Joy And Strength

[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 73:26

Not Despised

My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
PSALMS 73:26

O, LITTLE heart of mine! shall pain
Or sorrow make thee moan,
When all this God is all for thee,
A Father and thine own?
FRUERICK W. FABER

MAKE allowance for infirmities of the flesh, which are purely physical. To be fatigued, body and soul, is not sin; to be in "heaviness" is not sin. Christian life is not a feeling; it is a principle: when your hearts will not fly, let them go, and if they "will neither fly nor go," be sorry for them and patient with them, and take them to Christ, as you would carry your little lame child to a tender-hearted, skilful surgeon. Does the surgeon, in such a case, upbraid the child for being lame?
ELIZABETH PRENTISS

When you feel ill and indisposed, and when in this condition your prayer is cold, heavy, filled with despondency, and even despair, do not be disheartened or despairing, for the Lord knows your sick and painful condition. Struggle against your infirmity, pray as much as you have strength to, and the Lord will not despise the infirmity of your flesh and spirit.
FATHER JOHN

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 51:10 Psalm 60:12

We Shall Do Valiantly

Through God we shall do valiantly, for He it is that shall tread down our enemies.
PSALMS 60:12

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
PSALMS 51:10

IF any man compares his own soul with the picture drawn in the New Testament of what a Christian ought to be; if any man fixes his eye on the pattern of self-sacrifice, of purity, of truth, of tenderness, and measures his own distance from that standard, he might be ready to despair. But fear not, because you are far from being like the pattern set before you; fear not because your faults are painful to think of: continue the battle and fear not. If, indeed, you are content with yourself, and are making no endeavor to rise above the poor level at which you now stand, then there is reason to fear. But if you are fighting with all your might, fear not, however often you may have fallen, however deeply, however ungratefully, however inexcusably. This one thing we can give, and this is what He asks, hearts that shall never cease from this day forward, till we reach the grave, to strive to be more like Him; to come nearer to Him; to root out from within us the sin that keeps us from Him. To such a battle, brethren, I call you in His name.
FREDERICK TEMPLE

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 1 Thessalonians 3:12

Our Failure

The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you.
1 THESSALONIANS 3:12

IF we love God, we know what loving is,
For love is God's, He sent it to the earth,
Half-human, half-divine, all glorious!--
Half-human, half-divine, but wholly His;
Not loving God, we know not love's true worth,
We taste not the great gift He gave to us.
MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN

LET us see that whenever we have failed to be loving, we have also failed to be wise; that whenever we have been blind to our neighbors' interests, we have also been blind to our own; whenever we have hurt others, we have hurt ourselves still more. Let us, at this blessed Whitsuntide, ask forgiveness of God for all acts of malice and uncharitableness, blindness and hardness of heart; and pray for the spirit of true charity, which alone is true wisdom. And let us come to Holy Communion in charity with each other and with all; determined henceforth to feel for each other, and with each other; to put ourselves in our neighbors' places; to see with their eyes, and to feel with their hearts, so far as God shall give us that great grace; determined to make allowances for their mistakes and failings; to give and forgive, even as God gives and forgives, for ever; that so we may be indeed the children of our Father in heaven, whose name is Love.
CHARLES KINGSLEY

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Ephesians 4:23-24

Constancy

Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
EPHESIANS 4:23,24

BE constant, O happy soul, be constant, and of good courage; for, however intolerable thou art to thyself, yet thou wilt be protected, enriched, and beloved by that greatest Good, as if He had nothing else to do than to lead thee to perfection by the highest steps of love; and if thou dost not turn away, but perseverest constantly, know that thou offerest to God the most acceptable sacrifice. If, from the chaos of nothing, His omnipotence has produced so many wonders, what will He do in thy soul, created after His own image and likeness, if thou keepest constant, quiet, and resigned.
MIGUEL DE MOLINOS

Wouldst thou feel thy soul's rest in Christ? Thou must know His voice, hear it, learn daily of Him, become His disciple; take up, from His nature, what is contrary to thy nature. And then, as thy nature is worn out, and His nature comes up in thee, thou wilt find all easy; all that is of life easy, and transgression hard--unbelief hard: yea, thou wilt find it very hard and unnatural, when His nature is grown up in thee, either to distrust the Lord or hearken to His enemy.
ISAAC PENINGTON

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Ephesians 1:4

Living for a Purpose

He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
EPHESIANS 1:4

O LOVE, who formedst me to wear
The image of Thy Godhead here;
Who soughtest me with tender care
Through all my wanderings wild and drear;
O Love! I give myself to Thee,
Thine ever, only Thine to be.
JOHANN SCHEFFLER

WE live not for ourselves, but for God; for some purpose of His; for some special end to be accomplished, which He has willed to be accomplished by oneself, and not by another; something which will be left undone, if we do it not, or not be done as it would have been done, if the one ordained to it had done it. We live gifted with certain forms of spiritual grace embodied in us, for some purpose of Divine Love to be fulfiled by us, some idea of the Divine Mind to be imaged forth in our creaturely state. To devote oneself to God is to concentrate the powers of one's being to their ordained end, and therefore to have the happiest and truest life--happiest, because happiness must be in the accordance of these powers with the law of their creation, and truest, because the attainment of the highest glory must be in the accomplishment of the end for which we were created.
T. T. CARTER

