November 1
Waiting is
Hard
"When the cloud tarried . . . then the children of Israel . . .
journeyed not" (Num. 9:19).
This was the supreme test of obedience. It was comparatively
easy to strike tents, when the fleecy folds of the cloud were
slowly gathering from off the Tabernacle, and it floated
majestically before the host. Change is always delightful; and
there was excitement and interest in the route, the scenery, and
the locality of the next halting-place. But, ah, the tarrying.
Then, however uninviting and sultry the location, however trying
to flesh and blood, however irksome to the impatient
disposition, however perilously exposed to danger--there was no
option but to remain encamped.
The Psalmist says, "I waited patiently for the Lord; and he
inclined unto me, and heard my cry." And what He did for the Old
Testament saints He will do for believers throughout all ages.
Still God often keeps us waiting. Face to face with threatening
foes, in the midst of alarms, encircled by perils, beneath the
impending rock. May we not go? Is it not time to strike our
tents? Have we not suffered to the point of utter collapse? May
we not exchange the glare and heat for green pastures and still
waters?
There is no answer. The cloud tarries, and we must remain,
though sure of manna, rock-water, shelter, and defense. God
never keeps us at post without assuring us of His presence, and
sending us daily supplies.
Wait, young man, do not be in a hurry to make a change!
Minister, remain at your post! Until the cloud clearly moves,
you must tarry. Wait, then, thy Lord's good pleasure! He will be
in plenty of time!--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 daughter"--
Yet the heathen die,
They perish while I stay!
I long to reach them--but I long far more
To trust HIS way!
'Tis good to get,
'Tis good indeed to give!
Yet is it better still--
O'er breadth, thro' length, down length, up height,
To trust HIS will! --F. M. N.
November 2
Expectations Beyond Us
"But prayer" (Acts 12:5).
But prayer is the link that connects us with God. This is the
bridge that spans every gulf and bears us over every abyss of
danger or of need.
How significant the picture of the Apostolic Church: Peter in
prison, the Jews triumphant, Herod supreme, the arena of
martyrdom awaiting the dawning of the morning to drink up the
apostle's blood, and everything else against it. "But prayer was
made unto God without ceasing." And what was the sequel? The
prison open, the apostle free, the Jews baffled, the wicked king
eaten of worms, a spectacle of hidden retribution, and the Word
of God rolling on in greater victory.
Do we know the power of our supernatural weapon? Do we dare to
use it with the authority of a faith that commands as well as
asks? God baptize us with holy audacity and Divine confidence!
He is not wanting great men, but He is wanting men who will dare
to prove the greatness of their God. But God! But prayer! --A.
B. Simpson
Beware in your prayer, above everything, of limiting God, not
only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do.
Expect unexpected things, above all that we ask or think. Each
time you intercede, be quiet first and worship God in His glory.
Think of what He can do, of how He delights to hear Christ, of
your place in Christ; and expect great things. --Andrew Murray
Our prayers are God's opportunities.
Are you in sorrow? Prayer can make your affliction sweet and
strengthening. Are you in gladness? Prayer can add to your joy a
celestial perfume. Are you in extreme danger from outward or
inward enemies? Prayer can set at your right hand an angel whose
touch could shatter a millstone into smaller dust than the flour
it grinds, and whose glance could lay an army low. What will
prayer do for you? I answer: All that God can do for you. "Ask
what I shall give thee." --Farrar
"Wrestling prayer can wonders do,
Bring relief in deepest straits;
Prayer can force a passage through
Iron bars and brazen gates."
November 3
It Must Be Bought
"On all bare heights shall be their pasture" (Isa.
40:9, RV).
Toys and trinkets are easily won, but the greatest things are
greatly bought. The top-most place of power is always bought
with blood. You may have the pinnacles if you have enough blood
to pay. That is the conquest condition of the holy heights
everywhere. The story of real heroisms is the story of
sacrificial blood. The chiefest values in life and character are
not blown across our way by vagrant winds. Great souls have
great sorrows.
"Great truths are dearly bought, the common truths,
Such as men give and take front day to day,
Come in the common walk of easy life,
Blown by the careless wind across our way.
"Great truths are greatly won, not found by chance,
Nor wafted on the breath of summer dream;
But grasped in the great struggle of the soul,
Hard buffeting with adverse wind and stream.
"But in the day of conflict, fear and grief,
When the strong hand of God, put forth in might,
Plows up the subsoil of the stagnant heart,
And brings the imprisoned truth seed to the light.
"Wrung from the troubled spirit, in hard hours
Of weakness, solitude, perchance of pain,
Truth springs like harvest from the well-plowed field,
And the soul feels it has not wept in vain."
The capacity for knowing God enlarges as we are brought by Him
into circumstances which oblige us to exercise faith; so, when
difficulties beset our path let us thank God that He is taking
trouble with us, and lean hard upon Him.
November 4
The Captive
"As I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, the
heavens were opened and I saw visions of God . . . and the hand
of the Lord was there upon me" (Ezek. 1:1,3).
There is no commentator of the Scriptures half so valuable as a
captivity. The old Psalms have quavered for us with a new pathos
as we sat by our "Babel's stream," and have sounded for us with
new joy as we found our captivity turned as the streams in the
South.
The man who has seen much affliction will not readily part with
his copy of the Word of God. Another book may seem to others to
be identical with his own; but it is not the same to him, for
over his old and tear-stained Bible he has written, in
characters which are visible to no eyes but his own, the record
of his experiences, and ever and anon he comes on Bethel pillars
or Elim palms, which are to him the memorials of some critical
chapter in his history.
If we are to receive benefit from our captivity we must accept
the situation and turn it to the best possible account. Fretting
over that from which we have been removed or which has been
taken away from us, will not make things better, but it will
prevent us from improving those which remain. The bond is only
tightened by our stretching it to the uttermost.
