Joy And Strength

[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Luke 11:13 Job 32:8

Relationship With the Most High God

There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
--JOB 32:8

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?
--LUKE 11:13

IS it supposable that God has permitted personal intercourse between man and man to be such a potent instrument in the building up of character, and yet has made all intercourse with Himself impossible? If the spirit of man can, through the power of influence and sympathy, bless and uplift the spirit of his fellow-man, much more, a thousand-fold more, shall God who, be it remembered, is a Spirit also, aid by intercourse and influence the creature spirit whom He permits to call himself His child.
--WILLIAM REED HUNTINGTON

In the fellowship which is established in prayer between man and God we are brought into personal union with Him in whom all things have their being. In this lies the possibility of boundless power; for when the connection is once formed, who can lay down the limits of what man can do in virtue of the communion of his spirit with the Infinite Spirit?
--BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 78:9 Joshua 1:7

The Long Fight

The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
  --PSALMS 78:9

Be thou strong, and very courageous.
  --JOSHUA 1:7

Go forward, Christian soldier,
Beneath His banner true!
The Lord Himself, thy Leader,
Shall all thy foes subdue.
His love foretells thy trials;
He knows thine hourly need;
He can with bread of heaven
Thy fainting spirit feed.
  --LAWRENCE TUTTIETT

WHILE there is left in you a trace of ill-temper, or of vanity, of pride, or of selfishness; while there is left in you a single sin, or germ of sin, you must not rest from the battle. God does not require from you to be sinless when you come before Him, but He does require you to be unceasing in your perseverance. He does not require that you shall never have fallen; but He does require unwearied efforts. He does not require you to win, but He does require you to fight.
  --FREDERICK TEMPLE

Still fight resolutely on, knowing that, in this spiritual combat, none is overcome but he who ceases to struggle and to trust in God.
  --LORENZO SCUPOLI

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 56:9

Look to the Source

When I cry unto Thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.
--PSALMS 56:9

SOUL! wouldst thou from the battle shrink,
And flee before the foe?
Dost thou beneath the burden sink,
And in the dust lie low?
Oh! waste not there vain tears and sighs:
The trumpet soundeth clear;
O'ercome, and to My glory rise!
O'ercome, and triumph here!
--THOMAS H. GILL

BE not discouraged because of your soul's enemies. Are ye troubled with thoughts, fears, doubts, imaginations, reasonings? yea, do ye see, yet, much in you unsubdued to the power of life? Oh! do not fear it; do not look at it, so as to be discouraged by it; but look to Him! look up to the power which is over all their strength; wait for the descendings of the power upon you; abide in faith of the Lord's help, and wait in patience till the Lord arise; and see if His arm do not scatter what yours could not. So, be still before Him, and, in stillness, believe in His name; yea, enter not into the hurryings of the enemy, though they fill the soul; for, there is yet somewhat to which they cannot enter, from whence patience, faith, and hope, will spring up in you, even in the midst of all they can do.
--ISAAC PENINGTON

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 2 Corinthians 4:10

Becoming More Like Christ

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
  --2 CORINTHIANS 4:10

BUT we as in a glass espy
The glory of His countenance,
Not in a whirlwind hurrying by
The too presumptuous glance,
But with mild radiance every hour,
>From our dear Saviour's face benign
Bent on us with transforming power
Till we, too, faintly shine.
  --JOHN KEBLE

IF we be faithful and humble, God will increase our faith by enabling us to obey more faithfully, and will strengthen our sight by enabling us to do what we now see. As in our daily walk we come nearer towards heaven, He will open to us more of heaven. And so the veil which sin laid upon our sight being taken away, "we all, with open face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord," studying His countenance, watching His looks, seeking to have His gracious and compassionate look cast upon us in the midst of our frailties and infirmities, may catch some faint reflections of its brightness, and be changed into the image whereon we gaze, which we love, which, in our weakness, we would long to copy and transfuse into ourselves; we too may be "changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord."
  --EDWARD B. PUSEY

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 65:8-11 Psalm 33:5

The Glory of God

Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness.
  --PSALMS 65:8,11

He loveth righteousness and justice: the earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord.
  --PSALMS 33:5 (R. V.)

I SING because Thy works are fair,
Thy glory makes me glad,
The garments bright of praise I wear,
For Thou art brightly clad.

