Monday, December 21, 2020

The Path to Blessing

 

To him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon because he hath wholly followed the Lord    (Deut -1:36)

Every hard duty that lies in your path, that you would rather not do, that it will cost you pain and struggle or sore effort to do, has a blessing in it. Not to do it, at whatever cost, is to miss the blessing.


Every hard piece of road on which you see the Master’s shoe-prints and along which He bids you follow Him, surely leads to blessing, which you cannot get if you cannot go over the steep, thorny path.


Every point of battle to which you come, where you must draw your sword and fight the enemy, has a possible victory which will prove a rich blessing to your life. Every heavy load that you are called to lift hides in itself some strange secret of strength. —J. R. Miller


“I cannot do it alone;  

The waves run fast and high,  

And the fogs close all around,  

The light goes out in the sky;  

But I know that we two  

Shall win in the end, Jesus and I.  


“Coward and wayward and weak,  

I change with the changing sky;  

Today so eager and bright,  

Tomorrow too weak to try;  

But He never gives in,  

So we two shall win, Jesus and I.  


“I could not guide it myself,  

My boat on life’s wild sea;  

There’s One who sits by my side,  

Who pulls and steers with me.  

And I know that we two  

Shall safe enter port,  

Jesus and I.”

Sunday, December 20, 2020

Dare to Be Alone


 Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me     (John - 16:32)

It need not be said that to carry out conviction into action is a costly sacrifice. It may make necessary renunciations and separations which leave one to feel a strange sense both of deprivation and loneliness. But he who will fly, as an eagle does, into the higher levels where cloudless day abides, and live in the sunshine of God, must be content to live a comparatively lonely life.


No bird is so solitary as the eagle. Eagles never fly in flocks; one, or at most two, ever being seen at once. But the life that is lived unto God, however it forfeits human companionships, knows Divine fellowship.


God seeks eagle-men. No man ever comes into a realization of the best things of God, who does not, upon the Godward side of his life, learn to walk alone with God. We find Abraham alone in Horeb upon the heights, but Lot, dwelling in Sodom. Moses, skilled in all the wisdom of Egypt must go forty years into the desert alone with God. Paul, who was filled with Greek learning and had also sat at the feet of Gamaliel, must go into Arabia and learn the desert life with God. Let God isolate us. I do not mean the isolation of a monastery. In this isolating experience He develops an independence of faith and life so that the soul needs no longer the constant help, prayer, faith or attention of his neighbor. Such assistance and inspiration from the other members are necessary and have their place in the Christian’s development, but there comes a time when they act as a direct hindrance to the individual’s faith and welfare. God knows how to change the circumstances in order to give us an isolating experience. We yield to God and He takes us through something, and when it is over, those about us, who are no less loved than before, are no longer depended upon. We realize that He has wrought some things in us, and that the wings of our souls have learned to beat the upper air.


We must dare to be alone. Jacob must be left alone if the Angel of God is to whisper in his ear the mystic name of Shiloh; Daniel must be left alone if he is to see celestial visions; John must be banished to Patmos if he is deeply to take and firmly to keep “the print of heaven.”


He trod the wine-press alone. Are we prepared for a “splendid isolation” rather than fail Him?

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Call Back

It shall turn to you for a testimony   (Luke -  21:13)


Life is a steep climb, and it does the heart good to have somebody “call back” and cheerily beckon us on up the high hill. We are all climbers together, and we must help one another. This mountain climbing is serious business, but glorious. It takes strength and steady step to find the summits. The outlook widens with the altitude. If anyone among us has found anything worth while, we ought to “call back.”


If you have gone a little way ahead of me, call back—  

’Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track;  

And if, perchance, Faith’s light is dim, because the oil is low,  

Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I go.  


Call back, and tell me that He went with you into the storm;  

Call back, and say He kept you when the forest’s roots were torn;  

That, when the heavens thunder and the earthquake shook the hill,  

He bore you up and held you where the very air was still.  


Oh, friend, call back, and tell me for I cannot see your face,  

They say it glows with triumph, and your feet bound in the race;  

But there are mists between us and my spirit eyes are dim,  

And I cannot see the glory, though I long for word of Him.  


But if you’ll say He heard you when your prayer was but a cry,  

And if you’ll say He saw you through the night’s sin-darkened sky  

If you have gone a little way ahead, oh, friend, call back—  

’Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track.