The impatient horse which will not quietly endure his halter
only strangles himself in his stall. The high-mettled animal
that is restive in the yoke only galls his shoulders; and every
one will understand the difference between the restless starling
of which Sterne has written, breaking its wings against the bars
of the cage, and crying, "I can't get out, I can't get out," and
the docile canary that sits upon its perch and sings as if it
would outrival the lark soaring to heaven's gate.
No calamity can be to us an unmixed evil if we carry it in
direct and fervent prayer to God, for even as one in taking
shelter from the rain beneath a tree may find on its branches
fruit which he looked not for, so we in fleeing for refuge
beneath the shadow of God's wing, will always find more in God
than we had seen or known before.
It is thus through our trials and afflictions that God gives us
fresh revelations of Himself; and the Jabbok ford leads to
Peniel, where, as the result of our wrestling, we "see God face
to face," and our lives are preserved. Take this to thyself, O
captive, and He will give thee "songs in the night," and turn
for thee "the shadow of death into the morning." --William
Taylor
"Submission to the divine will is the softest pillow on which to
recline."
"It filled the room, and it filled my life,
With a glory of source unseen;
It made me calm in the midst of strife,
And in winter my heart was green.
And the birds of promise sang on the tree
When the storm was breaking on land and sea."
November 5
Nothing is Too Hard
"Is there anything too hard for Jehovah?" (Gen. 18:14).
Here is God's loving challenge to you and to me today. He wants
us to think of the deepest, highest, worthiest desire and
longing of our hearts, something which perhaps was our desire
for ourselves or for someone dear to us, yet which has been so
long unfulfilled that we have looked upon it as only a lost
desire, that which might have been but now cannot be, and so
have given up hope of seeing it fulfilled in this life.
That thing, if it is in line with what we know to be His
expressed will as a son to Abraham and Sarah was., God intends
to do for us, even if we know that it is of such utter
impossibility that we only laugh at the absurdity of anyone's
supposing it could ever now come to pass. That thing God intends
to do for us, if we will let Him.
"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Not when we believe in Him
enough to go forward and do His will, and let Him do the
impossible for us. Even Abraham and Sarah could have blocked
God's plan if they had continued to disbelieve.
The only thing too hard for Jehovah is deliberate, continued
disbelief in His love and power, and our final rejection of His
plans for us. Nothing is too hard for Jehovah to do for them
that trust Him --Messages for the Morning Watch
November 6
The Greatest Pains
"As many as I love I rebuke and chasten" (Rev. 3:19).
God takes the most eminent and choicest of His servants for the
choicest and most eminent afflictions. They who have received
most grace from God are able to bear most afflictions from God.
Affliction does not hit the saint by chance, but by direction.
God does not draw His bow at a venture. Every one of His arrows
goes upon a special errand and touches no breast but his against
whom it is sent. It is not only the grace, but the glory of a
believer when we can stand and take affliction quietly. --Joseph
Caryl
If all my days were sunny, could I say,
"In His fair land He wipes all tears away"?
If I were never weary, could I keep
Close to my heart, "He gives His loved ones sleep"?
Were no graves mine, might I not come to deem
The Life Eternal but a baseless dream?
My winter, and my tears, and weariness,
Even my graves, may be His way to bless.
I call them ills; yet that can surely be
Nothing but love that shows my Lord to me!
--Selected
"The most deeply taught Christians are generally those who have
been brought into the searching fires of deep soul-anguish. If
you have been praying to know more of Christ, do not be
surprised if He takes you aside into a desert place, or leads
you into a furnace of pain."
Do not punish me, Lord, by taking my cross from me, but comfort
me by submitting me to Thy will, and by making me to love the
cross. Give me that by which Thou shalt be best served . . . and
let me hold it for the greatest of all Thy mercies, that Thou
shouldst glorify Thy name in me, according to Thy will. --A
Captive's Prayer
November 7
Heart's Sacrifice
"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for
Christ" (Phil. 3:7).
When they buried the blind preacher, George Matheson, they lined
his grave with red roses in memory of his love-life of
sacrifice. And it was this man, so beautifully and significantly
honored, who wrote,
"O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee,
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
"O Light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to Thee,
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in Thy sunshine's blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.
"O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee,
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shalt tearless be.
"O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from Thee,
I lay in dust life's glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red,
Life that shall endless be."
There is a legend of an artist who had found the secret of a
wonderful red which no other artist could imitate. The secret of
his color died with him. But after his death an old wound was
discovered over his heart. This revealed the source of the
matchless hue in his pictures. The legend teaches that no great
achievement can be made, no lofty attainment reached, nothing of
much value to the world done, save at the cost of heart's blood.
November 8
Come Close to Him
"He took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain
to pray, and as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was
altered, and his raiment was white and glistering . . . they saw
his glory" (Luke 9:29, 32).
"If I have found grace in thy sight, show me thy glory"
(Exod. 33:13).
When Jesus took these three disciples up into that high mountain
apart, He brought them into close communion with Himself. They
saw no man but Jesus only; and it was good to be there. Heaven
is not far from those who tarry on the mount with their Lord.
Who has not in moments of meditation and prayer caught a glimpse
of opening gates? Who has not in the secret place of holy
communion felt the rush of some white surging wave of emotion--a
foretaste of the joy of the blessed?
The Master had times and places for quiet converse with His
disciples, once on the peak of Hermon, but oftener on the sacred
slopes of Olivet. Every Christian should have his Olivet. Most
of us, especially in the cities and towns, live at high
pressure. From early morning until bedtime we are exposed to the
whirl. Amid all this maelstrom how little chance for quiet
thought, for God's Word, for prayer and heart fellowship!
