Lo I Am With You Always

Mat 28:20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

The Lord Jesus is in the midst of His church; He walketh among the golden candlesticks...

His promise is, "Lo, I am with you alway." 

He is as surely with us now as He was with the disciples at the lake, when they saw coals of fire, and fish laid thereon and bread. 

Not carnally, but still in real truth, Jesus is with us. 

And a blessed truth it is, for where Jesus is, love becomes inflamed. 

Of all the things in the world that can set the heart burning, there is nothing like the presence of Jesus!

A glimpse of Him so overcomes us, that we are ready to say, "Turn away Thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me."

Even the smell of the aloes, and the myrrh, and the cassia, which drop from His perfumed garments, causes the sick and the faint to grow strong. 

Let there be but a moment's leaning of the head upon that gracious bosom...

And a reception of His divine love into our poor cold hearts...

And we are cold no longer, but glow like seraphs, equal to every labour, and capable of every suffering. 

If we know that Jesus is with us, every power will be developed, and every grace will be strengthened,...

And we shall cast ourselves into the Lord's service with heart, and soul, and strength...

Therefore is the presence of Christ to be desired above all things. 

His presence will be most realized by those who are most like Him.

If you desire to see Christ, you must grow in conformity to Him. 

Bring yourself, by the power of the Spirit, into union with Christ's desires, and motives, and plans of action, and you are likely to be favoured with His company. 

Remember His presence may be had. 

His promise is as true as ever. 

He delights to be with us.

If He doth not come, it is because we hinder Him by our indifference. 

He will reveal Himself to our earnest prayers...

And graciously suffer Himself to be detained by our entreaties, and by our tears,...

For these are the golden chains which bind Jesus to His people.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Contentment

Contentment is the product of a heart resting in God.

It is the soul's enjoyment of that peace that passes all understanding. 

It is the outcome of my will being brought into subjection to the Divine will. 

It is the blessed assurance that God does all things well...

And is, even now, making all things work together for my ultimate good.

~Arthur Pink~

No Matter The Difficulty Wholly Follow The LORD

Deu 1:36  Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD.
 
Every difficult task that comes across your path...every one that you would rather not do, that will take the most effort, cause the most pain, and be the greatest struggle...brings a blessing with it. 

And refusing to do it regardless of the personal cost is to miss the blessing.
 
Every difficult stretch of road on which you see the Master’s footprints and along which He calls you to follow Him leads unquestionably to blessings. 

And they are blessings you will never receive unless you travel the steep and thorny path.
 
Every battlefield you encounter, where you are required to draw your sword and fight the enemy, has the possibility of victory that will prove to be a rich blessing to your life.

And every heavy burden you are called upon to lift hides within itself a miraculous secret of strength. 
~J. R. Miller~
 
I cannot do it alone; The waves surge fast and high, And the fogs close all around,
 
The light goes out in the sky; But I know that we two Will win in the end, Jesus and I.
 
Cowardly, wayward, and weak, I change with the changing sky; 

Today so eager and bright, Tomorrow too weak to try;
 
But He never gives in, So we two will win, Jesus and I.
 
I could not guide it myself, My boat on life’s wild sea;
 
There’s One who sits by my side, Who pulls and steers with me.
 
And I know that we two Will safe enter port, Jesus and I.

High Places Of Defense

Isa 33:16  He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. 

The man to whom God has given grace to be of blameless life dwells in perfect security.

He dwells on high, above the world, Out of gunshot of the enemy, and near to heaven.

He has high aims and motives, and he finds high comforts and company.

He rejoices in the mountains of eternal love, wherein he has his abode.

He is defended by munitions of stupendous rock.

The firmest things in the universe are the promises and purposes of the unchanging God, and these are the safeguard of the obedient believer.

He is provided for by this great promise: "Bread shall be given him."

As the enemy cannot climb the fort, nor break down the rampart, so the fortress cannot be captured by siege and famine. 

The LORD, who rained manna in the wilderness, will keep His people in good store even when they are surrounded by those who would starve them. 

But what if water should fail? 

That cannot be. "His waters shall be sure."

There is a never-failing well within the impregnable fortress. 

The LORD sees that nothing is wanting. 

None can touch the citizen of the true Zion. 

However fierce the enemy, the LORD will preserve His chosen.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Trust His Will To Wait

Num 9:19  And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the LORD, and journeyed not
 
This was the ultimate test of obedience. 

It was relatively easy to fold up their tents when the fleecy cloud slowly gathered over the tabernacle and began to majestically float ahead of the multitude of the Israelite's.

