Pause and Pray!

July 19, 2025July 5, 2025Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises Leave a comment

In your patience possess ye your souls. – Like 21:19

When we have patience, it keeps us in good heart for service; a man to whom it is given to wait for a reward, keeps up his courage, and when he has to wait, he says, “It is no more than I expected; I never reckoned that I was to slay my enemy at the first blow; I never imagined that I was to capture the city as soon as ever I had dug the first trench; I reckoned upon waiting, and now that is come, I find that God gives me the grace to fight on and wrestle on, till the victory shall come.”

And patience saves a man from a great deal of haste and folly. A hasty man is never a wise man; he is wise who halts a little, and ponders his ways, especially when adversity crosses his path. I have known brothers in the ministry get discouraged, and leave their pulpits, and repent as long as ever they lived that they left a sphere of labor where they ought to have toiled on! I have known Christians get discouraged, and touchy, and angry; fall out with the church of which they were members; go out in the wilderness and leave the fat pastures behind them. They have only had to regret all their lives that they had not a little more patience with their brothers and sisters, and with the circumstances which surrounded them. Whenever you are about to do anything in a great hurry, pause and pray! The hot fever in your own system ill fits you to act discreetly; while you tarry for a more healthy temperature of your own feelings, there may be a great change in the thermometer outside as to the circumstances that influence you! Great haste makes little speed; he who believes shall not make haste; and as the promise runs, he shall never be confounded. Above all, patience is to be commended to you because it glorifies God; the man who can wait, and wait calmly, astonishes the worldling, for the worldling wants it now. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1025.cfm

Conquer Your Impatience!

July 18, 2025July 18, 2025Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises Leave a comment

Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. – James 5:8

Suppose a man should be impatient under suffering; will it diminish his suffering? Will it increase the probabilities of his restoration? We all know that the irritability of temper which is caused by impatience is one of the difficulties which the physician has to battle with. When the patient is calm, there is a better chance of his recovery…There is a story told of Mr. Hill being on board a vessel once. It is said he heard the mate swear, and afterwards he heard the captain use a profane oath. I think Mr. Hill interposed as the captain was about to swear again, and said, “No, no, let us be fair; let us have everything turn and turn about. Your mate has sworn, and you have had an oath. Now it is my turn—my turn to swear.” The captain looked at him somewhat astonished, and had to admit that there was a degree of rightness and propriety in every man having his turn; however, Mr. Hill did not swear, and the captain said, “I suppose, sir, you don’t mean to take your turn; you really don’t mean to swear.” “Oh, yes,” said the good old man, “I mean to swear as soon as ever I can see the good of it.”

We might do the same by our impatience, brothers and sisters! Let us be impatient as soon as ever we can see the use it will serve! If the farmer should need rain just now, his impatience would not influence the clouds and make them pour out their torrents…Whatever happens to you, there is nothing can happen to you worse than your being impatient, for of all troubles in the world that one can be troubled with, an impatient spirit is about the worst. O that you would endeavor to conquer impatience! It cast Satan out of heaven, when he was impatient at the honor and dignity of the Son of God; he was impatient at being a servant to his Maker and was driven from his high estate. Let us be rid of impatience which made Cain kill his brother, and which has done a thousand mischievous things since. May God grant us, like the farmer, to watch and wait patiently, but the benefits of patience are too many for me to hope to name them. Suffice it to say, patience saves a man from great discouragement. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1025.cfm

Patience with Confidence

July 17, 2025July 17, 2025Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises Leave a comment

Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. – James 5:7

A godly farmer waits with patience because he knows God’s covenant. God has said, “Seed time and harvest, summer and winter, shall not cease,” and the Christian farmer, knowing this, is confident. Oh, what strong confidences have we who have looked to Christ, and who are resting on the faithful word of a covenant God! He cannot fail us; it is not possible that He should allow our faith to be confounded. “Heaven and earth may pass away,” and they shall, but His Word shall not fail! They who sow in faith shall reap abundantly; the glory shall be theirs. And, brother workers, if we do not, for a time, see all the results we expect, yet the Lord has said, “Surely all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” The day must come when the dwellers in the wilderness shall bow before Him and lick the dust. “He has set His King upon His holy hill of Zion,” and they who said, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast their cords from us,” will have to submit themselves, and lick the dust at His feet! Have courage, therefore; the covenant stands good, the harvest must come as surely as the seed time has come.

Let us cheerfully resign ourselves to the Lord’s will in suffering, for as others of His saints who went before us have reaped His blessing, so shall we! Let us work on for our Lord and Master, knowing that apostles and confessors, and a great cloud of witnesses who have gone before have seen great results, and so shall we; let us patiently tarry till the Lord comes, for as in the first coming those who waited for Him rejoiced, so shall those who are found watching and waiting at His second advent. We have not only the promise of God, but that promise fulfilled to tens of thousands who have preceded us! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1025.cfm

Our Labor and Reward

July 16, 2025July 5, 2025Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises Leave a comment

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. – 1 Corinthians 15:58

There are great blessings connected with patient endurance…Christian workers, you must work for results, for, though conversion is the work of God, it is in many cases as clearly a product of the holy living, the devout teaching, and the fervent praying of His servants, as anything can be the result from a cause! Go on, go on, and may you have real conversions; not pretended conversions; not such as are sometimes chronicled in newspapers—“Fifty-one conversions of an evening”—as if anybody knew! May there be real conversions, and ripe fruits for Jesus in the growth and advance of those who are converted and may many of them turn out to be such fruit-bearing Christians when they are matured in grace, that the richest result in the prosperity of the church may come to you from all your work!