Daniel needed to have an Olivet in his chamber amid Babylon's
roar and idolatries. Peter found his on a housetop in Joppa; and
Martin Luther found his in the "upper room" at Wittenberg, which
is still held sacred.
Dr. Joseph Parker once said: "If we do not get back to visions,
peeps into heaven, consciousness of the higher glory and the
larger life, we shall lose our religion; our altar will become a
bare stone, unblessed by visitant from Heaven." Here is the
world's need today--men who have seen their Lord. --The Lost Art
of Meditation
Come close to Him! He may take you today up into the mountain
top, for where He took Peter with his blundering, and James and
John, those sons of thunder who again and again so utterly
misunderstood their Master and His mission, there is no reason
why He should not take you. So don't shut yourself out of it and
say, "Ah, these wonderful visions and revelations of the Lord
are for choice spirits!" They may be for you! --John McNeill
November 9
Seek Communion
"They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall
revive as the corn and grow as the vine" (Hosea 14:7).
The day closed with heavy showers. The plants in my garden were
beaten down before the pelting storm, and I saw one flower that
I had admired for its beauty and loved for its fragrance exposed
to the pitiless storm. The flower fell, shut up its petals,
dropped its head; and I saw that all its glory was gone. "I must
wait till next year," I said, "before I see that beautiful thing
again."
That night passed, and morning came; the sun shone again, and
the morning brought strength to the flower. The light looked at
it, and the flower looked at the light. There was contact and
communion, and power passed into the flower. It held up its
head, opened its petals, regained its glory, and seemed fairer
than before. I wonder how it took place--this feeble thing
coming into contact with the strong thing, and gaining strength!
I cannot tell how it is that I should be able to receive into my
being a power to do and to bear by communion with God, but I
know It is a fact.
Are you in peril through some crushing, heavy trial? Seek this
communion with Christ, and you will receive strength and be able
to conquer. "I will strengthen thee." -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon
YESTERDAY'S GRIEF
The rain that fell a-yesterday is ruby on the roses,
Silver on the poplar leaf, and gold on willow stem;
The grief that chanced a-yesterday is silence that incloses
Holy loves when time and change shall never trouble them.
The rain that fell a-yesterday makes all the hillsides glisten,
Coral on the laurel and beryl on the grass;
The grief that chanced a-yesterday has taught the soul to listen
For whispers of eternity in all the winds that pass.
O faint-of-heart, storm-beaten, this rain will gleam tomorrow,
Flame within the columbine and jewels on the thorn,
Heaven in the forget-me-not; though sorrow now be sorrow,
Yet sorrow shall be, beauty in the magic of the morn.
--Katherine Lee Bates
November 10
Faith Triumphs
"Under hopeless circumstances he hopefully believed" (Rom.
4:18, Weymouth).
Abraham's faith seemed to be in a thorough correspondence with
the power and constant faithfulness of Jehovah. In the outward
circumstances in which he was placed, he had not the greatest
cause to expect the fulfillment of the promise. Yet he believed
the Word of the Lord, and looked forward to the time when his
seed should be as the stars of heaven for multitude.
O my soul, thou hast not one single promise only, like Abraham,
but a thousand promises, and many patterns of faithful believers
before thee: it behooves thee, therefore, to rely with
confidence upon the Word of God. And though He delayeth His
help, and the evil seemeth to grow worse and worse, be not weak,
but rather strong, and rejoice, since the most glorious promises
of God are generally fulfilled in such a wondrous manner that He
steps forth to save us at a time when there is the least
appearance of it.
He commonly brings His help in our greatest extremity, that His
finger may plainly appear in our deliverance. And this method He
chooses that we may not trust upon anything that we see or feel,
as we are always apt to do, but only upon His bare Word, which
we may depend upon in every state. --C. H. Von Bogatzky
Remember it is the very time for faith to work when sight
ceases. The greater the difficulties, the easier for faith; as
long as there remain certain natural prospects, faith does not
get on even as easily as where natural prospects fail. --George
Mueller
November 11
Lawn Care
"He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass" (Ps. 72:6).
Amos speaks of the king's mowings. Our King has many scythes,
and is perpetually mowing His lawns. The musical tinkle of the
whetstone on the scythe portends the cutting down of myriads of
green blades, daisies and other flowers. Beautiful as they were
in the morning, within an hour or two they lie in long, faded
rows.
Thus in human life we make a brave show, before the scythe of
pain, the shears of disappointment, the sickle of death.
There is no method of obtaining a velvety lawn but by repeated
mowings; and there is no way of developing tenderness, evenness,
sympathy, but by the passing of God's scythes. How constantly
the Word of God compares man to grass, and His glory to its
flower! But when grass is mown, and all the tender shoots are
bleeding, and desolation reigns where flowers were bursting, it
is the most acceptable time for showers of rain falling soft and
warm.
O soul, thou hast been mown! Time after time the King has come
to thee with His sharp scythe. Do not dread the scythe--it is
sure to be followed by the shower. --F. B. Meyer
"When across the heart deep waves of sorrow
Break, as on a dry and barren shore;
When hope glistens with no bright tomorrow,
And the storm seems sweeping evermore;
"When the cup of every earthly gladness
Bears no taste of the life-giving stream;
And high hopes, as though to mock our sadness,
Fade and die as in some fitful dream,
"Who shall hush the weary spirit's chiding?
Who the aching void within shall fill?
Who shall whisper of a peace abiding,
And each surging billow calmly still?
"Only He whose wounded heart was broken
With the bitter cross and thorny crown;
Whose dear love glad words of Joy had spoken,
Who His life for us laid meekly down.