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Romans 2:7 Hebrews 12:1

Selfless Service

To them who by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.
ROMANS 2:7

Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
HEBREWS 12:1

THUS would I press on to the glory,
A knight in the army of God,
Whose march will be onward and forward,
Because of the foes on the road.
Before me the guerdon Thou givest,
My glorious eternal reward,
And with me Thy peace and Thy wisdom,
Because of the Cross of the Lord.
HENRY SUSO

IF He calls you to a kind of service which is according to His will but not according to your taste, you must not go to it with less, rather with more courage and energy than if your taste coincided with His will. The less of self and self-will there is in anything we do, the better. You must not amuse yourself with going from side to side, when duty calls you straight on; nor make difficulties, when the real thing is to get over them. Let your heart be full of courage, and then say, "I shall succeed. Not I, but the grace of God which is with me."
ST. FRANCIS DE SALES

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Romans 12:11

God Will Be Acknowledged

Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.
ROMANS 12:11

LET us begin from this moment to acknowledge Him in all our ways, and do everything, whatsoever we do, as service to Him and for His glory, depending upon Him alone for wisdom, and strength, and sweetness, and patience, and everything else that is necessary for the right accomplishing of all our living. It is not so much a change of acts that will be necessary, as a change of motive and of dependence. The house will be kept, or the children cared for, or the business transacted, perhaps, just the same as before as to the outward, but inwardly God will be acknowledged, and depended on, and served; and there will be all the difference between a life lived at ease in the glory of His Presence, and a life lived painfully and with effort apart from Him. There will result also from this bringing of God into our affairs a wonderful accession of divine wisdom in the conduct of them, and a far greater quickness and despatch in their accomplishment, a surprising increase in the fertility of resource, and an enlargement on every side that will amaze the hitherto cramped and cabined soul.
HANNAH WHITALL SMITH

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Micah 7:8

Belief Through the Darkness

When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.
MICAH 7:8

WHEN doubts disturb my troubled breast,
And all is dark as night to me,
Here, as on solid rock, I rest--
That so it seemeth good to Thee.
RAY PALMER

WHEN trouble, restless fears, anxious fretfulness, strive to overpower the soul, our safety is in saying, "My God, I believe in Thy perfect goodness and wisdom and mercy. What Thou doest I cannot now understand; but I shall one day see it all plainly. Meanwhile I accept Thy will, whatever it may be, unquestioning, without reserve." There would be no restless disturbance, no sense of utter discomfort and discomposure in our souls, if we were quite free from any--it may be almost unconscious--opposition to God's will. But we do struggle against it, we do resist; and so long as that resistance endures we cannot be at peace. Peace, and even joy, are quite compatible with a great deal of pain--even mental pain--but never with a condition of antagonism or resistance.
H. L. SIDNEY LEAR

Let him set his heart firmly upon this resolution: "I must bear it inevitably, and I will, by God's grace, do it nobly."
JEREMY TAYLOR

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference

Completely Guided

Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto Thee.
PSALMS 143:8

I will guide thee with mine eye.
PSALMS 32:8

TEACH me to do the thing that pleaseth Thee;
Thou art my God, in Thee I live and move;
Oh, let Thy loving Spirit lead me forth
Into the land of righteousness and love.
J. B. S. MONSELL

THE minds that are alive to every word from God, give constant opportunity for His divine interference with a suggestion that may alter the courses of their lives; and, like the ships that turn when the steersman's hand but touches the helm, God can steer them through the worst dangers by the faintest breath of feeling, or the lightest touch of thought.
RICHARD H. HUTTON

It is no delusion, no dream of a hot brain, no error of a too confiding soul, that has made the children of God delight to trust in His Providential aid. When God, in deed and in truth, is present and dominant in the soul of a man, He can, and He will give to that soul a real guidance. He will guide it, with the guidance of an eye that seeth and foreseeth,--that knoweth what is best for us and the world, and leadeth us in that way wherein, for our sakes, and the world's, it is best for us to go.
HENRY SEPTIMUS SUTTON

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference

Rejoice in God

Serve the Lord with gladness. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.
PSALMS 100:2,5

TEACH me Thy love to know;
That this new light which now I see,
May both the work and workman show
Then by a sunbeam I will climb to Thee.
GEORGE HERBERT

WHY should we not rejoice in the good things of God? If the day is pure and serene, we enjoy its gladness. Why should we not rejoice in the serene light of truth that shines from Heaven upon us? We find a joy in the presence and cheerful greeting of our friends. Why should we not look up to Heaven, whence so many pure and most loving faces look upon us with divine affection, and with most tender desires to cheer and help us? Having an almighty and most loving Father, in whom we live, and move, and have our being, let us rejoice in Him. Having a most loving Saviour, who has made Himself our brother, and feeds us with His life, we ought surely to rejoice in Him. Having the Holy Spirit of God with us, making us His temples, and pouring His love into our hearts, we ought certainly to answer His love, and rejoice in His overflowing goodness. "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, Rejoice."
WILLIAM BERNARD ULLATHORNE

