The Journey Is Too Great For Thee, And I Am Going To Refresh You

1Kings 19:7  And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. 

And what did God do with His tired servant? 

Gave him something good to eat, and put him to sleep. 

Elijah had done splendid work, and had run alongside of the chariot in his excitement, and it had been too much for his physical strength, and the reaction had come on, and he was depressed. 

The physical needed to be cared for. 

What many people want is sleep, and the physical ailment attended to. 

There are grand men and women who get where Elijah was...under the juniper tree! 

And it comes very soothingly to such to hear the words of the Master: “The journey is too great for thee, and I am going to refresh you.” 

Let us not confound physical weariness with spiritual weakness.

I’m too tired to trust and too tired to pray, Said one, as the over-taxed strength gave way...

The one conscious thought by my mind possessed, Is, oh, could I just drop it all and rest.

Will God forgive me, do you suppose, If I go right to sleep as a baby goes, Without an asking if I may,
Without ever trying to trust and pray?

Will God forgive you? why think, dear heart, When language to you was an unknown art, Did a mother deny you needed rest, Or refuse to pillow your head on her breast?

Did she let you want when you could not ask?

Did she set her child an unequal task?

Or did she cradle you in her arms, And then guard your slumber against alarms?

Ah, how quick was her mother love to see, The unconscious yearnings of infancy.

When you’ve grown too tired to trust and pray, When over-wrought nature has quite given way:

Then just drop it all, and give up to rest, As you used to do on a mother’s breast...

He knows all about it...the dear Lord knows, So just go to sleep as a baby goes; 

Without even asking if you may, God knows when His child is too tired to pray.

He judges not solely by uttered prayer, He knows when the yearnings of love are there.

He knows you do pray, He knows you do trust, And He knows, too, the limits’ of poor weak dust.

Oh, the wonderful sympathy of Christ, For His chosen ones in that midnight tryst, When He bade them sleep and take their rest, While on Him the guilt of the whole world pressed...

You’ve given your life up to Him to keep, Then don’t be afraid to go right to sleep.

Will Worrying Make Matters Any Better?

Mat 6:27  Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

So it is useless to worry!

A short person cannot, by any amount of anxiety, make himself an inch taller.

Why, therefore, should he waste his energy and fret his life away in wishing he were taller?

One worries because he is too short another because he is too tall...

One because he too lean another because he is too fat...

One because he has a lame foot another because he has a mole on his face.

No amount of fretting will change any of these things!

People worry, too, over their circumstances.

They are poor, and have to work hard.

They have troubles, losses, and disappointments which come through causes entirely beyond their own control.

They find difficulties in their environment which they cannot surmount.

There are hard conditions in their lot which they cannot change.

Now why should they worry about these things?

Will worrying make matters any better?

Will discontentment cure the blind eye, or remove the ugly mole, or give health to the infirm body?

Will chafing make the hard work, lighter; or the burdens, easier; or the troubles, fewer?

Will anxiety keep the winter away, or keep the storm from rising, or put coal in the cellar, or put bread in the pantry, or get clothes for the children?

Even human reason shows the uselessness of worrying, since it helps nothing, and only wastes one's strength and unfits one for doing one's best!

The Christian gospel goes farther, and says that even the hard things and the obstacles, are blessings if we meet them in the right spirit.

They are stepping-stones lifting our feet upward...disciplinary experiences in which we grow.

So we learn that we should quietly, and with faith, accept life as it comes to us fretting at nothing, and changing hard conditions to easier if we can.

And if we cannot then we must use them as means for growth and advancement.

~J. R. Miller~

The Discipline Of Faith

Mark 9:23  Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

The "All Things" do not always come simply for the asking, for the reason that God is ever seeking to Teach us the Way Of Faith...

And in our training in the faith life there must be Room for the Trial of Faith, the Discipline of Faith, the Patience of Faith, the Courage of Faith...

And often Many Stages are passed before we really realize what is the end of faith, namely, the Victory of Faith.

Real moral fiber is developed through Discipline of Faith. 

You have made your request of God, but the answer does not come....

What are you to do?

Keep on Believing God's Word; never be moved away from it by what you See or Feel...

And thus as you Stand Steady, enlarged Power and Experience is being developed. 

The fact of looking at the apparent contradiction as to God's Word and being Unmoved from your Position of Faith make you Stronger on every other line.

Often God delays Purposely, and the delay is just as much an answer to your prayer as is the fulfillment when it comes.

In the lives of all the great Bible characters, God worked thus...

Abraham, Moses and Elijah were not great in the beginning, but were made great through the Discipline of their Faith...