"Blessed Healer, all our burdens lighten;
Give us peace, Thine own sweet peace, we pray!
Keep us near Thee till the morn shall brighten,
And all the mists and shadows flee away!"
November 12
Unadorned
Life
"These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and
hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work" (1 Chron.
4:23).
Anywhere and everywhere we may dwell "with the king for his
work." We may be in a very unlikely and unfavorable place for
this; it may be in a literal country life, with little enough to
be seen of the "goings" of the King around us; it may be among
the hedges of all sorts, hindrances in all directions; it may be
furthermore, with our hands full of all manner of pottery for
our daily task.
No matter! The King who placed us "there" will come and dwell
there with us; the hedges are right, or He would soon do away
with them. And it does not follow that what seems to hinder our
way may not be for its very protection; and as for the pottery,
why, that is just exactly what He has seen fit to put into our
hands, and therefore it is, for the present, "His work."
--Frances Ridley Havergal
"Go back to thy garden-plot, sweetheart!
Go back till the evening falls,
And bind thy lilies and train thy vines,
Till for thee the Master calls.
"Go make thy garden fair as thou canst,
Thou workest never alone;
Perhaps he whose plot is next to thine
Will see it and mend his own."
The colored sunsets and starry heavens, the beautiful mountains
and the shining seas, the fragrant woods and painted flowers,
are not half so beautiful as a soul that is serving Jesus out of
love, in the wear and tear of common, unpoetic life. --Faber
The most saintly spirits are often existing in those who have
never distinguished themselves as authors, or left any memorial
of themselves to be the theme of the world's talk; but who have
led an interior angelic life, having borne their sweet blossoms
unseen like the young lily in a sequestered vale on the bank of
a limpid stream. --Kenelm Digby
November 13
He Knows Us
"I know him, that he will command his children" (Gen. 18:19).
God wants people that He can depend upon. He could say of
Abraham, "I know him, that he will command his children . . .
that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken."
God can be depended upon; He wants us to be just as decided, as
reliable, as stable. This is just what faith means.
God is looking for men on whom He can put the weight of all His
love and power and faithful promises. God's engines are strong
enough to draw any weight we attach to them. Unfortunately the
cable which we fasten to the engine is often too weak to hold
the weight of our prayer; therefore God is drilling us,
disciplining us to stability and certainty in the life of faith.
Let us learn our lessons and stand fast. --A. B. Simpson
God knows that you can stand that trial; He would not give it to
you if you could not. It is His trust in you that explains the
trials of life, however bitter they may be. God knows our
strength, and He measures it to the last inch; and a trial was
never given to any man that was greater than that man's
strength, through God, to bear it.
November 14
Only Through Death
"Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it
remains a single grain, but if it dies away in the ground, the
grain is freed to spring up in a plant bearing many grains"
(John 12:24).
Go to the old burying ground of Northampton, Mass., and look
upon the early grave of David Brainerd, beside that of the fair
Jerusha Edwards, whom he loved but did not live to wed.
What hopes, what expectations for Christ's cause went down to
the grave with the wasted form of that young missionary of whose
work nothing now remained but the dear memory, and a few score
of swarthy Indian converts! But that majestic old Puritan saint,
Jonathan Edwards, who had hoped to call him his son, gathered up
the memorials of his life in a little book, and the little book
took wings and flew beyond the sea, and alighted on the table of
a Cambridge student, Henry Martyn.
Poor Martyn! Why should he throw himself away, with all his
scholarship, his genius, his opportunities! What had he
accomplished when he turned homeward from "India's coral
strand," broken in health, and dragged himself northward as far
as that dreary khan at Tocat by the Black Sea, where he crouched
under the piled-up saddles, to cool his burning fever against
the earth, and there died alone?
To what purpose was this waste? Out of that early grave of
Brainerd, and the lonely grave of Martyn far away by the
splashing of the Euxine Sea, has sprung the noble army of modern
missionaries. --Leonard Woolsey Bacon
"Is there some desert, or some boundless sea,
Where Thou, great God of angels, wilt send me?
Some oak for me to rend, Some sod for me to break,
Some handful of Thy corn to take
And scatter far afield,
Till it in turn shall yield
Its hundredfold
Of grains of gold
To feed the happy children of my God?
"Show me the desert, Father, or the sea;
Is it Thine enterprise? Great God, send me!
And though this body lies where ocean rolls,
Father, count me among all faithful souls."
November 15
Through Faith
"Pressed out of measure" (2 Cor. 1:8).
"That the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Cor.
12:9).
God allowed the crisis to close around Jacob on the night when
he bowed at Peniel in supplication, to bring him to the place
where he could take hold of God as he never would have done; and
from that narrow pass of peril, Jacob became enlarged in his
faith and knowledge of God, and in the power of a new and
victorious life.
God had to compel David, by a long and painful discipline of
years, to learn the almighty power and faithfulness of his God,
and grow up into the established principles of faith and
godliness, which were indispensable for his glorious career as
the king of Israel.
Nothing but the extremities in which Paul was constantly placed
could ever have taught him, and taught the Church through him,
the full meaning of the great promise he so learned to claim,
"My grace is sufficient for thee."
And nothing but our trials and perils would ever have led some
of us to know Him as we do, to trust Him as we have, and to draw
from Him the measures of grace which our very extremities made
indispensable.
Difficulties and obstacles are God's challenges to faith. When
hindrances confront us in the path of duty, we are to recognize
them as vessels for faith to fill with the fullness and
all-sufficiency of Jesus; and as we go forward, simply and fully
trusting Him, we may be tested, we may have to wait and let
patience have her perfect work; but we shall surely find at last
the stone rolled away, and the Lord waiting to render unto us
double for our time of testing. --A. B. Simpson
November 16
Your Crown of Glory
"They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb . . . and they loved
not their lives unto the death" (Rev. 12:11).