Full triumph doth my soul possess,
Because Thy ways are right;
The glory of Thy righteousness
Maketh my dear delight.
  --THOMAS H. GILL

THE fulness of joy is to behold God in all; for by the same blessed might, wisdom, and love, that He made all things, to the same end our good Lord leadeth it continually, and there to Himself shall bring it, and, when it is time, we shall see it.
  --MOTHER JULIANA

God gives us richly all things to enjoy, while He Himself is His own best gift, and to be enjoyed not in a way of duty, but in the simple, natural realizing aright of what we possess in Him.
  --JOHN MCLEOD CAMPBELL

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 1 Corinthians 4:2

Responsibility

It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.
--1 CORINTHIANS 4:2

TOO many people are not faithful in little things. They are not to be absolutely depended upon. They do not always keep their promises. They break en.gagements. They fail to pay their debts promptly. They come behind time to appointments. They are neglectful and careless in little things. In general they are good people, but their life is honeycombed with small failures. One who can be positively depended upon, who is faithful in the least things as well as in the greatest, whose life and character are true through and through, gives out a light in this world which honors Christ and blesses others.
--J. R. MILLER

Duties retire evermore from the observation of those who slight them.
--SARAH W. STEPHEN

Great thoughts go best with common duties. Whatever therefore may be your office regard it as a fragment in an immeasurable ministry of love.
--BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Philippians 3:13-14

Pressing On

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark.
--PHILIPPIANS 3:13,14

TILL, as each moment wafts us higher,
By every gush of pure desire,
And high-breathed hopes of joys above,
By every sacred sigh we heave,
Whole years of folly we outlive,
In His unerring sight, who measures Life by Love.
--JOHN KEBLE

WHAT we can do is a small thing; but we can will and aspire to great things. Thus, if a man cannot be great, he can yet be good in will; and what he, with his whole heart and mind, love and desire, wills to be, that without doubt he most truly is. It is little we can bring to pass; but our will and desire may be large. Nay, they may grow till they lose themselves in the infinite abyss of God. And if ye cannot be as entirely His as ye fain would be, be His as much as ye may attain unto; but, whatever ye are, be that truly and entirely; and what ye cannot be, that be contented not to be, in a sincere spirit of resignation, for God's sake and in Him. So shall you peradventure possess more of God in lacking than in having.
--JOHN TAULER

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 68:35

Trusting in God

The God of Israel is He that giveth strength and power unto His people. Blessed be God.
--PSALMS 68:35

I WILL meet distress and pain,
I will greet e'en Death's dark reign,
I will lay me in the grave
With a heart still glad and brave;
Whom the Strongest doth defend,
Whom the Highest counts His friend,
Cannot perish in the end.
--PAUL GERHARDT

COULD we but live more entirely in the unseen Presence, and trust to the unseen support,--and if lonely, or disappointed, or depressed, turn more quickly to God, fully confident of His all-embracing care, believing in His perfect love, the tender sympathy with which He ever regards us, how different life would be from what it ordinarily is! Yet we doubt not that Divine support is assured to us, if we seek to do what is pleasing in His sight. If the end we desire comes not, yet there is rest in the assurance that we have told Him all, and left it to Him to do what He wills.
--T. T. CARTER

How reasonable it is to trust ourselves to the keeping of infinite love, and infinite wisdom, and infinite power!
--THOMAS ERSKINE

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[nChrist]

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

Give Ourselves Up

Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.
--1 PETER 4:1

TAKE thy whole portion with thy Master's mind--
Toil, hindrance, hardness, with His virtue take--
And think how short a time thy heart may find
To labor or to suffer for His sake.
--ANNA L. WARING

YOUR portion is to love, to be silent, to suffer, to sacrifice your inclinations, in order to fulfil the will of God, by moulding yourself to that of others. Happy indeed you are thus to bear a cross laid on you by God's own hands, in the order of His Providence. The discipline which we choose for ourselves does not destroy our self-love like that which God assigns us Himself each day. All we have to do is to give ourselves up to God day by day, without looking further. He carries us in His arms as a loving mother carries her child. In every need let us look with love and trust to our Heavenly Father.
--FRANCOIS DE LA MOTHE FÉNELON

The loving heart which seeks to offer all, even disappointments and vexations which touch the tenderest places, to God, will be more likely to grow in generosity of spirit than one who bears grudgingly what cannot be averted.
--H. L. SIDNEY LEAR

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 2 Peter 1:3

Strengthen or Remove

According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.
  --2 PETER 1:3

WE often try in vain to cut up our errors by the roots, to fight evil hand to hand on its own ground, where it has us at a disadvantage, whereas our most sure way to victory is by developing and fortifying the good that is in us. We have but a certain measure of strength and activity; as much of this as is added to the good is taken from the evil.
  --MADAME SWETCHINE

I think you will find that it is not by making resolutions in a difficulty that you will conquer a fault--tackling it, I mean,--but much more by opening a window to Almighty God, and letting Him speak to you. As long as we are young we set so much importance on our own efforts, whereas often, if we will just do nothing but listen quietly to what God has to say to us, we shall find that He sets us thinking and mending our faults by a quiet way which looks as though it had nothing to do with it; and then, when we come to about where our fault used to be, we find it gone, imperceptibly as it were, by our having been strengthened in another direction which lay, though we did not know it, at the real root of the matter.
  --HENRIETTA KERR

