prayer

Courage from the “Hereafter.”

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Father Leave a comment

Nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Matthew 26:64

Ah, LORD, You were in Your lowest state when before Your persecutors You were made to stand like a criminal! Yet the eyes of Your faith could see beyond Your present humiliation into Your future glory. What words are these, “Nevertheless – hereafter!” I would imitate Your holy foresight, and in the midst of poverty, or sickness, or slander, I also would say, “Nevertheless – hereafter.” Instead of weakness, You have all power; instead of shame, all glory; instead of derision, all worship, Your cross has not dimmed the splendor of Thy crown, neither has the spit marred the beauty of Your face. Rather, You are more exalted and honored because of Your sufferings.
So, LORD, I also would take courage from the “hereafter.” I would forget the present tribulation in the future triumph. Help me by directing me into the Father’s love and into Your own patience, so that when I am derided for Your name I may not be staggered but think more and more of the hereafter, and, therefore, all the less of today. I shall be with You soon and behold Thy glory. Wherefore, I am not ashamed but say in my inmost soul, “Nevertheless – hereafter.” ~ Charles Spurgeon | Faith’s Checkbook

This My Lord Knows

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, Sovereignty of God 25 Comments

“I know their sorrows.”-Exodus 3:7

The child is cheered as he sings, “This my father knows”; and shall not we be comforted as we discern that our dear Friend and tender soul-husband knows all about us?

He is the Physician, and if He knows all, there is no need that the patient should know. Hush, thou silly, fluttering heart, prying, peeping, and suspecting! What thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter, and meanwhile Jesus, the beloved Physician, knows thy soul in adversities. Why need the patient analyze all the medicine, or estimate all the symptoms? This is the Physician’s work, not mine; it is my business to trust, and His to prescribe. If He shall write His prescription in uncouth characters which I cannot read, I will not be uneasy on that account, but rely upon His unfailing skill to make all plain in the result, however mysterious in the working.

He is the Master, and His knowledge is to serve us instead of our own; we are to obey, not to judge: “The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth.” Shall the architect explain his plans to every hodman on the works? If he knows his own intent, is it not enough? The vessel on the wheel cannot guess to what pattern it shall be conformed, but if the potter understands his art, what matters the ignorance of the clay? My Lord must not be cross-questioned any more by one so ignorant as I am.

He is the Head. All understanding centres there. What judgment has the arm? What comprehension has the foot? All the power to know lies in the head. Why should the member have a brain of its own when the head fulfils for it every intellectual office? Here, then, must the believer rest his comfort in sickness, not that he himself can see the end, but that Jesus knows all. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://bible.christiansunite.com/Morning_and_Evening/chme0814.shtml

The Luxury of Heaven

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, The Holy Spirit 3 Comments

Blessed is the man that hungers and thirst to-day after righteousness, for he shall be filled. -Matthew 5:6

Today, beloved, some of us are hungering after holiness. Oh! what would I not give to be holy, to be rid of sin, of every evil thing about me! My eyes-ah! adieu sweet light, if I might also say, “Adieu sin! “My mouth-ah! well would I be content to be dumb if I might preach by a perfect life on earth! There is no faculty I know of that might not be cheerfully surrendered if the surrender of it would deprive us of sin. But they never thirst for holiness in heaven, for this excellent reason, that they are without fault before the throne of God. Does it not make your mouth water? Why this is the luxury of heaven to be perfect. Is not this-the heaven of heaven, to be clean rid of the root and branch of sin, and not a rag or bone, or piece of a bone of our old depravity left-all gone!- like our Lord, made perfect without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. And here, too, brethren and sisters, we very rightly hunger and thirst after full assurance and confidence. Many are hungering after it; they hope they are saved, and they thirst to be assured that they are. But there is no such thirst as that in heaven, for, having crossed the golden threshold of Paradise, no saint ever asks himself, “Am I saved?” They see His face without a cloud between; they bathe in the sea of His love; they cannot question that which they perpetually enjoy. So, too, on earth I hope we know what it is to hunger and thirst for fellowship with Christ. Oh! when He is gone from us-if He do but hide His face from us, how we cry, “My soul desires Thee in the night”! We cannot be satisfied unless we have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. But in heaven they have no such thing. There the Shepherd is always with the sheep, the King is ever near them, and because of His perpetual presence their hungering and their thirsting will be banished for ever. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3499.cfm

Seeking Soul, Heaven and Hell Tremble in the Balance for Thee!

