Joy And Strength

[nChrist]

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

Acceptance of God's Dispensations

Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.
  --COLOSSIANS 1:11

REJOICE in Christ always!
When earth looks heavenly bright,
When joy makes glad the livelong day,
And peace shuts in the night.
Rejoice, when care and woe
The fainting soul oppress,
When tears at wakeful midnight flow,
And morn brings heaviness.
  --JOHN MOULTRIE

A GREAT point is gained when we have learned not to struggle against the circumstances God has appointed for us.
  --H. L. SIDNEY LEAR

All mental discomfort comes from our minds being in divergence from God's; when the two are agreed no warfare occurs, for they work together, and man's mind accepts God's rule, but reason tells us that disagreement must bring conflicts. He will have His way, and would have us accept all events with the knowledge that He is love, whatever and however contradictory those events may be to our comprehension of Him.
  --CHARLES GEORGE GORDON

Something is wrong, when the Christian cannot rejoice in all the dear dispensations of his Father's providence.
  --ISABELLA CAMPBELL, 1825

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 1 Chronicles 29:5

The Christian Service

Who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord? --1 CHRONICLES 29:5

My blessed task from day to day
Is humbly, gladly, to obey.
--HARRIET MCEWEN KIMBALL

THE only way to restore a weakened will is by exercising itself in details of duty, it may be in smallest acts of obedience, regularly done, "here a little, and there a little," content to grow by slow degrees into the use of lost powers through repeated acts of observance however trivial or unobserved. Faithfulness to every smallest call of obedience, as it comes, is the means of gaining gradual accessions of strength, and thus tending more and more to higher degrees of conformity to the Will of God. Only by such simple practical dutifulness can habits be formed. --T. T. CARTER

Break off some one evil, seek to uproot some one sin, cut off some one self-indulgence, deny thyself some one vanity; do it as an offering to God, for the love of God, in hope once to see God; and some gleam of faith, and life, and love will stream down upon thy soul from the everlasting Fount of love. Follow on, and thou shalt never lose that track of light. --EDWARD B. PUSEY

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 119:45

Freedom by Grace

I will walk at liberty: for I seek Thy precepts.
--PSALMS 119:45

To be made with Thee one spirit,
Is the boon that I lingering ask,
To have no bar 'twixt my soul and Thine;
My thoughts to echo Thy will divine,
Myself Thy servant for any task.
--LUCY LARCOM

THERE is more effort, more steadfastness, involved in a diligent attention to little duties than appears at first sight, and that because of their continual recurrence. Such heed to little things implies a ceaseless listening to the whispers of grace, a strict watchfulness against every thought, wish, word or act which can offend God ever so little, a constant effort to do everything as perfectly as possible. All this, however, must be done with a free, childlike spirit, without restlessness and anxiety. He does not ask a fretted, shrinking service. Give yourself to Him, trust Him, fix your eye upon Him, listen to His voice, and then go on bravely and cheerfully, never doubting for an instant that His grace will lead you in small things as well as great, and will keep you from offending His law of love.
--JEAN NICOLAS GROU

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Deuteronomy 8:2

Count Your Blessings

Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee.
--DEUTERONOMY 8:2

NOT mindless of the growing years
Of care and loss and pain,
My eyes are wet with thankful tears
For blessings that remain.
--J. G. WHITTIER

THE years of available and happy life which have been already enjoyed ought to be the cause of thankfulness, even if "the days of darkness" were many. "The sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things," says Tennyson. Surely, in the sphere of Faith, at least, there is some mistake here. "For what we have received the Lord make us truly thankful."
--JAMES SMETHAM

A bright, happy soul, rejoicing in all God's gifts, seeing cause for thankfulness and gladness in everything, counting up mercies rather than trials, looking at the bright side, even of sickness, bereavement, and death--what a very fountain of goodness and love of Christ such an one is! I remember one who, worn with sickness and sleepless nights, answered to the question if the nights did not seem interminable: "Oh no, I lie still, and count up my blessings!"
--H. L. SIDNEY LEAR

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Isaiah 3:15

Exercising Simple Faith

In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.
--ISAIAH 30:15

BE Still, MY soul--for just as thou art still,
Can God reveal Himself to thee; until
Through thee His love, and light, and life can freely flow.
In stillness God can work through thee and reach
The souls around thee. He then through thee can teach
His lessons--and His power in weakness show.
--BESSIE PORTER

WE are always wanting to be doing, to be giving, to be planning for the future, to be mapping out all our life; instead of resting and receiving day by day, leaving the morrow to our God, and rejoicing in Jesus Christ amidst all our falls and failures. Instead of going on rejoicing in Jesus, we are tempted to despond, and to go on desponding, after every failure, negligence, and sin.
--GEORGE H. WILKINSON

We seek God afar off, in projects perhaps altogether unattainable, and we do not consider that we possess Him now in the midst of confusion, by the exercise of simple faith, provided we bear humbly and bravely the annoyances which come from others, and our own imperfect ions.
--FRANCOIS DE LA MOTHE FÉNELON

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Ephesians 1:10

Company of the Apostles

That He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth.
--EPHESIANS 1:10

For all the saints who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy name, O Jesus, be for ever blessed.
Alleluia!