In this world, look not for a reward; you may have a grateful acknowledgment in the peace, and quiet and contentment of your own spirit, but do not expect even that from your fellow men! The pure motive of any man who serves his generation well is generally misrepresented; as a rule, the lounger looks on at the laborer not to praise, but to blame him, not to cheer him, but to chide him. The less he does, the less he will be open to rebuke, and the more he does, oftentimes, and the more vigorously, the more he shall be upbraided! Look not for your reward here. Suppose men praise you; what is their praise worth? It would not fill your nostrils if you were about to die! The approval of those who have neither skill nor taste; what pleasure can it afford the artist? Should one stoop for it, or, having it, lift his head the higher? Our reward is the approval of God, which He will give of His abundant grace. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1025.cfm

Have Patience Despite the Changes

July 15, 2025July 5, 2025Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation Leave a comment

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. – Galatians 6:9

The farmer waits under changing circumstances, and various contingences. At one time he sees the fair prospect of a good crop; the wheat has come up well; he has never seen greener springing from the ground! But perhaps it may be too strong and may need even to be put back. By-and-by, after long showers and cold nights, the wheat looks yellow, and he is half afraid about it; in a while there comes, or he fancies there is blight, or a black smut; nobody knows what may happen! Only a farmer knows how his hopes and fears alternate and fluctuate from time to time. It is too hot, too cold; it is too dry; it is too wet. It is hardly ever quite right, according to his judgment, or rather according to his unbelief. He is full of changes in his mind because the season is full of changes; yet he waits, and he waits with patience. Ah dear friends, when we work for God, how often will this happen! I speak from no inconsiderable experience; there are always changes in the field of Christian labor. At one time we see many conversions, and we bless God that there are so many seals to our testimony. But some of the converts after a while disappoint us; there was the blossom, but it produced no fruit; then there will come a season when many appear to backslide; the love of many waxes cold. Perhaps we have found in the church the black smut of heresy; some deadly heresy creeps in, and the anxious farmer fears there will be no harvest after all. Oh, patience, sir, patience!

So, too, maybe, O evangelical worker, it will be with you. When God shall give you a rich return for all you have done for Him, you will blush to think you ever doubted; you will be ashamed to think you ever grew weary in His service; you shall have your reward. Not tomorrow, so wait; not the next day perhaps, so be patient. You may be full of doubts one day, your joys sink low. It may be rough windy weather with you in your spirit; you may even doubt whether you are the Lord’s, but if you have rested in the name of Jesus; if by the grace of God you are what you are; if He is all your salvation, and all your desire—have patience, have patience, for the reward will surely come in God’s good time! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1025.cfm

Hastening the Coming of Our Lord

July 14, 2025July 5, 2025Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. – James 5:7,8

While the farmer waits with his eyes upward, he waits with his hands at work, engaged in restless toil. He sows, and it is a busy time; when he sees the green blade, what then? He has to work! Yes, the farmer waits; he cannot push on the months; he cannot hasten the time of the harvest home, but he does not wait in silence, in sluggishness and negligence; he keeps to his work and waits. So do you, O Christian! Wait for the coming of your Lord, but let it be with your lamps trimmed, and your lights burning, as good servants attending to the duties of the house, until the Master of the house returns to give you the reward!

The keys of the rain clouds which water the earth hang at the belt of Jehovah. None but the eternal Father can send the Holy Spirit like showers on the church; only He can send the Comforter, and my labor will prosper; it will not be in vain in the Lord. But if He denies—if He withholds this covenant blessing, ah me, work is useless, patience is worthless, and all the cost is in vain. In spiritual, as in temporal things, “It is vain to rise up early and sit up late and eat the bread of carefulness.” “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” We must have the dew, O God, or else our seed shall rot under the clods; we must wait, and wait with our eyes upwards, or else our expectation will perish as a still-born child! So with regard to the comfort, and joy, and ultimate fruit of our faith, we must have our eyes upward looking for the coming of the Lord from heaven, for the day of His appearing will be the day of our manifestation! Our life is hid with Christ, but when He shall appear, we shall appear with Him; when He shall be revealed in glory before the eyes of the assembled multitude, we shall be conspicuous in glory! Not until then shall the fullness of the reward be bestowed, but the risen saints shall be glorified in the glorification of their coming Lord. Oh, for more of this living with the eyes upward, less minding of earthly things, and more looking for, and hastening unto the coming of the Son of God! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1025.cfm