Happy Storm that Wrecks a Man

In seasons of severe trial, the Christian has nothing on earth that he can trust to and is therefore compelled to cast himself on his God alone. When his vessel is on its beam end and no human deliverance can avail, he must simply and entirely trust himself to the providence and care of God. Happy storm that wrecks a man on such a rock as this! Oh blessed hurricane that drives a soul to God and God alone!

CH Spurgeon

The secret strength of faith

“Tell me I pray thee wherein thy great strength lieth.”
Judges 16:6

Where lies the secret strength of faith? It lies in the food it feeds on; for faith studies what the promise is—an emanation of divine grace, an overflowing of the great heart of God; and faith says, “My God could not have given this promise, except from love and grace; therefore it is quite certain his Word will be fulfilled.”

Then faith thinketh, “Who gave this promise?” It considereth not so much its greatness, as, “Who is the author of it?” She remembers that it is God who cannot lie—God omnipotent, God immutable; and therefore concludeth that the promise must be fulfilled; and forward she advances in this firm conviction. She remembereth,why the promise was given,—namely, for God’s glory, and she feels perfectly sure that God’s glory is safe, that he will never stain his own escutcheon, nor mar the lustre of his own crown; and therefore the promise must and will stand.

Then faith also considereth the amazing work of Christ as being a clear proof of the Father’s intention to fulfil his word. “He that spared not his own Son, but freely delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”

Moreover faith looks back upon the past, for her battles have strengthened her, and her victories have given her courage. She remembers that God never has failed her; nay, that he never did once fail any of his children. She recollecteth times of great peril, when deliverance came; hours of awful need, when as her day her strength was found, and she cries, “No, I never will be led to think that he can change and leave his servant now. Hitherto the Lord hath helped me, and he will help me still.”

Thus faith views each promise in its connection with the promise-giver, and, because she does so, can with assurance say, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life!”

God's Gentle Touch

... fell asleep last night about 2am. many questions on my mind. many thoughts to ponder. longing for rest from God.

woke up with a headache from crying so much, but otherwise feeling much more rested and hopeful.

turned to Spurgeon's Morning and Evening.

today... June 29th morning talks about those who die find rest in God.

I felt a gentle whisper to read November 14th evening... it talks about the fact that we cannot have rest before the cross is born... we cannot have reward without the labor. we must persevere, but remember the service is worth it when we keep the crown in view.

then the voice said even softer (i almost wondered if i had even heard it at all)... go to October 12th. I'll lead you to the one you need to read. When I got there, evening's verse was John 14:26... "The Comfortor, which is the Holy Ghost." It talks about how God did not leave us alone to go through the trials we face... He has sent a Comfortor. That Comfortor points us to Jesus - the Source of all Comfort.

Thank you Spirit for your leading in my soul this morning. That was what I needed to hear. Our ultimate rest is in death when we are fully one with God. Until then, keep toiling on in light of that day, fully aware that we are not left to do this alone.

wow.

Stand Still

'Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord' -Exodus 14:13

These words contain God's command to the believer when he is reduced to great straits and brought into extraordinary difficulties. He cannot retreat; he cannot go forward; he is shut up on the right hand an on the left; what is he now to do? The Master's word to him is, 'Stand still'

It will be well for him if at such times he listens only to his Master's word, for other and evil advisers come with their suggestions.

Despair whispers, 'Lie down and die; give it all up'. But God would have us put on a cheerful courage, and even in our worst times, rejoice in His love and faithfulness.

Cowardice says, 'Retreat; go back to the worlding's way of action; you cannot play the Christian's part, it is too difficult. Relinquish your principles'. But, however much Satan may urge this course upon you, you cannot follow it if you are a child of God. His divine fiat has bid thee go from strength to strength, and so thou shalt, and neither death nor hell shall turn thesee from thy course. What, if for a while thou art called to stand still, yet this is but to renew they strength for some greater advance in due time.

Precipitancy cries, 'Do something. Stir yourself; to stand still and wait is sheer idleness'. We must be doing something at once - we must do it so we think - instead of looking to the Lord, who will not only do something but will do everything.

Presumption boasts, If the sea be before you, march into it and expect a miracle'.

But Faith listens neither to Presumption, nor to Despair, nor to Cowardice, nor to Precipitancy, but it hears God say, "Stand still', and immoveable as a rock it saints. 'Stand still'; keep the posture of an upright man, ready for action, expecting further orders, cheerfully and patiently awaiting the directing voice; and it will not be long ere God shall say to you, as distinctly as Moses said it to the people of Israel, 'Go forward'.