Oh, blest communion! fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia!
WILLIAM W. HOW

IN the glorious company of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of the prophets, the noble army of martyrs, the holy Church throughout all the world is one. Therefore year by year let us reverently commemorate their names, remembering what they were, but stead-fastly gazing at what they are. Their very words are still ringing in our ears: of some the beloved image too is full before us. Let us live as they would bid us, could they still speak: let us fulfill their known behests, following in their steps, filling up the works that they began, carrying on their hallowed offices, now bequeathed to our care; let us be like them in deadness to sin, and unceasing homage to our unseen Lord. As we grow holier, we grow nearer to them; to be like them is to be with them; even now they are not far from us, we know not how nigh.
HENRY EDWARD MANNING

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[nChrist]

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

Inheritance of the Saints

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.
COLOSSIANS 1:12

NOT their own, ah! not from earth was flowing
That high strain to which their souls were tuned;
Year by year we saw them inly growing
Liker Him with whom their hearts communed.
Then to Him they passed; but still unbroken,
Age to age, lasts on that goodly line,
Whose pure lives are, more than all words spoken,
Earth's best witness to the life divine.
JOHN CAMPBELL SHAIRP

ONLY to remember that such have been, that we walked for a season with them, is a chastening, a purifying, yea, and however much we may miss and mourn them, a gladdening thought.
RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH

The beatitude of the Saints is the matured result of the long course of patient strivings, which may have passed wholly unobserved because of their minuteness. One step has followed another in the mysterious progress of daily, hourly acts, each seeming to pass away, as footprints on the sand are obliterated by the advancing tide; but the end is the Vision of God, and the recompense is the perfection of a nature made one with the Mind of God.
T. T. CARTER

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Job 13:15 Isaiah 48:10

I Have Refined Thee

Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.
JOB 13:15

Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
ISAIAH 48:10

I WILL not let Thee go; Thou Help in time of need!
Heap ill on ill, I trust Thee still,
E'en when it seems that Thou wouldst slay indeed!
Do as Thou wilt with me, I yet will cling to Thee;
Hide Thou Thy face, yet, Help in time of need,
I will not let Thee go.
WOLFGANG C. DESSLER

YOUR afflictions are not eternal, time will end them, and so shall ye at length see the Lord's salvation; His love sleepeth not, is still in working for you; His salvation will not tarry nor linger; and suffering for Him is the noblest cross out of heaven. Your Lord hath the choice of ten thousand other crosses, beside this, to exercise you withal; but His wisdom and His love choosed out this for you, beside them all; and take it as a choice one, and make use of it. Let the Lord absolutely have the ordering of your evils and troubles, and put them off you, by recommending your cross and your furnace to Him, who hath skill to melt His own metal, and knoweth well what to do with His furnace.
SAMUEL RUTHERFORD

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Ephesians 6:6

His Will in Your Surroundings

As bond-servants [margin] of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. EPHESIANS 6:6 (R. V.)

LORD Jesus, turn us from the noise
Of endless strivings and empty joys,
To find forever Thy one true peace,
Rest from sorrow, from sin release!
HARRIET MCEWEN KIMBALL

CAN He not enable you to do that will from your heart, in your surroundings? Are you sorely tried by those surroundings? Are they, in themselves, humiliating to you, or exasperating to you? Are they full of acute heart-pangs, or heavy with a chronic heartache? Not one of these things is forgotten before your Lord. Your slightest pain finds response in His sympathy. But let that thought be but the steppingstone to this, that for you as for the slave-saint of Ephesus there lies open in that same Lord the blessed secret of a life which shall move amidst these same unwelcome surroundings as a life free, and at leisure, and at peace, full of love and rest, blessed and blessing; a life hid with Christ in God; a life in which everything, from your rising up to your lying down, the smallest cross and the largest, is seen in the light of the holy, the beloved, will of God, and so is met not with a sigh, or a murmur, but "from the soul."
HANDLEY C. G. MOULE

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 22:26 1 Corinthians 13:8

We Are Remembered

Love never faileth. 1 CORINTHIANS 8:8 (R.V.)