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, prayer, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 3 Comments

And they that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee: for Thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee. -Psalm 9:10

Cry unto God to show thee the way; ask Him to do it, for, remember, He can do for thee what you canst never do for thyself. Understand that thou canst not save thyself-that thou hast no right to be saved-that if saved, it will be His sovereign grace; therefore, cry humbly, but oh! note the value of the blessing thou needest, and, therefore, pray earnestly. Do not let Him go, except He bless thee. Rob thyself of sleep, sinner, rather than rob thy soul of Christ…Oh! if a soul be resolved, “I will not perish if mercy is to be had; I will stoop to anything; I will have Christ or nothing; I will be nothing; I will let Him do what He wills with me, if I may but be saved; I will make no terms and no conditions, only let my sins be blotted out. My friend, thou art already not far from the kingdom of God. Already grace is at work in thy soul, and “if thou seek Him, He will be found of thee.” Continue in that blessed search. Let nothing take thee off from it; it is thy life; thy soul hangs on it; heaven and hell tremble in the balance for thee; give thy heart to God, thy faith to Christ, thy whole soul to the purpose of seeking thy salvation, and say, “It is my only business, with holy faith and holy fear, to make my calling and election sure while here I stand upon this narrow neck of land, betwixt the two unbounded seas.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/history/spurgeon/web/ss-0036.html

Sweetly Drawn to Salvation in Christ

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace… – Ephesians 1:7

There are some who, like Lydia, have their hearts opened not by the crowbar of conviction, but by the pick-lock of divine grace. Sweetly drawn, almost silently enchanted by the loveliness of Jesus, they say, “Draw me, and I will run after Thee.”
And now you ask me the question-“Why has God brought me to Himself in this gentle manner? “Again I say-there are some questions better unanswered than answered. God knows best the reason why He does not give you these terrors; leave that question with Him. But I may tell you an anecdote. There was a man once who had never felt these terrors and he thought within himself-“I never can believe I am a Christian unless I do.” so he prayed to God that he might feel them, and he did feel them, and what do you think is his testimony? He says, “Never, never do that, for the result was fearful in the extreme.” If he had but known what he was asking for, he would not have asked for anything so foolish. I knew a Christian man once who prayed for trouble. He was afraid he was not a Christian, because he had no trouble; but when the trouble came, he soon discovered how foolish he was to be asking for a thing which God in mercy had kept back from him. O be not foolish enough to sigh for misery. Thank God that you go to heaven along the walls of salvation; bless the Master that He does not call you in the cloudy and dark day, but brings you gently to Himself; and be content, I pray you, to be called by the music of the voice of love. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0313.cfm

Satan’s Advancement

Sherry Christian Life, prayer, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God 4 Comments

Thou art my hiding place; Thou shalt preserve me from trouble; Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah. -Psalm 32:7

Satan is now busy upon you. He sees that God is wounding you and he does not wish that those wounds shall heal; he therefore trusteth in his fangs, and teareth open the flesh, and trieth if he cannot pour his poison into that very flesh which God has been wounding with the sword. “Now,” saith he, “that God is against him will I be against him too. God is driving him to sadness; I will drive him farther still, and urge him to despair. God has brought him to the precipice, to the edge of his self-righteousness, and bidden him look down and see the yawning gulf. Now,” says Satan, “one push more, and over he will go.” He has come forth, therefore, with all his strength, hoping that the hour of your conviction shall be also the hour of your condemnation. He will tempt you, perhaps, as he did Job, till you say, “My soul chooseth strangling rather than life.” He will seek to bring you low, like Jeremiah, until you are ready to wish you had never been born, rather than that you should suffer like this.

Oh! pray against Satan! Cry aloud to your God to deliver you from this fiend, for he is the cause of much of your distress; and if you were rid of him, it may be that your wound would soon heal, and you would find peace. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0313.cfm

God’s Smites Are of Grace

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, prayer, promises, Sovereignty of God 2 Comments

For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me… -Psalm 32:4

You tell me you are sore troubled by reason of conviction, and that your convictions of sin are attended by the most terrible and gloomy thoughts, I am not at a loss to tell you why it is.

Do you wonder, then, that when He smites, His blows fell you to the ground? Are you astonished that when He wounds, His wounds are deep and hard to heal? Besides, remember it is an angry God that you have to deal with; One who has had patience with you in your sins these thirty, forty, or fifty years, and now He has come forth Himself to compel you to throw down the weapons of your rebellion, and to take you captive by His justice, that He may afterwards set you free by His grace. Is it any marvel, then, that when an angry God-a God who has restrained His anger these many years-comes out in battle against you, you find it hard to resist Him, and that His blows bruise you and break your bones, and make your spirit feel as if it must verily die…Be not astonished at all your terrors; God on Sinai, when He came to give the law, was terrible; but God on Sinai, when He comes to bring the law into the conscience, and to strike it home, must be more terrible far.

Oh! ye need not wonder that your pains are fearful, when God thus smites you on the tenderest part of a conscience which He has made tender by His grace. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0313.cfm