When James and John came to Christ with their mother, asking Him
to give them the best place in the kingdom, He did not refuse
their request, but told them it would be given to them if they
could do His work, drink His cup, and be baptized with His
baptism.
Do we want the competition? The greatest things are always
hedged about by the hardest things, and we, too, shall find
mountains and forests and chariots of iron. Hardship is the
price of coronation. Triumphal arches are not woven out of rose
blossoms and silken cords, but of hard blows and bloody scars.
The very hardships that you are enduring in your life today are
given by the Master for the explicit purpose of enabling you to
win your crown.
Do not wait for some ideal situation, some romantic difficulty,
some far-away emergency; but rise to meet the actual conditions
which the Providence of God has placed around you today. Your
crown of glory lies embedded in the very heart of these
things--those hardships and trials that are pressing you this
very hour, week and month of your life. The hardest things are
not those that the world knows of. Down in your secret soul
unseen and unknown by any but Jesus, there is a little trial
that you would not dare to mention that is harder for you to
bear than martyrdom.
There, beloved, lies your crown. God help you to overcome, and
sometime wear it. --Selected
"It matters not how the battle goes,
The day how long;
Faint not! Fight on!
Tomorrow comes the song."
November 17
Unanswered?
"Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge
his own elect which cry day and night unto him, though he bear
long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily"
(Luke 18:6, 7).
God's seasons are not at your beck. If the first stroke of the
flint doth not bring forth the fire, you must strike again. God
will hear prayer, but He may not answer it at the time which we
in our minds have appointed; He will reveal Himself to our
seeking hearts, but not just when and where we have settled in
our own expectations. Hence the need of perseverance and
importunity in supplication.
In the days of flint and steel and brimstone matches we had to
strike and strike again, dozens of times, before we could get a
spark to live in the tinder; and we were thankful enough if we
succeeded at last.
Shall we not be as persevering and hopeful as to heavenly
things? We have more certainty of success in this business than
we had with our flint and steel, for we have God's promises at
our back.
Never let us despair. God's time for mercy will come; yea, it
has come, if our time for believing has arrived. Ask in faith
nothing wavering; but never cease from petitioning because the
King delays to reply. Strike the steel again. Make the sparks
fly and have your tinder ready; you will get a light before
long.
--C. H. Spurgeon
I do not believe that there is such a thing in the history of
God's kingdom as a right prayer offered in a right spirit that
is forever left unanswered. --Theodore L. Cuyler
November 18
Don't Be Offended
"Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me" (Luke
7:23).
It is sometimes very difficult not to be offended in Jesus
Christ. The offenses may be circumstantial. I find myself in a
prison-house--a narrow sphere, a sick chamber, an unpopular
position--when I had hoped for wide opportunities. Yes, but He
knows what is best for me. My environment is of His determining.
He means it to intensify my faith, to draw me into nearer
communion with Himself, to ripen my power. In the dungeon my
soul should prosper.
The offense may be mental. I am haunted by perplexities,
questions, which I cannot solve. I had hoped that, when I gave
myself to Him, my sky would always be clear; but often it is
overspread by mist and cloud. Yet let me believe that, if
difficulties remain, it is that I may learn to trust Him all the
more implicitly--to trust and not be afraid. Yes, and by my
intellectual conflicts, I am trained to be a tutor to other
storm-driven men.
The offense may be spiritual. I had fancied that within His fold
I should never feel the biting winds of temptation; but it is
best as it is. His grace is magnified. My own character is
matured. His Heaven is sweeter at the close of the day. There I
shall look back on the turnings and trials of the way, and shall
sing the praises of my Guide. So, let come what will come, His
will is welcome; and I shall refuse to be offended in my loving
Lord. --Alexander Smellie
Blessed is he whose faith is not offended,
When all around his way
The power of God is working out deliverance
For others day by day;
Though in some prison drear his own soul languish,
Till life itself be spent,
Yet still can trust his Father's love and purpose,
And rest therein content.
Blessed is he, who through long years of suffering,
Cut off from active toil,
Still shares by prayer and praise the work of others,
And thus "divides the spoil."
Blessed are thou, O child of God, who sufferest,
And canst not understand
The reason for thy pain, yet gladly leavest
Thy life in His blest Hand.
Yea, blessed art thou whose faith is "not offended"
By trials unexplained,
By mysteries unsolved, past understanding,
Until the goal is gained. --Freda Hanbury Allen
November 19
Quicken Us
"Thou, who hast showed us many and sore troubles, wilt quicken
us again" (Ps. 71:20, RV).
God shows us the troubles. Sometimes, as this part of our
education is being carried forward, we have to descend into "the
lower parts of the earth," pass through subterranean passages,
lie buried amongst the dead, but never for a moment is the cord
of fellowship and union between God and us strained to breaking;
and from the depths God will bring us again.
Never doubt God! Never say that He has forsaken or forgotten.
Never think that He is unsympathetic. He will quicken again.
There is always a smooth piece in every skein, however tangled.
The longest day at last rings out the evensong. The winter snow
lies long, but it goes at last.
Be steadfast; your labor is not in vain. God turns again, and
comforts. And when He does, the heart which had forgotten its
Psalmody breaks out in jubilant song, as does the Psalmist: "I
will thank thee, I will harp unto thee, my lips shall sing
aloud." --Selected
"Though the rain may fall and the wind be blowing,
And old and chill is the wintry blast;
Though the cloudy sky is still cloudier growing,
And the dead leaves tell that the summer has passed;
My face I hold to the stormy heaven,
My heart is as calm as the summer sea,
Glad to receive what my God has given,
Whate'er it be.