Your heart shall live for ever. PSALMS 22:26

DEATH has no bidding to divide
The souls that dwell in Thee;
Yes, all who in the Lord abide
Are of one family.
THOMAS H. GILL

WILL not our own lamented and beloved be there, in the array of happy spirits? Will they not hail our coming with delight? Do they not remember us now, even in the sight of God? For to see His face does not extinguish but perfect all holy loves. God's love gathers up and perfects all pure love like His own, all love that is for His sake. When we meet our beloved in Him, we shall both know and love them so as we have neither loved or known before.
HENRY EDWARD MANNING

She is not sent away, but only sent before; like unto a star, which, going out of our sight, doth not die and vanish, but shineth in another hemisphere: ye see her not, yet she doth shine in another country.
SAMUEL RUTHERFORD

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 55:22

Thy Burden

Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
PSALMS 55:22

To Thee I bring my care,
The care I cannot flee;
Thou wilt not only share,
But bear it all for me.
O loving Saviour, now to Thee
I bring the load that wearies me.
FRANCES R. HAVERGAL

CAST thy burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain thee"--burden and all. "Thee" is the greatest burden that thou hast! All other burdens are but slight, but this is a crushing burden. But when we come to the Lord with our burden, He just lifts up His child, burden and all, and bears him all the way home.
CHARLES A. FOX

He lays his affairs and himself on God, and so hath no pressing care; no care but the care of love, how to please, how to honor his Lord. And in this, too, lie depends on Him, both for skill and strength; and, touching the success of things, he leaves that as none of his to be burdened with, casts it on God, and since He careth for it, they need not both care, His care is sufficient. Hence springs peace, inconceivable peace.
ROBERT LEIGHTON

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Galatians 6:10 Mark 14:8

Make It Your Problem

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men.
GALATIANS 6:10

She hath done what she could.
MARK 14:8

VERY consoling words, if we can be sure they apply to us. Very pungent condemnation if they apply not, and we suffer opportunities to go by. The rule demands no impossibilities; but it does demand that every sphere, however humble, shall be filled with divine endeavors. You have not done what you could if you have not made it the problem of every day; how many burdens can I make lighter? how much heart sunshine can I shed about me? how much can I increase the sum of human blessing in the circle where my lines have fallen? How easily we slide into the delusion that we should do a great deal more good if we had the means, overlooking the means that lie close about us!
EDMUND H. SEARS

There is no act too trifling to be made by God the first link in a chain of blessing; whether some trifling incident is allowed on our part to drop unobserved, or is taken up and placed in its intended position, often depends on the entertainment we have given to some previously-suggested idea of duty.
SARAH W. STEPHEN

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Matthew 5:19

The Small Things

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven.
MATTHEW 5:19

THE great sterling duties, the exact truth of word, the resolute refusal to countenance wrong, the command of temper, the mastery of indolence, the unstained purity,--these, and such as these, form the character, and fashion our souls into instruments in God's hands for high and heavenly purposes in His Providence. But the carefulness over details, the watchfulness against faults which we know to be faults, but which, notwithstanding, seem venial, the devout regularity and attention in our private prayers, the invariable good-humor of our manners, the seeking for occasions of kindness and unselfishness, the avoidance of little temptations, the care not to cause little annoyances and little troubles,--to attend to all this for the sake of Christ our Master is the natural and fitting expression of a loving heart.
FREDERICK TEMPLE

The sins by which God's Spirit is ordinarily grieved are the sins of small things--laxities in keeping the temper, slight neglects of duty, sharpness of dealing.

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[nChrist]

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

Steady Prayer

Continuing steadfastly in prayer. ROMANS 12:12 (R. V.)

PRAYER is a preparation for danger, it is the armor for battle. Go not into the dangerous world without it. You kneel down at night to pray and drowsiness weighs down your eyelids. A hard day's work is a kind of excuse, and you shorten your prayer, and resign yourself softly to repose. The morning breaks, and it may be you rise late, and so your early devotions are not done, or done with irregular haste. It is no marvel if that day in which you suffer drowsiness to interfere with prayer be a day on which you betray Him by cowardice and soft shrinking from duty.

FREDERICK WM. ROBERTSON

PRAYER to God regular and earnest, never intermittent for any reason, never hurried over for any weariness or for any coldness; this is one chief means of keeping our spiritual growth healthy and alive. If we would live in any degree by that ideal which our better selves sometimes set before us, we must steadily maintain the habit of regular prayer. For whether or not we are conscious of it at the time, there is a calm and unceasing strength which can be thus engrafted on our souls, and thus only.

FREDERICK TEMPLE

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Zephaniah 3:8 Ephesians 3:19

Meeting God Daily

Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord.
Zephaniah 3:8

That you might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Ephesians 3:19

What is our work when God a blessing would impart?
To bring the empty vessel of a needy heart.
RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH

In praying, we are often occupied with ourselves, with our own needs, and our own efforts in the presentation of them. In waiting upon God, the first thought is of the God upon whom we wait. God longs to reveal Himself, to fill us with Himself. Waiting on God gives Him time in His own way and divine power to come to us. Before you pray, bow quitely before God, to remember and realize who He is, how near He is, how certainly He can and will help. Be still before Him, and allow His Holy spirit to waken and stir up in your soul the child-like disposition of absolute dependence and confident expectation. Wait on God till you know you have met Him; prayer will then become so different. And when you are praying, let there be intervals of silence, reverent stillness of soul, in which you yield yourself to God, in case He may have aught He wishes to teach you or to work in you.

ANDREW MURRAY

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