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 128:1-2

Source of Peace

Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in His ways . . . Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
PSALMS 128:1,2

WE think it a gallant thing, to be fluttering up to heaven with our wings of knowledge and speculation; whereas the highest mystery of a divine life here, and of perfect happiness hereafter, consists in nothing but mere obedience to the Divine will. Happiness is nothing but that inward sweet delight, which will arise from the harmonious agreement between our wills and the will of God. There is nothing in the whole world able to do us good or hurt, but God, and our own will: neither riches nor poverty, nor disgrace nor honor, nor life nor death, nor angels nor devils; but willing, or not willing, as we ought.
RALPH CUDWORTH

The one misery of man is self-will, the one secret of blessedness is the conquest over our own wills. To yield them up to God is rest and peace. What disturbs us in this world is not "trouble," but our opposition to trouble. The true source of all that frets and irritates, and wears away our lives, is not in external things, but in the resistance of our wills to the will of God expressed by external things.
ALEXANDER MACLAREN

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Romans 8:29 Isaiah 64:8

We Are Changed

Now, O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand.
ISAIAH 64:8

To be conformed to the image of His Son.
ROMANS 8:29

THOU shalt do what Thou wilt with Thine own hand.
Thou form'st the spirit like the moulded clay;
For those who love Thee keep Thy just command,
And in Thine image grow as they obey.
JONES VERY

HE who hath appointed thee thy task, will proportion it to thy strength, and thy strength to the burden which He lays upon thee. He who maketh the seed grow thou knowest not how, and seest not, will, thou knowest not how, ripen the seed which He hath sown in thy heart, and leaven thee by the secret workings of His good Spirit. Thou mayest not see the change thyself, but He will gradually change thee, make thee another man. Only yield thyself to His moulding hand, as clay to the potter, having no wishes of thy own, but seeking in sincerity, however faint, to have His will fulfilled in thee, and He will teach thee what to pray for, and will give thee what He teacheth thee. He will retrace His own image on thee line by line, effacing by His grace and gracious discipline the marks and spots of sin which have defaced it.
EDWARD B. PUSEY

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference John 13:34

Loving Another

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
JOHN 13:34

ONE with our brethren here in love,
And one with saints that are at rest,
And one with angel hosts above,
And one with God for ever blest.
ISAAC WILLIAMS

ALL extreme sensitiveness, fastidiousness, suspicion, readiness to take offence, and tenacity of what we think our due, come from self-love, as does the unworthy secret gratification we sometimes feel when another is humbled or mortified; the cold indifference, the harshness of our criticism, the unfairness and hastiness of our judgments, our bitterness towards those we dislike, and many other faults which must more or less rise up before most men's conscience, when they question it sincerely as to how far they do indeed love their neighbors as Christ has loved them. He will root out all dislikes and aversions, all readiness to take offence, all resentments, all bitterness, from the heart which is given up to His guidance. He will infuse His own tender love for man into His servant's mind, and teach him to "love his brother as Christ has loved him."
JEAN NICOLAS GROU

Enjoying each other's good is heaven begun.
LUCY C. SMITH

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Revelation 7:15

Those Who Have Gone Before

Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple; and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
REVELATION 7:15

So many worlds, so much to do,
So little done, such things to be,
How know I what had need of thee,
For thou wert strong as thou wert true?
ALFRED TENNYSON

THEY who have gone before have not therefore passed into a condition of lethargy or vacancy. They may be nearer to us, as they are nearer to the perfect love. They may guide us towards a holier and ampler freedom, since they suffer no more the limitations of time. The veil is rent. There is with us the presence of the unseen host.
ELISHA MULFORD

The work of God hath not lost them, if we take it in its most capacious, comprehensive acceptation. God hath a will to be done not in earth only, but also in heaven; they are not dismissed from the King's business who are called from the camp to the Court, from being common soldiers to be Privy Councillors.
ABRAHAM CHEARE

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 2 Thessalonians 1:11

Found Worthy

We pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith with power.
2 THESSALONIANS 1:11

THOU settest us each task divine,
We bless that helping hand of Thine,
That strength by Thee bestowed.
Thou minglest in the glorious fight;
Thine own the cause! Thine own the might!
We serve the Living God.
THOMAS H. GILL

EVERY hard effort generously faced, every sacrifice cheerfully submitted to, every word spoken under difficulties, raises those who speak or act or suffer to a higher level; endows them with a clearer sight of God; braces them with a will of more strength and freedom; warms them with a more generous and large and tender heart.
HENRY P. LIDDON

A man's best desires are always the index and measure of his possibilities; and the most difficult duty that a man is capable of doing is the duty that above all he should do.
CHARLES H. BRENT

Under the laws of Providence, we have duties which are perilous.
AUSTIN PHELPS

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