When I feel the cold, I can say, 'He sends it,'
And His winds blow blessing, I surely know;
For I've never a want but that He attends it;
And my heart beats warm, though the winds may blow."
November 20
How To Wait
"Blessed is he that waiteth" (Dan. 12:12).
It may seem an easy thing to wait, but it is one of the postures
which a Christian soldier learns not without years of teaching.
Marching and quick-marching are much easier to God's warriors
than standing still.
There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit,
anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not what part to
take. Then what shall it do? Vex itself by despair? Fly back in
cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in
presumption?
No, but simply wait. Wait in prayer, however. Call upon God and
spread the case before Him; tell Him your difficulty, and plead
His promise of aid.
Wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in Him.
Believe that if He keep you tarrying even till midnight, yet He
will come at the right time; the vision shall come, and shall
not tarry.
Wait in quiet patience. Never murmur against the second cause,
as the children of Israel did against Moses. Accept the case as
it is, and put it as it stands, simply and with your whole
heart, without any self-will, into the hand of your covenant
God, saying, "Now, Lord, not my will, but Thine be done. I know
not what to do; I am brought to extremities; but I will wait
until Thou shalt cleave the floods, or drive back my foes. I
will wait, if Thou keep me many a day, for my heart is fixed
upon Thee alone, O God, and my spirit waiteth for Thee in full
conviction that Thou wilt yet be my joy and my salvation, my
refuge and my strong tower." --Morning by Morning
Wait patiently wait,
God never is late;
Thy budding plans are in Thy Father's holding,
And only wait His grand divine unfolding.
Then wait, wait,
Patiently wait.
Trust, hopefully trust,
That God will adjust
Thy tangled life; and from its dark concealings,
Will bring His will, in all its bright revealings.
Then trust, trust,
Hopefully trust.
Rest, peacefully rest
On thy Saviour's breast;
Breathe in His ear thy sacred high ambition,
And He will bring it forth in blest fruition.
Then rest, rest,
Peacefully rest! --Mercy A. Gladwin
November 21
Leave It To God
"Roll on Jehovah thy way." (Ps. 37:5).
Whatever it is that presses thee, go tell the Father; put the
whole matter over into His hand, and so shalt thou be freed from
that dividing, perplexing care that the world is full of. When
thou art either to do or suffer anything, when thou art about
any purpose or business, go tell God of it, and acquaint Him
with it; yes, burden Him with it, and thou hast done for matter
of caring; no more care, but quiet, sweet, diligence in thy
duty, and dependence on Him for the carriage of thy matters.
Roll thy cares, and thyself with them, as one burden, all on thy
God. --R. Leighton
Build a little fence of trust
Around today;
Fill the space with loving work
And therein stay.
Look not through the sheltering bars
Upon tomorrow;
God will help thee bear what comes
Of joy or sorrow. --Mary Butts
We shall find it impossible to commit our way unto the Lord,
unless it be a way that He approves. It is only by faith that a
man can commit his way unto the Lord; if there be the slightest
doubt in the heart that "our way" is not a good one, faith will
refuse to have anything to do with it. This committing of our
way must be a continuous, not a single act. However
extraordinary and unexpected may seem to be His guidance,
however near the precipice He may take you, you are not to
snatch the guiding reins out of His hands. Are we willing to
have all our ways submitted to God, for Him to pronounce
judgment on them? There is nothing a Christian needs to be more
scrutinizing about than about his confirmed habits and views. He
is too apt to take for granted the Divine approbation of them.
Why are some Christians so anxious, so fearful? Evidently
because they have not left their way with the Lord. They took it
to Him, but brought it away with them again. --Selected
November 22
Dealing With the Past
"Believe ye that I am able to do this?" (Matt. 9:28).
God deals with impossibilities. It is never too late for Him to
do so, when the impossible is brought to Him, in full faith, by
the one in whose life and circumstances the impossible must be
accomplished if God is to be glorified. If in our own life there
have been rebellion, unbelief, sin, and disaster, it is never
too late for God to deal triumphantly with these tragic facts if
brought to Him in full surrender and trust. It has often been
said, and with truth, that Christianity is the only religion
that can deal with man's past. God can "restore the years that
the locust hath eaten" (Joel 2:25); and He will do this when we
put the whole situation and ourselves unreservedly and
believingly into His hands. Not because of what we are but
because of what He is. God forgives and heals and restores. He
is "the God of all grace." Let us praise Him and trust Him.
--Sunday School Times
"Nothing is too hard for Jesus
No man can work like Him."
"We have a God who delights in impossibilities." Nothing too
hard for Me. --Andrew Murray
November 23
Rock Flowers
"Thou hast shewed thy people hard things" (Ps. 60:3).
I have always been glad that the Psalmist said to God that some
things were hard. There is no mistake about it; there are hard
things in life. Some beautiful pink flowers were given me this
summer, and as I took them I said, "What are they?" And the
answer came, "They are rock flowers; they grow and bloom only on
rocks where you can see no soil." Then I thought of God's
flowers growing in hard places; and I feel, somehow, that He may
have a peculiar tenderness for His "rock flowers" that He may
not have for His lilies and roses. --Margaret Bottome
The tests of life are to make, not break us. Trouble may
demolish a man's business but build up his character. The blow
at the outward man may be the greatest blessing to the inner
man. If God, then, puts or permits anything hard in our lives,
be sure that the real peril, the real trouble, is what we shall
lose if we flinch or rebel. --Maltbie D. Babcock
"Heroes are forged on anvils hot with pain,
And splendid courage comes but with the test.
Some natures ripen and some natures bloom
Only on blood-wet soil, some souls prove great
Only in moments dark with death or doom."
"God gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction."
November 24
The Power of Silence
"Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10).