And only thus were they Fitted for the Positions to which God had called them.

For example, in the case of Joseph whom the Lord was training for the throne of Egypt, we read in the Psalms:

The Word Of The Lord Tried Him.

It was not the prison life with its hard beds or poor food that tried him, but it was the Word God had Spoken into his heart in the early years concerning elevation and honor which were greater than his brethren were to receive...

It was this which was ever before him, when every step in his career made it seem more and more impossible of fulfillment, until he was there imprisoned, and all in innocency, while others who were perhaps justly incarcerated, were released, and he was left to languish alone.

These were hours that tried his soul, but hours of spiritual growth and development, that, "when his word came" (the word of release), found him Fitted for the delicate task of dealing with his wayward brethren, with a love and patience only surpassed by God Himself.

No amount of persecution tries like such experiences as these. 

When God has spoken of His purpose to do, and yet the days go on and  He does not do it...

That is truly hard; but it is a Discipline of Faith that will bring us into a knowledge of God which would otherwise be impossible.

Scent Of The Rose

Son 4:16  Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. 

Some of the spices mentioned in this chapter are quite suggestive.

The aloe was a bitter spice, and it tells of the sweetness of bitter things...

The bitter-sweet, which has its own fine application that only those can understand who have felt it. 

The myrrh was used to embalm the dead, and it tells of death to something. 

It is the sweetness which comes to the heart after it has died to its self-will and pride and sin.

Oh, the inexpressible charm that hovers about some Christians simply because they bear upon the chastened countenance and mellow spirit the impress of the cross...

The holy evidence of having died to something that was once proud and strong, but is now forever at the feet of Jesus. 

It is the heavenly charm of a broken spirit and a contrite heart...

The music that springs from the minor key...

The sweetness that comes from the touch of the frost upon the ripened fruit.

And then the frankincense was a fragrance that came from the touch of the fire. 

It was the burning powder that rose in clouds of sweetness from the bosom of the flames. 

It tells of the heart whose sweetness has been called forth...

Perhaps by the flames of affliction...

Until the holy place of the soul is filled with clouds of praise and prayer.

Beloved, are we giving out the spices, the perfumes, the sweet odors of the heart? 

~The Love-Life of Our Lord

Trust And Obey The GREAT Physician!

Exodus 15:26  And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

Sometimes people fail because they have Not Confidence in the Physician. 

The very First requirement of this Doctor is, that you Trust Him...

And Trust Him Implicitly, so implicitly that you Go Forward on His Bare Word...

And act as if you had received His healing the moment you claimed His promise. 

But no one would expect to be healed by an earthly doctor as soon as they obeyed his directions.

You must Do What the Great Physician Tells You, if you expect Him to Make You Whole.

You cannot expect to be healed if you are living in sin, any more than you could expect the best physician to cure you while you lived in a malarial climate and inhaled poison with every breath. 

So you must get up into the pure air of Trust and Obedience before Christ can make you whole. 

And then, if you will Trust Him, and attend to His directions, you will find that there is balm in Gilead, and that there is a Great Physician there.

~A. B. Simpson

It Is GOD That Worketh In You!

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

A day with Jesus. Let us seek its plan and direction from Him. 

Let us take His highest thought and will for us in it. 

Let us look to Him for our desires, ideals, expectations in it. 

Then shall it bring to us exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think.

Let Him be our Guide and Way.

Let us not so much be thinking even of His plan and way as of Him as the Personal Guide of every moment, on whom we constantly depend to lead our every step.

Let Him also be the sufficiency and strength of all the day. 

Let us never forget the secret: "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." 

Let us have Jesus Christ Himself in us to do the works, and let us every moment fall back on Him, both to will and do in us of His good pleasure.

Let our holiness be "the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus."

Let our health be the "life of Jesus manifest in our mortal flesh." 

Let our faith be "the faith of the Son of God who loved us." 

Let our peace and joy be His peace and joy. 

And let our service be not our works, but the grace of Christ within us.

~A. B. Simpson

Jesus in Full Agreement With Heaven's Perseverance

Luke 9:62  And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Nor is it hard to see where He learned this, living in Perfect Fellowship with heaven. 

For few things are more wonderful in God than the divine way He has of holding to it. 

The ruby "takes a million years to harden." 

The brook carves its channels through millenniums. 

There goes an infinite deal of Quiet Holding To It for the Ripening of Every Harvest. 

And if we owe so much, in the beautiful world of nature, to what I would call the doggedness of heaven, how much more in the fairer world of Grace. 

We Are Saved By A Love That Will Not Let Us Go. 

Nothing less is equal to our need. 