-Charles Spurgeon, Morning & Evening

The Faithful Promiser

'And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish' John 10:28

The Christian should never think or speak lightly of unbelief. For a child of God to mistrust His love, His truth, His faithfulness, must be greatly displeasing to Him. How can we ever grieve Him by doubting His upholding grace? Christian! it is contrary to every promise of God's precious Word that thou shouldnst ever be forgotten or left to perish. If it could be so, how could He be true who has said, 'Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I never forget thee.' What were the value of that promise - 'The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee'? Where were the truth of Christ's words - 'I give unto My sheep eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand;? Where were the doctrines of grace? They would be all disproved if one child of God should perish. Where were the veracity of His oath, if any of those for whom Christ has died, and who have put their trust in Him should nevertheless be cast away? Banish those unbelieving fears which so dishonour God. Arise, shake thyself from the dust, and put on they beautiful garments. Remember it is sinful to doubt His Word wherein He has promised thee that thou shalt never perish. Let the eternal life within thee express itself in confident rejoicing.

'The gospel bears my spirit up: a faithful and unchanging God lays the foundation for my hope, in oaths, and promises, and blood.'

-Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Spurgeon on God's Love

I once knew a good woman who was the subject of many doubts, and when I got to the bottom of her doubt, it was this: she knew she loved Christ, but she was afraid he did not love her. ‘Oh!’ I said, ‘that is a doubt that will never trouble me; never, by any possibility, because I am sure of this, that the heart is so corrupt, naturally, that love to God never did get there without God putting it there.’ You may rest quite certain, that if you love God, it is a fruit, and not a root. It is the fruit of God’s love to you, and did not get there by any the force of any goodness in you. You may conclude, with absolute certainty, that God loves you if you love God.

Charles Spurgeon

Sweet "real" religion

"He can heal, save, restore and provide"

Your faith prospers when everything is against you. Your faith increases with every trial. No flowers wear so lovely a blue as those that grow at the edge of a glacier. No stars shine so bright as those that glisten in the polar sky. No water is sweeter than that which lives and triumphs in adversity.

Tested faith brings experience, and experience makes religion real. You will never know the bitterness of sin or the sweetness of pardon until you have felt both. You will never know your own weakness until you have been compelled to go through the rivers. You will never know God's strength until He has supported you in deep waters.

All the talk about religion that has not been personally experienced is just talk. If we have little experience, we cannot speak so positively as those whose experience has been deep and profound...

Faith increases in firmness, assurance, and intensity when it is exercised with trials. Praise Him for your trials, and you will have more and more of God's blessings until your faith will move mountains and nothing will be impossible (Matt. 17:20). Charles Spurgeon

Loaned property or Grasped idol?

“Earthly comforts are loaned. They are not gifts, for all that we possess is God's property. He has only lent them, and what He lends He has a right to take. Therefore, do not complain when God takes His own.

Beloved, because these calamities may be expected, let us be prepared. Hold all things loosely. Hold them as though you did not have them. Look at them as fleeting; never expect them to remain. Never make mortal things your gods. If you do, your heart will be broken when they are taken.” C.H. Spurgeon

No More Dominion...

Beloved, no sin of a believer can now be an arrow mortally to wound him, no condemnation can now be a sword to kill him, for the punishment of our sin was borne by Christ, a full atonement was made for all our iniquities by our blessed Substitute and Surety. Who now accuseth? Who now condemneth? Christ hath died, yea rather, hath risen again. Jesus has emptied the quivers of hell, has quenched every fiery dart, and broken off the head of every arrow of wrath; the ground is strewn with the splinters and relics of the weapons of hell's warfare, which are only visible to us to remind us of our former danger, and of our great deliverance. Sin hath no more dominion over us. Jesus has made an end of it, and put it away for ever. O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end. Talk ye of all the wondrous works of the Lord, ye who make mention of His name, keep not silence, neither by day, nor when the sun goeth to his rest. Bless the Lord, O my soul.

C.H. Spurgeon

When Dying...

"Remember, he [the thief on the cross] was crucified. It was a crucified man trusting in a crucified Christ. Oh, when our frame is racked with torture, when the tenderest nerves are pained, when our body is hung up to die by we know not what great length of torment, then to forget the present and live in the future is a grand achievement of faith! While dying, to turn your eye to another dying at your side and trust your soul with Him is very marvelous faith." - Charles Spurgeon, The Power of the Cross of Christ

"A Troubled Prayer" No. 741. Ps. 25:18

We must take our sins to God!
The Christian, when he sins, thinks that
he must fight this battle for himself,
wrestle with his own evil temper himself,
and he himself must enter into conflict
with his lusts and his besetting sins.

But when he comes into the fight, he
soon meets with a defeat, and then
he is ready to give it all up.

Take your sins to God, my brethren!
Take them to the cross that the blood
may fall upon them, to purge away their
guilt, and to take away their power.
Your sins must all be slain. There is only
one place where they can be slaughtered-
the altar where your Savior died.

If you would flog your sins, flog them with
the whip that tore your Savior's shoulder.
If you would nail your sins fast, drive the
same nails through them which fastened
your Lord to the cross. I mean, let your
faith in the great Surety, and your love to
him who suffered so much for you, be the
power with which you do conflict with evil.

It is said of the saints in heaven, "They
overcame through the blood of the Lamb."
That is how you must overcome.