Is there any note of music in all the chorus as mighty as the
emphatic pause? Is there any word in all the Psalter more
eloquent than that one word, Selah Pause.? Is there anything
more thrilling and awful than the hush that comes before the
bursting of the tempest and the strange quiet that seems to fall
upon all nature before some preternatural phenomenon or
convulsion? Is there anything that can touch our hearts as the
power of stillness?
There is for the heart that will cease from itself, "the peace
of God that passeth all understanding," a "quietness and
confidence" which is the source of all strength, a sweet peace
"which nothing can offend," a deep rest which the world can
neither give nor take away. There is in the deepest center of
the soul a chamber of peace where God dwells, and where, if we
will only enter in and hush every other sound, we can hear His
still, small voice.
There is in the swiftest wheel that revolves upon its axis a
place in the very center, where there is no movement at all; and
so in the busiest life there may be a place where we dwell alone
with God, in eternal stillness, There is only one way to know
God. "Be still, and know." "God is in his holy temple; let all
the earth keep silence before him." --Selected
"All-loving Father, sometimes we have walked under starless
skies that dripped darkness like drenching rain. We despaired of
starshine or moonlight or sunrise. The sullen blackness gloomed
above us as if it would last forever. And out of the dark there
spoke no soothing voice to mend our broken hearts. We would
gladly have welcomed some wild thunder peal to break the
torturing stillness of that over-brooding night.
"But Thy winsome whisper of eternal love spoke more sweetly to
our bruised and bleeding souls than any winds that breathe
across Aeolian harps. It was Thy 'still small voice' that spoke
to us. We were listening and we heard. We looked and saw Thy
face radiant with the light of love. And when we heard Thy voice
and saw Thy face, new life came back to us as life comes back to
withered blooms that drink the summer rain."
November 25
God's Best
"Take the arrows. . . . Smite upon the ground. And he smote
twice and stayed. And the man of God was wroth with him, and
said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times" (2 Kings
13:18, 19).
How striking and eloquent the message of these words! Jehoash
thought he had done very well when he duplicated and triplicated
what to him was certainly an extraordinary act of faith. But the
Lord and the prophet were bitterly disappointed because he had
stopped half way.
He got something. He got much. He got exactly what he believed
for in the final test, but he did not get all that the prophet
meant and the Lord wanted to bestow. He missed much of the
meaning of the promise and the fullness of the blessing. He got
something better than the human, but he did not get God's best.
Beloved, how solemn is the application! How heartsearching the
message of God to us! How important that we should learn to pray
through! Shall we claim all the fullness of the promise and all
the possibilities of believing prayer? --A. B. Simpson
"Unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that
we ask or think" (Eph. 3:20).
There is no other such piling up of words in Paul's writings as
these, "exceeding abundantly above all," and each word is packed
with infinite love and power to "do" for His praying saints.
There is one limitation, "according to the power that worketh in
us." He will do just as much for us as we let Him do in us. The
power that saved us, washed us with His own blood, filled us
with might by His Spirit, kept us in manifold temptations, will
work for us, meeting every emergency, every crisis, every
circumstance, and every adversary. --The Alliance
November 26
Upper Springs
"And Caleb said unto her, What wouldest thou? Who answered,
give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a south land; give me
also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs, and
the nether springs" (Joshua 15:18, 19).
There are both upper and nether springs. They are springs, not
stagnant pools. There are joys and blessings that flow from
above through the hottest summer and the most desert land of
sorrow and trial. The lands of Achsah were "south lands," lying
under a burning sun and often parched with burning heat. But
from the hills came the unfailing springs, that cooled,
refreshed and fertilized all the land.
There are springs that flow in the low places of life, in the
hard places, in the desert places, in the lone places, in the
common places, and no matter what may be our situation, we can
always find these upper springs.
Abraham found them amid the hills of Canaan. Moses found them
among the rocks of Midian. David found them among the ashes of
Ziklag when his property was gone, his family captives and his
people talked of stoning him, but "David encouraged himself in
the Lord."
Habakkuk found them when the fig tree was withered and the
fields were brown, but as he drank from them he could sing: "Yet
will I rejoice in the Lord and joy in the God of my salvation."
Isaiah found them in the awful days of Sennacherib's invasion,
when the mountains seemed hurled into the midst of the sea, but
faith could sing: "There is a river whose streams make glad the
city of God. God is in the midst of her: she shall not be
moved."
The martyrs found them amid the flames, and reformers amid their
foes and conflicts, and we can find them all the year if we have
the Comforter in our hearts and have learned to say with David:
"All my springs are in thee."
How many and how precious these springs, and how much more there
is to be possessed of God's own fulness! --A. B. Simpson
I said: "The desert is so wide!"
I said: "The desert is so bare!
What springs to quench my thirst are there?
Whence shall I from the tempest hide?"
I said: "The desert is so lone!
Nor gentle voice, nor loving face
Will brighten any smallest space."
I paused or ere my moan was done!
I heard a flow of hidden springs;
Before me palms rose green and fair;
The birds were singing; all the air
Did shine and stir with angels' wings!
And One said mildly: "Why, indeed,
Take over-anxious thought for that
The morrow bringeth! See you not
The Father knoweth what you need?"
--Selected
November 27
Impossible Flowers
"For with God nothing shall be impossible" (Luke 1:37).
Far up in the Alpine hollows, year by year God works one of His
marvels. The snow-patches lie there, frozen with ice at their
edge from the strife of sunny days and frosty nights; and
through that ice-crust come, unscathed, flowers that bloom.
Back in the days of the by-gone summer, the little soldanelle
plant spread its leaves wide and flat on the ground, to drink in
the sun-rays, and it kept them stored in the root through the
winter. Then spring came, and stirred the pulses even below the
snow-shroud, and as it sprouted, warmth was given out in such
strange measure that it thawed a little dome in the snow above
its head.