Change normally seems pleasant, and the people were excited and interested in the route, the scenery, and the habitat of the next stopping place.
 
Yet having to wait was another story altogether.

When the cloud remained, however uninviting and sweltering the location, however trying to flesh and blood, however boring and wearisome to those who were impatient, however perilously close their exposure to danger...there was no option but to remain encamped.
 
The psalmist said, “I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry” (Ps. 40:1). 

And what God did for the Old Testament saints, He will do for believers down through the ages, yet He will often keep us waiting. 

Must we wait when we are face to face with a threatening enemy, surrounded by danger and fear, or below an unstable rock? 

Would this not be the time to fold our tents and leave?

Have we not already suffered to the point of total collapse?

Can we not exchange the sweltering heat for “green pastures...[and] quiet waters” (Ps. 23:2)?

When God sends no answer and “the cloud remain[s],” we must wait.

Yet we can do so with the full assurance of God’s provision of manna, water from the rock, shelter, and protection from our enemies.

He never keeps us at our post without assuring us of His presence or sending us daily supplies.
 
Young person, wait...do not be in such a hurry to make a change! 

Minister, stay at your post! You must wait where you are until the cloud clearly begins to move.

Wait for the Lord to give you His good pleasure! He will not be late! 

~Daily Devotional Commentary~
 
An hour of waiting!
 
Yet there seems such need To reach that spot sublime!
 
I long to reach them...but I long far more To trust HIS time!

Sit still, My children...
 
Yet the heathen die, They perish while I stay!
 
I long to reach them...but I long far more To trust HIS way!
 
It’s good to get, It’s good indeed to give!
 
Yet it is better still...O’er breadth, through length, down depth, up height, To trust HIS will!
 
~F. M. N.~

Necessary Knowledge

To be the LORD's own people is a choice blessing, but to know that we are such is a comfortable blessing.

It is one thing to hope that God is with us and another thing to know that He is so. 

Faith saves us, but assurance satisfies us. 

We take God to be our God when we believe in Him...

But we get the joy of Him when we know that He is ours and that we are His. 

No believer should be content with hoping and trusting...

He should ask the LORD to lead him on to full assurance, so that matters of hope may become matters of certainty.

It is when we enjoy covenant blessings and see our LORD Jesus raised up for us as a plant of renown that we come to a clear knowledge of the favor of God toward us. 

Not by law, but by grace do we learn that we are the LORD's people. 

Let us always turn our eyes in the direction of free grace. 

Assurance of faith can never come by the works of the law.

It is an evangelical virtue and can only reach us in a gospel way. 

Let us not look within. 

Let us look to the LORD alone. 

As we see Jesus we shall see our salvation.

LORD, send us such a flood-tide of Thy love that we shall be washed beyond the mire of doubt and fear.

~Charles Spurgeon~

What Is Painful Will End

Our heavenly Father seeks our instruction, not our destruction. 

His contention with us has a kind intention toward us. 

He will not be always in arms against us. 

We think the LORD is long in His chastisements, but that is because we are short in our patience. 

His compassion endureth forever, but not His contention. 

The night may drag its weary length along, but it must in the end give place to cheerful day.

As contention is only for a season, so the wrath which leads to it is only for a small moment. 

The LORD loves His chosen too well to be always angry with them.

If He were to deal with us always as He does sometimes, we should faint outright and go down hopelessly to the gates of death. 

Courage, dear heart! 

The LORD will soon end His chiding. 

Bear up, for the LORD will bear you up and bear you through. 

He who made you knows how frail you are and how little you can bear. 

He will handle tenderly that which He has fashioned so delicately. 

Therefore, be not afraid because of the painful present, for it hastens to a happy future. 

He that smote you will heal you; His little wrath shall be followed by great mercies.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Heavenly Wealth

 Many pleasing things the LORD may withhold but "no good thing." 

He is the best judge of what is good for us. 

Some things are assuredly good, and these we may have for the asking through Jesus Christ our LORD.

Holiness is a good thing, and this He will work in us freely. 

Victory over evil tendencies, strong tempers, and evil habits He will gladly grant, and we ought not to remain without it.

Full assurance He will bestow, and near communion with Himself, and access into all truth, and boldness with prevalence at the mercy seat. 

If we have not these, it is from want of faith to receive and not from any unwillingness of God to give. 

A calm, a heavenly frame, great patience, and fervent love-all these will He give to holy diligence.

But note well that we must "walk uprightly." 

There must be no cross purposes and crooked dealings; no hypocrisy nor deceit.

