a comprehensive word!

The stronger term is “the flesh”.

Some people do not know what you mean when you talk about the “flesh”. 

They begin to think of positive vices and iniquities of deep dye. 

But the “flesh” is only another term for “self”. 

Self is a very subtle thing, a many-sided thing.

It includes self-interest, self-glory, self-preservation, self-realization, self-advancement...

All those considerations of influence and good-standing and prestige and following, and being understood and spoken well of. 

The phases of “self” are legion, and they, every one of them, serve Satan.

Moreover, they serve him in this other sense, that they divide the rights of God and usurp the place of God:

And therefore, wherever there is the slightest suggestion or insinuation of self, the Glory of God is obscured and the Cross has got to be applied there.

The Cross is not applied in the work of God just because God wants us out of it for the sake of having us out of it, to humble, to crush, to break us; no, it has this great end in view – HIS GLORY. 

The Cross, dear friend, means utter devotion to God’s glory.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Without Fear Of Man

Then we can have no reason to be afraid of them.

This would show a mean spirit and be a token of unbelief rather than of faith.

God can make us so like Himself that men shall be forced to see that we rightly bear His name and truly belong to the holy Jehovah. 

Oh, that we may obtain this grace which the LORD waits to bestow!

Be assured that ungodly men have a fear of true saints.

They hate them, but they also fear them. 

Haman trembled because of Mordecai, even when he sought the good man's destruction.

In fact, their hate often arises out of a dread which they are too proud to confess. 

Let us pursue the path of truth and uprightness without the slightest tremor. 

Fear is not for us but for those who do ill and fight against the LORD of hosts. 

If indeed the name of the eternal God is named upon us, we are secure; for, as of old, a Roman had but to say Romanus sum, I am a Roman, and he could claim the protection of all the legions of the vast empire; 

So every one who is a man of God has omnipotence as his guardian, and God will sooner empty heaven of angels than leave a saint without defense.

Be braver than lions for the right, for God is with you.

~C.H. Spurgeon~

Sensitive To Warning

Many despise warning and perish.

Happy is he who trembles at the Word of God. 

Josiah did so, and he was spared the sight of the evil which the LORD determined to send upon Judah because of her great sins.

Have you this tenderness?

Do you practice this self-humiliation?

Then you also shall be spared in the evil day.

God sets a mark upon the men that sigh and cry because of the sin of the times. 

The destroying angel is commanded to keep his sword in its sheath till the elect of God are sheltered: 

These are best known by their godly fear and their trembling at the Word of the LORD.

Are the times threatening? 

Does infidelity advance with great strides, and do you dread national chastisement upon this polluted nation?

Well you may. 

Yet rest in this promise: "Thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace: and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which l will bring upon this place." 

Better still, the LORD Himself may come, and then the days of our mourning shall be ended. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

Do Not Yield To Discouragement

Exo 16:10  And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.

You should get into the habit of looking for the silver lining of storm clouds. 

And once you have found it, continue to focus on it rather than the dark gray of the center.

Do not yield to discouragement no matter how severely stressed or surrounded by problems you may be. 

A discouraged soul is in a helpless state, being neither able to “stand against the devil’s schemes” (Eph. 6:11) himself nor able to prevail in prayer for others.

Flee every symptom of the deadly foe of discouragement as you would run from a snake.

Never be slow to turn your back on it, unless you desire to eat the dust of bitter defeat.
 
Search for specific promises of God,saying aloud of each one, “This promise is mine.”

Then if you still experience feelings of doubt and discouragement, pour your heart out to God, asking Him to rebuke the Adversary who is so mercilessly harassing you.
 
The very instant you wholeheartedly turn away from every symptom of discouragement and lack of trust, the blessed Holy Spirit will reawaken your faith and breathe God’s divine strength into your soul.

Initially you may be unaware that this is happening, but as you determine to uncompromisingly shun every attack of even the tendency toward doubt and depression, you will quickly see the powers of darkness being turned back.
 
Oh, if only our eyes could see the mighty armies of strength and power that are always behind our turning away from the hosts of darkness toward God, there would be no attention given to the efforts of our cunning Foe to distress, depress, or discourage us!

All the miraculous attributes of the Godhead are marshaled on the side of even the weakest believer who, in the name of Christ and in simple, childlike trust, yields himself to God and turns to Him for help and guidance. 