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Exodus 16:12

Thankfulness, Not Longing

I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel.
--EXODUS 16:12

SAVE our blessings, Master, save
>From the blight of thankless eye,
Teach us for all joys to crave
Benediction pure and high,
Own them given, endure them gone,
Shrink from their hardening touch, yet prize them won,
Prize them as rich odors meet
For love to lavish at His sacred feet.
--JOHN KEBLE

NOTHING so hinders us in what we are doing as to be longing after something else; in so doing, we leave off tilling our own field, to drive the plough through our neighbor's land, where we must not look to reap a harvest; and this is mere waste of time. If our thoughts and hopes are elsewhere, it is impossible for us to set our faces steadily towards the work required of us.
--ST. FRANCIS DE SALES

One thing is indisputable: the chronic mood of looking longingly at what we have not, or thankfully at what we have, realizes two very different types of character. And we certainly can encourage the one or the other.
--LUCY C. SMITH

Seek to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of the crowded kindnesses of God in your daily life.
--ALEXANDER MACLAREN

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Isaiah 54:10 1 Kings 8:56

The Helper

The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
--ISAIAH 54:10

There hath not failed one word of all His good promise.
--1 KINGS 8:56

THERE is a persuasion in the soul of man that he is here for cause, that he was put down in this place by the Creator to do the work for which He inspires him, that thus he is an overmatch for all antagonists that could combine against him.
--RALPH WALDO EMERSON

It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his Helper is omnipotent; and can do whatsoever He please. Let us rest there awhile,--He can, if He please: and He is infinitely loving, willing enough; and He is infinitely wise, choosing better for us than we can do for ourselves. God invites and cherishes the hopes of men by all the variety of His providence. He that believes does not make haste, but waits patiently, till the times of refreshment come, and dares trust God for the morrow, and is no more solicitous for the next year than he is for that which is past.
--JEREMY TAYLOR

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Expressed Affection

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
--2 CORINTHIANS 1:3,4

THE spirit of gracious and expressed affection. Ah, let no one shrink from expressing it! The heart has strange abysses of gloom, and often yearns for just one word of love to help. And it is just when the manner may be drier and less genial than usual that the need may be greatest.
--LUCY C. SMITH

God puts within our reach the power of helpfulness, the ministry of pity: He is ever ready to increase His grace in our hearts, that as we live and act among all the sorrows of the world we may learn by slow degrees the skill and mystery of consolation. "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." There is no surer way of steadfast peace in this world than the active exercise of pity; no happier temper of mind and work than the lowly watching to see if we can lessen any misery that is about us: nor is there any better way of growth in faith and love.
--FRANCIS PAGET

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Matthew 6:20-21

Laying Up Treasures

Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, . . . for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
--MATTHEW 6:20,21

SINCE I am coming to that holy room
Where with the choir of saints forevermore
I shall be made Thy music, as I come
I tune the instrument here at the door,
And, what I must do then, think here before.
--JOHN DONNE

TO lay up treasure in heaven is to do arts which promote, or belong to, the kingdom of God; and what our Lord assures us of is that any act of our hands, any thought of our heart, any word of our lips, which promotes the divine kingdom by the ordering whether of our own life or of the world outside--all such activity, though it may seem for the moment to be lost, is really stored up in the divine treasure-house; and when the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, shall at last appear, that honest effort of ours, which seemed so ineffectual, shall be found to be a brick built into that eternal and celestial fabric.
--CHARLES GORE

We cannot remove the conditions under which our work is to be done, but we can transform them. They are the elements out of which we must build the temples wherein we serve.
--BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference John 15:10

Love Comes From Action

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.
  --JOHN 15:10

THIS did not once so trouble me,
That better I could not love Thee;
But now I feel and know
That only when we love, we find
How far our hearts remain behind
The love they should bestow.
  --RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH

OUR Lord gives the answer to a difficulty continually perplexing honest Christians--"How am I to learn to love God? I want to do my duty, but I do not feel as if I loved God." Our Lord gives the answer, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Act for God, do and say the things that He wills; direct your thoughts and intentions God-ward; and, depend upon it, in the slow process of nature, all that belongs to you--your instincts, your intelligence, your affections, your feelings--will gradually follow along the line of your action. Act for God; you are already showing love to Him and you will learn to feel it.
  --CHARLES GORE

They who, continuing faithful to divine grace, however partially communicated, serve God with their whole lives, will never fail of that one reward, the greatest which even He has to bestow, the being made able to love Him with their whole hearts.
  --DORA GREENWELL

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