We often think that God has quite forgotten us, and then we discover how He is Holding To It. 

Through all our coldness and backslidings, through our fallings into the miry clay, He has never left us or forsaken us. 

When we awake we are still with Him, and, what is better, He is still with us; just as ready to pardon and restore us as in the initial hour of conversion.

No wonder that our Lord, in perfect fellowship with such a Father, laid His divine emphasis just there.

~George Morrison

And They Shall Be Mine Saith The LORD Of Hosts!

Mal 3:17  And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. 

If we have committed ourselves to God thoroughly...

And really meant with the Lord that we want His full will and we do not want our own...

And by His grace we will go the way that He leads and shows, whatever it costs...

If we have done that...

And then situations have arisen which look terribly complicated...

And seem to contradict the faithfulness of God... 

What am I to conclude?

What are we going to conclude? 

We have to conclude one of two things...

That God cares nothing for all our devotion and consecration, and just lets us get into any mess...

Or else this is all under His eye.

That is ultimate. 

We have either to believe God or not to believe Him. 

You have all this here in the Word, and it all bears down upon this...

That people who are related in Divine foreknowledge and Divine sovereign action come into situations like that...

But in the end that sovereignty has been shown to relate to something unusually precious to the Lord...

And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, even Mine own possession, in the day that I do make  up my jewels.

The Lord is after something more than ordinary and He needs a people for it...

But such a people will have unusual experiences, inside and out. 

It will not be the ordinary, normal course where everything goes well and straightforwardly. 

It will not be like that for these people. 

They go through ways that are tortuous and exceedingly difficult...

But there is a sovereignty at work. 

That is my way of analyzing and summing up the situation as I see it in the Word...

And I can only say to you that it is not foreign and strange to God's special purposes to have experiences like that. 

Whether it be the remnant of Israel...

Whether it be the reactions of God in this Christian dispensation...

In the book of the Revelation...

The messages to the churches which are just on this ground, it is all like this. 

Nothing seems normal with a people like that...

Because God is not going to have anything that is just normal, as we call the normal. 

It is something more, something extraordinary, and our experience therefore is extraordinary.

~T. Austin Sparks

We Went Through Fire And Water But You Brought Us Out!

Paradoxical though it be, only that man is at rest who attains it through conflict. 

This peace, born of conflict, is not like the deadly hush preceding the tempest, but the serene and pure-aired quiet that follows it.

It is not generally the prosperous one, who has never sorrowed, who is strong and at rest. 

His quality has never been tried, and he knows not how he can stand even a gentle shock. 

He is not the safest sailor who never saw a tempest; he will do for fair-weather service...

But when the storm is rising, place at the important post the man who has fought out a gale, who has tested the ship, who knows her hulk sound, her rigging strong, and her anchor-flukes able to grasp and hold by the ribs of the world.

When first affliction comes upon us, how everything gives way! 

Our clinging, tendril hopes are snapped, and our heart lies prostrate like a vine that the storm has torn from its trellis...

But when the first shock is past, and we are able to look up, and say, "It is the Lord," faith lifts the shattered hopes once more, and binds them fast to the feet of God. 

Thus the end is confidence, safety, and peace. 

~Selected

The adverse winds blew against my life; My little ship with grief was tossed; My plans were gone...

Heart full of strife, And all my hope seemed to be lost...

Then He arose-one word of peace. 

There was a calm-a sweet release.

A tempest great of doubt and fear Possessed my mind...

No light was there To guide, or make my vision clear. 

Dark night! 'twas more than I could bear...   

Then He arose, I saw His face...   

There was a calm filled with His grace.

My heart was sinking 'neath the wave Of deepening test and raging grief...   

All seemed as lost, and none could save...   

And nothing could bring me relief...

Then He arose-and spoke one word... 

There was a calm! IT IS THE LORD. 

~L. S. P.

Spiritual Conviction

John 16:8  And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

Spiritual Conviction reaches to all sins: to sins of heart-as well as sins of life: to the sin of our nature-as well as the sins of practice; to the sin which is born in us-as well as the sin which is done by us.

Where the Spirit of the Lord comes to work effectually in any soul-He holds the looking-glass of the Word before the sinner's eyes, and then opens his eyes to look into the looking-glass, to see all that deformity and filthiness which is in his heart and nature!

How blind was Paul to his sinfulness-until the Spirit of the Lord revealed it to him by the Word! 

The Spirit alone, can make the sinner see all the deformity and filthiness which is within!

It is He alone, who pulls off all the sinner's rags, and makes him see his naked and wretched condition! 