~Selected~
 
One day in autumn, while on the open prairie, I saw an eagle mortally wounded by a rifle shot.

With his eyes still gleaming like small circles of light, he slowly turned his head, giving one last searching and longing look toward the sky.

He had often swept those starry spaces with his wonderful wings.

The beautiful sky was the home of his heart. It was the eagle’s domain.
 
It was there he had displayed his splendid strength a thousand times.

In those lofty heights, he had played with the lightning and raced the wind.

And now, far below his home, the eagle lay dying. 

He faced death because - just once he forgot and flew too low.
 
My soul is that eagle. 

This is not its home.

It must never lose its skyward look.

I must keep faith, I must keep hope, I must keep courage, I must keep Christ. 

It would be better to crawl immediately from the battlefield than to not be brave.

There is no time for my soul to retreat.

Keep your skyward look,my soul; keep your skyward look!
 
Keep looking up - The waves that roar around your feet, Jehovah-Jireh will defeat When looking up.

Keep looking up Though darkness seems to wrap your soul;
 
The Light of Light will fill your soul When looking up.
 
Keep looking up When worn, distracted with the fight;
 
Your Captain gives you conquering might When you look up.

Facts Vs. Feelings

2Co 5:7  (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
     
By faith, not appearance; God never wants us to look at our feelings. 

Self may want us to; and Satan may want us to.

But God wants us to face facts, not feelings; the facts of Christ and of His finished and perfect work for us.

When we face these precious facts, and believe them because God says they are facts, God will take care of our feelings.
     
God never gives feeling to enable us to trust Him; 

God never gives feeling to encourage us to trust Him; 

God never gives feeling to show that we have already and utterly trusted Him.
     
God gives feeling only when He sees that we trust Him apart from all feeling, resting on His own Word, and on His own faithfulness to His promise.
     
Never until then can the feeling (which is from God) possibly come;

And God will give the feeling in such a measure and at such a time as His love sees best for the individual case.
     
We must choose between facing toward our feelings and facing toward God's facts. 

Our feelings may be as uncertain as the sea or the shifting sands.

God's facts are as certain as the Rock of Ages, even Christ Himself, who is the same yesterday, today and forever.

When darkness veils His lovely face  I rest on His unchanging grace;

In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil.

Belief, Not Understanding

John 11:40  Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
     
Mary and Martha could not understand what their Lord was doing.

Both of them said to Him, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died."

Back of it all, we seem to read their thought: "Lord, we do not understand why you have stayed away so long.

We do not understand how you could let death come to the man whom you loved.

We do not understand how you could let sorrow and suffering ravage our lives when your presence might have stayed it all.

Why did you not come?

It is too late now, for already he has been dead four days!

And to it all Jesus had but one great truth: "You may not understand; but I tell you if you believe, you will see."

Abraham could not understand why God should ask the sacrifice of the boy; but he trusted.

And he saw the glory of God in his restoration to his love.

Moses could not understand why God should keep him forty years in the wilderness, but he trusted; and he saw when God called him to lead forth Israel from bondage.
     
Joseph could not understand the cruelty of his brethren, the false witness of a perfidious woman, and the long years of an unjust imprisonment; but he trusted, and he saw at last the glory of God in it all.
     
Jacob could not understand the strange providence which permitted the same Joseph to be torn from his father's love, but he saw the glory of God when he looked into the face of that same Joseph as the viceroy of a great king, and the preserver of his own life and the lives of a great nation.
     
And so, perhaps in your life. You say, "I do not understand why God let my dear one be taken.

I do not understand why affliction has been permitted to smite me.

I do not understand the devious paths by which the Lord is leading me.

I do not understand why plans and purposes that seemed good to my eyes should be baffled.

I do not understand why blessings I so much need are so long delayed.
     
Friend, you do not have to understand all God's ways with you. 

God does not expect you to understand them. 

You do not expect your child to understand, only believe.

Some day you will see the glory of God in the things which you do not understand

~J. H. M.~
     
If we could push ajar the gates of life, And stand within, and all God's working see, We might interpret all this doubt and strife, And for each mystery could find a key.
     
But not today.

Then be content, poor heart; God's plans, like lilies pure and white, unfold.

We must not tear the close-shut leaves apart - Time will reveal the calyxes of gold.
     
And if, through patient toil, we reach the land Where tired feet, with sandals loosed, may rest, When we shall clearly know and understand, I think that we shall say, 'God knew best.'