If we walk foully God cannot give us favors, for that would be a premium upon sin. 

The way of uprightness is the way of heavenly wealth-wealth so large as to include every good thing.

What a promise to plead in prayer! 

Let us get to our knees.

~Charles Spurgeon~                                                                                

Thorough Cleansing

Eze 36:25  Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

What an exceeding joy is this! 

He who has purified us with the blood of Jesus will also cleanse us by the water of the Holy Spirit. 

God hath said it, and so it must be, "Ye shall be clean."

LORD, we feel and mourn our uncleanness, and it is cheering to be assured by Thine own mouth that we shall be clean. 

Oh, that Thou wouldst make a speedy work of it! 

He will deliver us from our worst sins...

The uprisings of unbelief and the deceitful lusts which war against the soul, the vile thoughts of pride, and the suggestions of Satan to blaspheme the sacred name-all these shall be so purged away as never to return. 

He will also cleanse us from all our idols, whether of gold or of clay...

Our impure loves and our excessive love of that which in itself is pure. 

That which we have idolized shall either be broken from us or we shall be broken off from it. 

It is God who speaks of what He Himself will do. 

Therefore is this word established and sure, and we may boldly look for that which it guarantees to us. 

Cleansing is a covenant blessing, and the covenant is ordered in all things and sure.~Charles 

~Charles Spurgeon~

Seated And Still

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
 
Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
 
Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
 
This is our rightful place...“seated with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,” yet seated and still. 

But how few of us actually experience this! 

In fact, most of us believe it is impossible to sit still “in the heavenly realms” while living our
everyday life in a world so full of turmoil.
 
Oh, we believe it may be possible to visit these “heavenly realms”on Sundays or now and then during times of great spiritual emphasis and praise,but to actually be “seated” there all day, every day, is a completely different matter.

Yet it is clear from the Scriptures that it is meant not only for Sundays but for weekdays as well.
 
A quiet spirit is of priceless value when performing outward activities. 

Nothing so greatly hinders the work of God’s unseen spiritual forces, upon which our success in everything truly depends, as the spirit of unrest and anxiety.
 
There is tremendous power in stillness.

A great believer once said,“All things come to him who knows how to trust and to be silent.” 

This fact is rich with meaning, and a true understanding of it would greatly change our ways of working. 

Instead of continuing our restless striving,we would “sit down”inwardly before the Lord, allowing the divine forces of His Spirit to silently work out the means to accomplish our goals and aspirations.
 
You may not see or feel the inner workings of His silent power, but rest assured it is always mightily at work. 

And it will work for you, if you will only quiet your spirit enough to be carried along by the current of its power. 

~Hannah Whitall Smith~

There is a point of rest At the great center of the cyclone’s force, A silence at its secret source;
 
A little child might slumber undisturbed, Without the ruffle of one fair curl, In that strange, central calm, amid the mighty whirl.
 
Make it your business to learn to be peaceful and safe in God through every situation.

Harvest Of Light, Gladness

                                                     
Righteousness is often costly to the man who keeps to it at all hazards, but in the end it will bear its own expenses and return an infinite profit. 

A holy life is like sowing seed: much is going out, and apparently it is buried in the soil, never to be gathered up again. 

We are mistaken when we look for an immediate harvest; but the error is very natural, for it seems impossible to bury light. 

Yet light is "sown," says the text. 

It lies latent: none can see it; it is sown. 

We are quite sure that it must one day manifest itself. 

Full sure are we that the LORD has set a harvest for the sower of light, and they shall reap it, each man for himself. 

Then shall come their gladness. 

Sheaves of joy for seeds of light. 

Their heart was upright before the LORD, though men gave them no credit for it, but even censured them...

They were righteous, though those about them denounced them as censorious. 

They had to wait, as husbandmen wait for the precious fruits of the earth:...

But the light was sown for them, and gladness was being prepared on their behalf by the LORD of the harvest. 

Courage, brothers! 

We need not be in a hurry. 

Let us in patience possess our souls, for soon shall our souls possess light and gladness.

~Charles Spurgeon~

'TROUBLE' INEVITABLE WITH SPIRITUAL SIGHT

When, therefore, there is the purest testimony, the fullest expression of what is of God, the heavenly over against the earthly, the spiritual over against the carnal or the natural, the enemy gives a turn to things, a twist to things, and lays the responsibility at the door of a spiritual and a heavenly ministry.

He says: 'You are the cause of all the trouble - you are the troubler!'

But no. The trouble lies deeper than that, and in another realm. 

