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