Fear To Fear

Whenever fear comes in and makes us falter, we are in danger of falling into sin.

Conceit is to be dreaded, but so is cowardice. "Dare to be a Daniel." 

Our great Captain should be served by brave soldiers.

What a reason for bravery is here! God is with those who are with Him. 

God will never be away when the hour of struggle comes.

Do they threaten you? 

Who are you that you should be afraid of a man that shall die? 

Will you lose your situation?

Your God whom you serve will find bread and water for His servants.

Can you not trust Him? 

Do they pour ridicule upon you? 

Will this break your bones or your heart? 

Bear it for Christ's sake, and even rejoice because of it.

God is with the true, the just, the holy, to deliver them; and He will deliver you.

Remember how Daniel came out of the lions' den and the three holy children out of the furnace. 

Yours is not so desperate a case as theirs; but if it were, the LORD would bear you through and make you more than a conqueror.

Fear to fear. 

Be afraid to be afraid. 

Your worst enemy is within your own bosom.

Get to your knees and cry for help, and then rise up saying, "I will trust, and not be afraid."

~Charles Spurgeon~

Christ's Intolerance Is Based On His Love

The intolerance of Jesus is very signally the intolerance of love. 

Love beareth all things - all things except one, and that is the harm or hurt of the beloved. 

Here is a little child out in the streets, ragged and shoeless in the raw March weather.

Let it stay out till midnight, no one complains at home.

Let it use the foulest of language, no one corrects it.

Poor little waif, in whom all things are tolerated, and tolerated just because no one loves it!

What kind of mother has that little child? What kind of father has that little child?

You know them in the street, swollen and coarse, reeking with all the vileness of the city.

They tolerate everything because they do not love; when love steps in, that toleration ceases. 

Now we all know that when our Saviour came, He came at the bidding and in the power of love; love wonderful, love that endured the worst, love that went up to Calvary to die.

And just because that love was so intense, and burned with the ardor of the heart of God, things that had been tolerable once were found to be intolerable now.

That is the secret of the Gospel's sternness and of its passionate protest against sin. 

That is why age after age it clears the issues, and says, "He that is not with me is against me."

The love that beareth all things cannot bear that hurt or harm should rest on the beloved. 

Christ is intolerant because He loves.

~George H. Morrison~

Walk In Light

John 12:46  I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.

This world is dark as midnight; Jesus has come that by faith we may have light and may no longer sit in the gloom which covers all the rest of mankind.

Whosoever is a very wide term: it means you and me.

If we trust in Jesus we shall no more sit in the dark shadow of death but shall enter into the warm light of a day which shall never end.

Why do we not come out into the light at once?

A cloud may sometimes hover over us, but we shall not abide in darkness if we believe in Jesus. 

He has come to give us broad daylight. Shall He come in vain.' 

If we have faith we have the privilege of sunlight: let us enjoy it. 

From the night of natural depravity, of ignorance, of doubt, of despair, of sin, of dread, Jesus has come to set us free; and all believers shall know that He no more comes in vain than the sun rises and fails to scatter his heat and light.

Shake off thy depression, dear brother.

Abide not in the dark, but abide in the light. 

In Jesus is thy hope, thy joy, thy heaven, Look to Him, to Him only, and thou shalt rejoice as the birds rejoice at sunrise and as the angels rejoice before the throne.

 

~C.H. Spurgeon~

It Is Better To Trust In The LORD Than To Put Confidence In Man

Doubtless the reader has been tried with the temptation to rely upon the things which are seen, instead of resting alone upon the invisible God.

Christians often look to man for help and counsel, and mar the noble simplicity of their reliance upon their God. 

Does this evening’s portion meet the eye of a child of God anxious about temporals, then would we reason with him awhile.

You trust in Jesus, and only in Jesus, for your salvation, then why are you troubled?

Because of my great care.

Is it not written, “Cast thy burden upon the Lord”? 

Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication make known your wants unto God.

Cannot you trust God for temporals? 

Ah! I wish I could.

If you cannot trust God for temporals, how dare you trust him for spirituals?

Can you trust him for your soul’s redemption, and not rely upon him for a few lesser mercies?

Is not God enough for thy need, or is his all-sufficiency too narrow for thy wants? 

Dost thou want another eye beside that of him who sees every secret thing?

Is his heart faint? Is his arm weary?
 
If so, seek another God; but if he be infinite, omnipotent, faithful, true, and all-wise, why gaddest thou abroad so much to seek another confidence? 