It is He alone, who shows us: the blindness of the mind, the stubbornness of the will, the disorderedness of the affections, the searedness of the conscience, the plague of our hearts, the sin of our natures, the desperateness of our state! 

Natural conviction carries the soul out to look more on the evil which comes as a result of sin-than on the evil which is in sin. 

The soul which is under natural conviction, is more troubled at the dread of Hell, and wrath, and damnation-than at the vileness and heinous nature of sin! 

But spiritual convictions work the soul into a greater sensibleness of the evil which is in sin-than of the evil which comes as a result of sin.

The dishonor done to God by walking contrary to His will; the wounds which are made in the heart of Christ; the grief which the Holy Spirit is put to-this wounds the soul more than a thousand Hells!

Natural convictions are not durable, they quickly die out. 

They are like a slight cut in the skin, which bleeds a little, and is sore for the moment-but is soon healed again, and in a few days not so much as a scar is seen.

But spiritual convictions are durable, they cannot be worn out, they abide in the soul until they have reached their end-which is the change of the sinner.

The convictions of the Spirit are like a deep wound which goes to the vital organs, and seems to endanger the life of the patient, and is only healed by the great skill of the heavenly Physician. 

And when it is healed, there are the tokens of it remaining in the soul, which can never be worn out! 

Spiritual conviction is an essential part of sound conversion. 

True conversion begins in convictions-and true convictions end in conversion. 

Until the sinner is convinced of sin-he can never be converted from sin.

Christ's coming was as a Savior to die for sinners.

The Spirit's coming is to convince us of sin-that we may close with Christ as our Savior. 

So long as sin is unseen-Christ will be unsought. 

Those who are whole need not the physician-but those who are sick.

Slight convictions, when they are but skin-deep, are the cause of much hypocrisy. 

Slight convictions have filled the church with hypocrites! 

Nay, this is not only the spring of hypocrisy-but it is also the spring of apostasy! 

What was the cause that the seed was said to wither away? 

It was because it had no depth of soil. 

Just so, where convictions of sin are slight-there the seed of the Word withers for lack of depth! 

But where there is thorough conviction, there is a depth of soil in the heart-and there the seed of the Word grows!

~Matthew Mead

Storms

Mat 14:24  But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.

Rude and blustering the winds of March often are. 

Do they not typify the tempestuous seasons of my life? 

But, indeed, I ought to be glad that I make acquaintance with these seasons. 

Better it is that the rains descend and the floods come than that I should stay perpetually in the Lotus Land where it seems always afternoon, or in that deep meadowed Valley of Avilion where never wind blows loudly. 

Storms of temptation appear cruel, but do they not give intenser earnestness to prayer? 

Do they not compel me to seize the promises with a tighter hand grip? 

Do they not leave me with a character refined?

Storms of bereavement are keen; but, then, they are one of the Father's ways of driving me to Himself, that in the secret of His presence His voice may speak to my heart, soft and low. 

There is a glory of the Master which can be seen only when the wind is contrary and the ship tossed with waves.

Jesus Christ is no security against storms, but He is perfect security in storms. 

He has never promised you an easy passage, only a safe landing.

Oh, set your sail to the heavenly gale, And then, no matter what winds prevail,

No reef can wreck you, no calm delay; No mist shall hinder, no storm shall stay;

Though far you wander and long you roam, Through salt sea sprays and o'er white sea foam, 

No wind that can blow but shall speed you Home. 

~Annie Johnson Flint

Friends Or Just Acquaintances?

Proverbs 18:24  A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

There is a great difference between having “company” and having a friend in the house. 

The friend we can treat as a member of the family, but company must be entertained. 

God is not satisfied until there exists between Him and His people a relaxed informality that requires no artificial stimulation. 

The true friend of God may sit in His presence for long periods in silence. 

Complete trust needs no words of assurance. 

Such words have long ago been spoken and the adoring heart can safely be still before God. 

Unquestionably the highest privilege granted to man on earth is to be admitted into the circle of the friends of God. 

Nothing is important enough to be allowed to stand in the way of our relation to God. 

Nothing in heaven or earth or hell can separate us from the love of God...

We should see to it that nothing on earth shall separate us from God’s friendship.

Have we entered the circle of God's friends? 

Some of us remain acquaintances. 

We have not yet become friends. 

His invitation to warm friendship is extended to us.

Lord, it staggers the mind that I can enter into friendship with You, the Eternal God.

~A. W. Tozer

Yea Though I Walk Through The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death

Psalm 23:4  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

At my father's house in the country there is a little closet in the chimney corner where are kept the canes and walking-sticks of several generations of our family. 

