Act 18:10 For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.
So long as the LORD had work for Paul to do in Corinth, the fury of
the mob was restrained.
The Jews opposed themselves and blasphemed; but
they could neither stop the preaching of the gospel nor the conversion
of the hearers.
God has power over the most violent minds.
He makes the
wrath of man to praise Him when it breaks forth, but He still more
displays His goodness when He restrains it;
And He can restrain it.
By
the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone, till thy
people pass over, I LORD.
Do not, therefore, feel any fear of man when you know that you are
doing your duty.
Go straight on, as Jesus would have done, and those who
oppose shall be as a bruised reed and as smoking flax.
Many a time men
have had cause to fear because they were themselves afraid;
But a
dauntless faith in God brushes fear aside like the cobwebs in a giant's
path.
No man can harm us unless the LORD permits.
He who makes the devil
himself to flee at a word can certainly control the devil's agents.
Maybe they are already more afraid of you than you are of them.
Therefore, go forward, and where you looked to meet with foes you will
find friends.
~Charles Spurgeon~
Psa 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Grace is what we need just now, and it is to be had freely.
What can
be freer than a gift?
Today we shall receive sustaining, strengthening,
sanctifying, satisfying grace.
He has given daily grace until now, and
as for the future, that grace is still sufficient.
If we have but little
grace the fault must lie in ourselves; for the LORD is not straitened,
neither is He slow to bestow it in abundance.
We may ask for as much as
we will and never fear a refusal. He giveth liberally and upbraideth
not.
The LORD may not give gold, but He will give grace: He may
not give gain, but He will give grace.
He will certainly send us trial,
but He will give grace in proportion thereto.
We may be called to labor
and to suffer, but with the call there will come all the grace required;
What
an "end" is that in the text -- "and glory!"
We do not need glory yet,
and we are not yet fit for it; but we shall have it in due order.
After
we have eaten the bread of grace, we shall drink the wine of glory.
We
must go through the holy, which is grace, to the holiest of all, which
is glory.
These words and glory are enough to make a man dance for joy.
A
little while - a little while, and then glory forever!
~Charles Spurgeon~
Isa 66:13 As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
A mother's comfort! Ah, this is tenderness itself. How she enters into
her child's grief! How she presses him to her bosom and tries to take
all his sorrow into her own heart!
He can tell her all, and she will
sympathize as nobody else can.
Of all comforters the child loves best
his mother, and even full-grown men have found it so.
Does Jehovah condescend to act the mother's part? This is goodness
indeed.
We readily perceive how He is a father; but will He be as a
mother also?
Does not this invite us to holy familiarity, to unreserved
confidence, to sacred rest?
When God Himself becomes "the Comforter," no
anguish can long abide.
Let us tell out our trouble, even though sobs
and sighs should become our readiest utterance.
He will not despise us
for our tears; our mother did not.
He will consider our weakness as she
did, and He will put away our faults, only in a surer, safer way than
our mother could do.
We will not try to bear our grief alone; that would
be unkind to one so gentle and so kind.
Let us begin the day with our
loving God, and wherefore should we not finish it in the same company?
~Charles Spurgeon~
Obedience brings a blessing on all the provisions which our industry earns for us.
That which comes in and goes out at once, like fruit in the basket which is for immediate use, shall be blest; and that which is laid by with us for a longer season shall equally receive a blessing.
Perhaps ours is a hand-basket portion. We have a little for breakfast and a scanty bite for dinner in a basket when we go out to do our work in the morning.
This is well, for the blessing of God is promised to the basket.
If we live born hand to mouth, getting each day's supply in the day, we are as well off as Israel; for when the LORD entertained His favored people He only gave them a day's manna at a time.
What more did they need? What more do we need?
But if we have a store, how much we need the LORD to bless it!
For there is the care of getting, the care of keeping, the care of managing, the care of using; and, unless the LORD bless it, these cares will eat into our hearts till our goods become our gods and our cares prove cankers.
O LORD, bless our substance. Enable us to use it for Thy glory, Help us to keep worldly things in their proper places, and never may our savings endanger the saving of our souls.
~Charles Spurgeon~
Mat 10:25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?
We
ought, for instance, to remember this great saying in the frequent
hours when we are weary.
Many of His servants have times of great
exhaustion in the work and welfare of the Kingdom.
They would give much
to be always at their best, and perhaps they read of others who are so.
There are those who claim never to have known weariness since they gave
themselves up to Him in full surrender.
But the Lord Himself, who
yielded up His life in a way that no one else has ever paralleled, never
made any such claim as that.
He was so weary once that He fell fast
asleep, with His head on the wooden pillow of a fishing boat.
He was so
weary once, traveling to Calvary, that His cross was transferred to
Simon of Cyrene.
And all this is written on the page of Scripture, not
only that we may see the kind of man He was, but that those who love
Him, and who seek to follow Him, might be delivered from the lure of
false ideals.
It would be a wonderful thing always to feel radiant, and
equal to every task the day may bring.
Never to grow weary in our
service would be to taste the joy of service in eternity.
But our Master
knew not that experience.
There were hours when He was utterly
exhausted.
And it is enough, He tells us, that we be like Him.
~George H. Morrison~
Possibly this text may not apply to one in a thousand of the readers of this little book of promises; but the LORD cheers that one in such words as these.
Let us pray for all such as are cast out wrongfully born the society which they love. May the LORD appear to their joy!
The text applies to truly gracious men who tremble at the word of the LORD.
These were hated of their brethren and at length cast out because of their fidelity and their holiness.
This must have been very bitter to them; and all the more so because their casting out was done in the name of religion, and professedly with the view of glorifying God.
How much is done for the devil in the name of God!
The use of the name of Jehovah to add venom to the bite of the old serpent is an instance of his subtlety.
The appearing of the LORD for them is the hope of His persecuted people.
He appears as the advocate and defender of His elect; and when He does so it means a clear deliverance for the God-fearing and shame for their oppressors.
O LORD, fulfill this word to those whom men are deriding!
~Charles Spurgeon~