Why dost thou rake the earth to find another foundation, when this is strong enough to bear all the weight which thou canst ever build thereon?

Christian, mix not only thy wine with water, do not alloy thy gold of faith with the dross of human confidence.

Wait thou only upon God, and let thine expectation be from him.

Covet not Jonah’s gourd, but rest in Jonah’s God.

Let the sandy foundations of terrestrial trust be the choice of fools, but do thou, like one who foresees the storm, build for thyself an abiding place upon the Rock of Ages.

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Egyptions Are Dead Upon The Shore

Exo 14:30  Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.

What a relief that morning brought from the anxieties of the previous night!

Then, as they lifted up their eyes, they saw Pharaoh and the dreaded Egyptian taskmaster in full pursuit; now they beheld the seashore strewn with their bodies, stark and cold.

They would never see them again, nor hear the crack of their whips.

So in life we are permitted to see the dreaded temptations and evils of earlier days suddenly deprived of all power to hurt us. 

The Egyptians are dead upon the shore; and we see the great work of the Lord. 

Let us take comfort in this.

In the pressure of trial...You are suffering keenly; yet remember that no trial is allowed to come from any source in which there is not a Divine meaning.

Nothing can enter your life, of which God is not cognizant, and which He does not permit. 

Though the pressure of your trial is almost unbearable, you will one day see your Egyptians dead.

Amid the temptations of the great adversary of souls. - They may seem at this moment more than you can bear; 

But God is about to deliver you.

He can so absolutely free you from the habits of self-indulgence which you have contracted...

And from the perpetual yielding to temptation to which you have been prone, that some day you will look with amazement and thankfulness on these things, as Egyptians dead on the seashore.

So also in the presence of death. - Many believers dread, not the after-death, but the act of dying.

But as the morning of eternity breaks, they will awake with songs of joy to see death and the grave and all the evils that they dreaded, like Egyptians, strewn on the shores of the sea of glass.

~F. B. Myer~

Unstaggering Trustfulness

Psalm 112:7  He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD. 

Suspense is dreadful. When we have no news from home, we are apt to grow anxious, and we cannot be persuaded that "no news is good news." 

Faith is the cure for this condition of sadness;

The LORD by His Spirit settles the mind in holy serenity, and all fear is gone as to the future as well as the present.

The fixedness of heart spoken of by the psalmist is to be diligently sought after. 

It is not believing this or that promise of the LORD, but the general condition of unstaggering trustfulness in our God... 

The confidence which we have in Him that He will neither do us ill Himself nor suffer anyone else to harm us. 

This constant confidence meets the unknown as well as the known of life. 

Let the morrow be what it may, our God is the God of tomorrow. 

Whatever events may have happened, which to us are unknown, our Jehovah is God of the unknown as well as of the known. 

We are determined to trust the LORD, come what may. 

If the very worst should happen, our God is still the greatest and best.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Grow In The Gloom

In one of my garden books there is a chapter with a very interesting heading, "Flowers that Grow in the Gloom."

It deals with those patches in a garden which never catch the sunlight.

And my guide tells me the sort of flowers which are not afraid of these dingy corners-may rather like them and flourish in them.

And there are similar things in the world of the spirit.

They come out when material circumstances become stern and severe.

They grow in the gloom.

How can we otherwise explain some of the experiences of the Apostle Paul ?

Here he is in captivity at Rome. The supreme mission of his life appears to be broken. 

But it is just in this besetting dinginess that flowers begin to show their faces in bright and fascinating glory.

He may have seen them before, growing in the open road, but never as they now appeared in incomparable strength and beauty.

Words of promise opened out their treasures as he had never seen them before.

Among those treasures were such wonderful things as the grace of Christ, the love of Christ, the joy and peace of Christ; 

And it seemed as though they needed an "encircling gloom" to draw out their secret and their inner glory.

At any rate the realm of gloom became the home of revelation, and Paul began to realize as never before the range and wealth of his spiritual inheritance.

Who has not known men and women who, when they arrive at seasons of gloom and solitude, put on strength and hopefulness like a robe?

You may imprison such folk where you please; but you shut up their treasure with them.

You cannot shut it out.

You may make their material lot a desert, but "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose."

~Dr. Jowett~

Every flower, even the fairest, has its shadow beneath it as it swings in the sunlight.

Where there is much light there is much shade.