In my visits to the old house, when my father and I are going out for a walk, we often go to the cane closet, and pick out our sticks to suit the fancy of the occasion. 

In this I have frequently been reminded that the, Word of God is a staff.

During the war, when the season of discouragement and impending danger was upon us, the verse, "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord," was a staff to walk with many dark days.

When death took away our child and left us almost heartbroken, I found another staff in the promise that "weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning."

When in impaired health, I was exiled for a year, not knowing whether I should be permitted to return to my home and work again, I took with me this staff which never failed, "He knoweth the thoughts that he thinketh toward me, thoughts of peace and not of evil."

In times of special danger or doubt, when human judgment has seemed to be set at naught, I have found it easy to go forward with this staff, "In quietness and confidence shall be your strength." 

And in emergencies, when there has seemed to be no adequate time for deliberation or for action, I have never found that this staff has failed me, "He that believeth shall not make haste." 

~Benjamin Vaughan Abbott, in The Outlook

I had never known, said Martin Luther's wife, what such and such things meant, in such and such psalms...

Such complaints and workings of spirit I had never understood the practice of Christian duties, had not God brought me under some affliction.

It is very true that God's rod is as the schoolmaster's pointer to the child, pointing out the letter, that he may the better take notice of it...

Thus He pointeth out to us many good lessons which we should never otherwise have learned

~Selected

God always sends His staff with His rod.

Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deut.33:25).

Each of us may be sure that if God sends us on stony paths He will provide us with strong shoes...

And He will not send us out on any journey for which He does not equip us well. 

~Mclaren

Even The Faintest Call

Joel 2:32  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.

Why do I not call on His name? 

Why do I run to this neighbor and that when God is so near and will hear my faintest call? 

Why do I sit down and devise schemes and invent plans! 

Why not at once roll myself and my burden upon the LORD? 

Straightforward is the best runner - why do I not run at once to the living God? 

In vain shall I look for deliverance anywhere else; but with God I shall find it; for here I have His royal "shall" to make it sure.

I need not ask whether I may call on Him or not, for that word "whosoever" is a very wide and comprehensive one. 

Whosoever means me, for it means anybody and everybody who calls upon God. 

I will therefore follow the leading of the text and at once call upon the glorious LORD who has made so large a promise.

My case is urgent, and I do not see how I am to be delivered; but this is no business of mine. 

He who makes the promise will find out ways and means of keeping it. 

It is mine to obey His commands; it is not mine to direct His counsels. 

I am His servant, not His solicitor.

I call upon Him, and He will deliver me.

~Charles Spurgeon 

Trust The LORD Only As We Enter Into This New Year!

                                                  
Deu 11:11  But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:

Deu 11:12  A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.

Today, dear friends, we stand upon the verge of the unknown. 

There lies before us the new year and we are going forth to possess it. 

Who can tell what we shall find? 

What new experiences, what changes shall come, what new needs shall arise? 

But here is the cheering, comforting, gladdening message from our Heavenly Father, "The Lord thy God careth for it."

All our supply is to come from the Lord. 

Here are springs that shall never dry; here are fountains and streams that shall never be cut off. 

Here anxious one, is the gracious pledge of the Heavenly Father. 

If He be the Source of our mercies they can never fail us. 

No heat, no drought can parch that river, "the streams whereof make glad the city of God."

The land is a land of hills and valleys. It is not all smooth nor all down hill. 

If life were all one dead level the dull sameness would oppress us; we want the hills and the valleys. 

The hills collect the rain for a hundred fruitful valleys. 

Ah, so it is grace and brings down the shower of blessing...

The hills, the bleak hills of life that we wonder at and perhaps grumble at, bring down showers. 

How many have perished in the wilderness, buried under its golden sands, who would have lived and thrived in the hill-country...

How many would have been killed by the frost, blighted with winds, swept desolate of tree and fruit but for the hill- stern, hard, rugged, so steep to climb. 

God's hills are a gracious protection for His people against their foes!

We cannot tell what loss and sorrow and trial are doing.

Trust only. 

The Father comes near to take our hand and lead us on our way today. 

It shall be a good, a blessed new year!

He leads us on by paths we did not know...

Upward He leads us, though our steps be slow...

Though oft we faint and falter on the way...

Though storms and darkness oft obscure the day...

Yet when the clouds are gone, We know He leads us on.

He leads us on through all the unquiet years...

Past all our dreamland hopes, and doubts and fears...

He guides our steps, through all the tangled maze...

Of losses, sorrows, and o’er clouded days...

We know His will is done, And still He leads us on. 

~Nicholaus Ludwig Zinzendorf