Go to Jesus with your sins!
No one else can help you!
You are powerless without him!
The most sinful are welcome to Christ.
If your sin has become so outrageous
that it were wrong for me to mention it;
if it has become so tremendous in its power,
that, like the chain and ball at the convict's
foot, you cannot escape from it, yet still
come with all your sins to Jesus!

Burdens and Care

Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

- the below post is from Spurgeon's Morning and Evening (Jan 6th AM)

“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” I Peter 5:7
It is a happy way of soothing sorrow when we can feel—“HE careth for me.” Christian! do not dishonour religion by always wearing a brow of care; come, cast your burden upon your Lord. You are staggering beneath a weight which your Father would not feel. What seems to you a crushing burden, would be to him but as the small dust of the balance. Nothing is so sweet as to“Lie passive in God’s hands, And know no will but his.”

O child of suffering, be thou patient; God has not passed thee over in his providence. He who is the feeder of sparrows, will also furnish you with what you need. Sit not down in despair; hope on, hope ever. Take up the arms of faith against a sea of trouble, and your opposition shall yet end your distresses. There is One who careth for you. His eye is fixed on you, his heart beats with pity for your woe, and his hand omnipotent shall yet bring you the needed help. The darkest cloud shall scatter itself in showers of mercy. The blackest gloom shall give place to the morning. He, if thou art one of his family, will bind up thy wounds, and heal thy broken heart.

Doubt not his grace because of thy tribulation, but believe that he loveth thee as much in seasons of trouble as in times of happiness. What a serene and quiet life might you lead if you would leave providing to the God of providence! With a little oil in the cruse, and a handful of meal in the barrel, Elijah outlived the famine, and you will do the same. If God cares for you, why need you care too? Can you trust him for your soul, and not for your body? He has never refused to bear your burdens, he has never fainted under their weight. Come, then, soul! have done with fretful care, and leave all thy concerns in the hand of a gracious God.

God as Father

“I have found it a blessed thing, in my own experience, to plead before God that I am his child. When, some months ago, I was wracked with pain to an extreme degree, so that I could no longer bear it without crying out, I asked all to go from the room, and leave me alone; and then I had nothing I could say to God but this, "Thou art my Father, and I am Thy child; and Thou, as a Father, art tender and full of mercy. I could not bear to see my child suffer as Thou makest me suffer; and if I saw him tormented as I am now, I would do what I could to help him and put my arms under him to sustain him. Wilt Thou hide Thy face from me, my Father? Wilt Thou still lay on me Thy heavy hand, and not give me a smile from Thy countenance?" I talked to the Lord as Luther would have done, and pleaded his Fatherhood in real earnest. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." If He be a Father, let Him show Himself a Father -- so I pleaded; and I venture to say, when they came back who watched me, "I shall never have such agony again from this moment, for God has heard my prayer." I bless God that ease came, and the wracking pain never returned." -- Charles Spurgeon, The Full Harvest, 197

Preciousness...

"Nothing teaches us so much the preciousness of the Creator, as when we learn the emptiness of all besides." CH Spurgeon

Evening, November 19

“O that I knew where I might find him!”
Job 23:3
In Job’s uttermost extremity he cried after the Lord. The longing desire of an afflicted child of God is once more to see his Father’s face. His first prayer is not “O that I might be healed of the disease which now festers in every part of my body!” nor even “O that I might see my children restored from the jaws of the grave, and my property once more brought from the hand of the spoiler!” but the first and uppermost cry is, “O that I knew where I might find Him, who is my God! that I might come even to his seat!” God’s children run home when the storm comes on. It is the heaven-born instinct of a gracious soul to seek shelter from all ills beneath the wings of Jehovah. “He that hath made his refuge God,” might serve as the title of a true believer. A hypocrite, when afflicted by God, resents the infliction, and, like a slave, would run from the Master who has scourged him; but not so the true heir of heaven, he kisses the hand which smote him, and seeks shelter from the rod in the bosom of the God who frowned upon him. Job’s desire to commune with God was intensified by the failure of all other sources of consolation. The patriarch turned away from his sorry friends, and looked up to the celestial throne, just as a traveller turns from his empty skin bottle, and betakes himself with all speed to the well. He bids farewell to earth-born hopes, and cries, “O that I knew where I might find my God!” Nothing teaches us so much the preciousness of the Creator, as when we learn the emptiness of all besides. Turning away with bitter scorn from earth’s hives, where we find no honey, but many sharp stings, we rejoice in him whose faithful word is sweeter than honey or the honeycomb. In every trouble we should first seek to realize God’s presence with us. Only let us enjoy his smile, and we can bear our daily cross with a willing heart for his dear sake.

Let my Cry Come to Thee...

It would be the direst of all our woes if we could be indisputably convinced that with God there is neither hearing nor answering; he who could argue us into so dreary a belief would do us no better service than if he had read us our death-warrants. Better die than be denied the mercy-seat. As well be atheists at once as believe in an unhearing, unfeeling God. And let my cry come unto thee. When sorrow rises to such a height that words become too weak a medium of expression, and prayer is intensified into a cry, then the heart is even more urgent to have audience with the Lord.

Excerpt from Spurgeon's exposition of Ps 102