The truth is, there is something here that, in its very nature, MUST create trouble, MUST be a source of trouble, so long as God's known will, His revealed mind, is being violated; while the full expression of God's purpose is being withstood.

To bring in something that stands for that, there is going to be trouble.

It is a costly thing to have seen God's full purpose and thought concerning His people.

It is always a costly thing.

The Lord Jesus set a very vivid example and object lesson of this truth right in the foreground, in the incident of the man born blind (John 9).

There is no doubt that the Lord intended that man to represent Israel and Israel's condition at the time.

He gave that man sight - and what happened to the man?

They cast him out, that is all; they cast him out, they excommunicated him (v. 34).

That is an object lesson, an instance of this very thing.

If eyes have been opened; if, in any sense - not officially - you have become a 'seer' - one who sees: it is going to cost you a lot, it will involve you in a lot of trouble.

This matter of 'seeing' does that.

It was Elijah the SEER, over against the BLINDNESS of Israel.

It is a costly thing to be a spiritual man or a spiritual woman in this universe.

It is a costly thing, yes, very costly, to hold to a heavenly and spiritual position.

It is a costly thing to hold for Christ's full place; it involves you in trouble. 

It is a costly thing to have light - if it is true light, God-given light.

It is a costly thing to have life.

But remember, it is here, in this, that the power is resident.

It is with this that God is found ultimately to be committed.

You know the story again.

God will have no compromise with the thing that lies behind.

Take the prophets of Baal! They were all slain. 

There is no compromise with that spiritual thing. 

But God is shown as to where He stands, to what He is committed, and where the power is.

For I suppose that, if Elijah represents one thing more than another, he does represent spiritual power.

When we think of spiritual power we always refer to Elijah - 'in the power of Elijah'.

It is proverbial. Why?

Not because of anything that he was in himself; no, not because of the man. 

He was a man in touch with the Throne; he was a man who had seen; a man who was committed, of whom it was true that he was "very jealous for the Lord".

God was with Elijah.

John came 'in the power of Elijah' (Luke 1:17); he was the Elijah of his time.

The Lord Jesus said of him: "If ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah" (Matt. 11:14), though John himself denied this (John 1:21).

Elijah is a sort of phantom in a certain realm. 

Poor Herod was scared of his life - he began to see things, to get strange ideas - when he heard about Jesus: some suggested to him that this was Elijah returned to life, but he thought it was John the Baptist risen from the dead (Matt. 14:2; Mark 6:14-16).

The fellow just lost his mental grasp of things. 

This Elijah man counts for something.

Power is with him; the verdict is with him.

And - let there be no mistake about it - in the end it will be found that God IS committed to that which is utterly committed to Him for His full purposes. 

It is costly; it causes much trouble; BUT - the issue is with Him, and He will look after His own interests. 

~T. Austin Sparks~

Not One Grain Too Much!

Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

Affliction comes to us all...

Not to make us sad-but sober;

Not to make us sorry-but to make us wise;

Not to impoverish us-but to enrich us!

We are always in the forge-or on the anvil.
 
By trials, God is shaping us for nobler things.

No physician ever weighed out medicine to his patients with half so much care and exactness, as God weighs out every trial to us.

Not one grain too much, does He ever permit to be put in the scale!

The troubles and worries of life may be as stumbling blocks in our way-or we may make them stepping-stones to a nobler character and to Heaven.

Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things! 

Heb 12:10  For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

Heb 12:11  Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

 ~Henry Ward Beecher, 1813-1887~

A Beloved Child-Watched Over, Cared For, Supplied And Defended!

Psalm 149:4  For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.

How comprehensive is the love of Jesus!

There is no part of His people's interests that He does not consider...

And there is nothing that concerns their welfare, which is not important to Him. 

Not merely does He think of you, believer, as an immortal being-but as a mortal being, also. 

Do not deny it or doubt it: "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." 

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in His way. 

Believer, rest assured that the heart of Jesus cares about your common affairs.

The breadth of His tender love is such that you may resort to Him in all matters...

For as a father pities his children, so does He pity you. 

Oh, what a heart is His-which comprehends all the diverse and innumerable concerns of all His redeemed people!

Do you think that you can measure the love of Christ?

Think of what His love has brought you...justification, adoption, sanctification and eternal life! 

The riches of His goodness are unsearchable-you shall never be able to count them out or even conceive of them all. 

Oh, the breadth of the love of Christ! 

You are no desolate wanderer, but a beloved child-watched over, cared for, supplied and defended by your Lord!

Psa 56:8  Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?

~Charles Spurgeon~