Higher and higher it grew and always above it rose the bell of
air, till the flower-bud formed safely within it: and at last
the icy covering of the air-bell gave way and let the blossom
through into the sunshine, the crystalline texture of its mauve
petals sparkling like snow itself as if it bore the traces of
the flight through which it had come.
And the fragile thing rings an echo in our hearts that none of
the jewel-like flowers nestled in the warm turf on the slopes
below could waken. We love to see the impossible done. And so
does God.
Face it out to the end, cast away every shadow of hope on the
human side as an absolute hindrance to the Divine, heap up all
the difficulties together recklessly, and pile as many more on
as you can find; you cannot get beyond the blessed climax of
impossibility. Let faith swing out to Him. He is the God of the
impossible. --Selected
November 28
Open the
Trenches
"Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that
valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye,
and your cattle, and your beasts. And this is but a light thing
in the sight of the Lord: he will deliver the Moabites also into
your hands" (2 Kings 3:16-18).
To human thinking it was simply impossible, but nothing is hard
for God.
Without a sound or sign, from sources invisible and apparently
impossible, the floods came stealing in all night long; and when
the morning dawned, those ditches were flooded with the crystal
waters, and reflecting the rays of the morning sun from the red
hills of Edom.
Our unbelief is always wanting some outward sign. The religion
of many is largely sensational, and they are not satisfied of
its genuineness without manifestations, etc.; but the greatest
triumph of faith is to be still and know that He is God.
The great victory of faith is to stand before some impassable
Red Sea, and hear the Master say, "Stand still, and see the
salvation of the Lord," and "Go forward!" As we step out without
any sign or sound--not a wave-splash--and wetting our very feet
as we take the first step into its waters, still marching on we
shall see the sea divide and the pathway open through the very
midst of the waters.
If we have seen the miraculous workings of God in some marvelous
case of healing or some extraordinary providential deliverance,
I am sure the thing that has impressed us most has been the
quietness with which it was all done, the absence of everything
spectacular and sensational, and the utter sense of nothingness
which came to us as we stood in the presence of this mighty God
and felt how easy, it was for Him to do it all without the
faintest effort on His part or the slightest help on ours.
It is not the part of faith to question, but to obey. The
ditches were made, and the water came pouring in from some
supernatural source. What a lesson for our faith!
Are you craving a spiritual blessing? Open the trenches, and God
will fill them. And this, too, in the most unexpected places and
in the most unexpected ways.
Oh, for that faith that can act by faith and not by sight, and
expect God to work although we see no wind or rain. --A. B.
Simpson
November 29
Music of the Storm
"Nevertheless afterward" (Heb. 12:11).
There is a legend that tells of a German baron who, at his
castle on the Rhine, stretched wires from tower to tower, that
the winds might convert them into an Aeolian harp. And the soft
breezes played about the castle, but no music was born.
But one night there arose a great tempest, and hill and castle
were smitten by the fury of the mighty winds. The baron went to
the threshold to look out upon the terror of the storm, and the
Aeolian harp was filling the air with strains that rang out even
above the clamor of the tempest. It needed the tempest to bring
out the music!
And have we not known men whose lives have not given out any
entrancing music in the day of a calm prosperity, but who, when
the tempest drove against them have astonished their fellows by
the power and strength of their music?
"Rain, rain
Beating against the pane!
How endlessly it pours
Out of doors
From the blackened sky
I wonder why!
"Flowers, flowers,
Upspringing after showers,
Blossoming fresh and fair,
Everywhere!
Ah, God has explained
Why it rained!"
You can always count on God to make the "afterward" of
difficulties, if rightly overcome, a thousand times richer and
fairer than the forward. "No chastening . . . seemeth joyous,
nevertheless afterward . . ." What a yield!
November 30
In God, Not Out of Trouble
"And seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not: for,
behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord: but
thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither
thou goest" (Jer. 45:5).
A promise given for hard places, and a promise of safety and
life in the midst of tremendous pressure, a life "for a prey."
It may well adjust itself to our own times, which are growing
harder as we near the end of the age, and the Tribulation times.
What is the meaning of "a life for a prey"? It means a life
snatched out of the jaws of the destroyer, as David snatched the
lamb from the lion. It means not removal from the noise of the
battle and the presence of our foes; but it means a table in the
midst of our enemies, a shelter from the storm, a fortress amid
the foe, a life preserved in the face of continual pressure:
Paul's healing when pressed out of measure so that he despaired
of life; Paul's Divine help when the thorn remained, but the
power of Christ rested upon him and the grace of Christ was
sufficient. Lord, give me my life for a prey, and in the hardest
places help me today to be victorious. --Days of Heaven upon
Earth
We often pray to be delivered from calamities; we even trust
that we shall be; but we do not pray to be made what we should
be, in the very presence of the calamities; to live amid them,
as long as they last, in the consciousness that we are, held and
sheltered by the Lord, and can therefore remain in the midst of
them, so long as they continue, without any hurt. For forty days
and nights, the Saviour was kept in the presence of Satan in the
wilderness, and that, under circumstances of special trial, His
human nature being weakened by want of food and rest. The
furnace was heated seven times more than it was wont to be
heated, but the three Hebrew children were kept a season amid
its flames as calm and composed in the presence of the tyrant's
last appliances of torture, as they were in the presence of
himself before their time of deliverance came. And the livelong
night did Daniel sit among the lions, and when he was taken up
out of the den, "no manner of hurt was found upon him, because
he believed in his God." They dwelt in the presence of the
enemy, because they dwelt in the presence of God.
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