Posts with the category “voices-from-the-past-vol-1”

Consider how weak you are in yourselves, and how great a need to watch, lest you disobey your heavenly pilot before you are even aware of it. O what a heart we have to watch! It is a lazy heart that w...  Read More

To increase your obedience to the Lord, keep your eye upon his greatness and continual presence and providence. This will keep you in an obedient frame of mind. So great a God cannot be disobeyed with...  Read More

In our prosperity we love earthly blessings and dote upon things in this world as if our happiness and comfort were bound up in them. In the day of adversity God convinces us of our mistake, and cause...  Read More

Sin is always very sinful, but in our prosperity we are not so aware of it. The dust of the world fills our eyes that we cannot see it clearly. God frequently uses affliction to teach his children the...  Read More

God is your sovereign king. It is your happiness to obey and please him. Labour therefore to bring your soul into absolute subjection to him: to make it your delight to sincerely and exactly obey his ...  Read More

Satan’s kingdom is a powerful kingdom. His forces are formidable, and are designed against God and man. Though fallen, they are yet angels, and have the power and authority of angels. If we get a prop...  Read More

Is Christ your Prince? This calls for your loyal and faithful service to Christ—who has saved you from Satan's bondage. He has broken Satan's power over you and is able to defend you from his wrath. I...  Read More

God speaks with sinners through his messengers. They come for God's purpose, and their words, counsels, exhortations, and reproofs are his. When sinners reject the words which God's ministers bring in...  Read More

The Christian's state in this life is described as wrestling. It is a solitary battle, a one against one fight. The Christian's life is a continual warfare and so he needs a sword as much as a trowel....  Read More

Satan shall never vanquish a soul that is armed with true grace. True saints, who have been sifted by the enemy, will at last come off with an honourable victory. The Holy Spirit who led Christ into t...  Read More

God’s saying, is God’s doing. His promises are one with his performance of them. He is just as willing to perform as to promise. There is no distance between his saying and doing, as among men. This c...  Read More

By faith you can extract the comfort of a promise from most scriptures. There are innumerable types and implied promises that we can apply. A life of faith lives in the strength of a promise. Faith re...  Read More

How shall we remedy our wandering thoughts in prayer? (1.) We must wait upon him for the power of his grace. As long as his love and grace are powerful in us, we are kept in a lively, heavenly frame. ...  Read More

Distractions of thought haunt us in prayer. We are set to seek God, but it is impossible to shut the windows to keep out all of the wind. If distractions are resisted, God will gather up the broken fr...  Read More

Affliction teaches us to prize and long for heaven. In our prosperity we are content with the present world and say with the disciples, 'It is good that we are here.' While life is sweet, death is bit...  Read More

Our own sufferings give us a partial insight into the sufferings of Christ Jesus. In our prosperity we pass by the cross. The story of Christ's passion stirs our hearts for him, but the pity and passi...  Read More

In affliction God teaches us to redeem the time. When life is tranquil, how many golden hours we throw down the stream that we shall never see again. Who is there that knows how to value time at its t...  Read More

There are rocks and quicksands that faith must take the utmost care to avoid. (1.) Watch for distracting cares (Phil. 4:6). God who feeds the sparrow will provide. (2.) Watch carnal counsel, and do no...  Read More

Times of adversity are seasonable times to trust in God. When we have no bread to eat, or water to drink, but only afflictions and astonishments, this is a time not for over-grieving, murmuring, sinki...  Read More

We should carefully trust God in times of prosperity. When we sit under the warm beams of a meridian sun, wash our steps in butter, and our feet in oil, when the candle of the Lord shines on our taber...  Read More

We may build our trust in God through the consideration of his precious promises. This is the bottle that faith keeps by her side to revive her in a day of swooning. The Greek in the above passage has...  Read More

God’s almighty arm is stable ground upon which saints may securely build their trust. His omnipotent hand spans the heavens (Isa. 40:12). He is strong and mighty (Psa. 24:8) and created the world with...  Read More

The Lord Jehovah should be the sole object of a believer's trust. In stormy and tempestuous seas we must come to this rock for a refuge (Isa. 26:4). When the sun burns hot, Jonah's gourd will prove in...  Read More

It is the indispensable duty of believers at all times to trust in the Lord alone. This holy confidence can be tuned to the highest notes of the musical scale. A confident soul moves in a higher orbit...  Read More

After we have prayed for the glory of God, we also make mention of our temporal needs. Spiritual things are our greatest need, but God also allows us temporal blessings. We enjoy them as we might enjo...  Read More

We are taught to glory and rejoice in God as our Father and in the blessed joys to which at length we shall come. Heaven is our home, though for a time we are on earth and in misery. We should not jud...  Read More

You, dear Lord, that have made heaven and earth, of your own good will towards me before I existed, yes, before the world was, have chosen me in Christ to be your child. You have become my most loving...  Read More

How do the holy angels do the will of God in heaven? First, their obedience is absolutely perfect; they do all that God asks and do not fail in the least obedience. They are never remiss in their serv...  Read More

The devil is a very subtle enemy. He knows the season he is most likely to succeed and displays his hellish skill of seduction in that season. As in Egypt, he seeks the child upon the birth stool, whe...  Read More

Faith may act with great advantage upon the promises of God and gain encouragement from them. There are promises suitable for every condition. Not only are there express promises, there are also promi...  Read More

In a word, whatever affliction we bear shall be for our soul's gain. God's rod and love go together. This is a sweet and blessed lesson indeed; it quietens the heart and supports the soul under its bu...  Read More

In our sufferings, we need to be more concerned about our duty than our deliverance. We should seriously consider what it is that God desires in our present dispensation. There is no condition or tria...  Read More

The clearest manifestation of God to us is revealed in Jesus Christ (John 1:18). His eternal Godhead is also manifest in the works of creation (Rom. 1:20). The knowledge of God in creation, however, i...  Read More

Among the faculties of the soul, much of our unnecessary trouble arises from the imagination. Its perception is a shallow understanding of good or bad taken from the senses. The delights of sense high...  Read More

God is the happiness of man because of his suitableness to the soul. A hungry man finds his stomach craving. Give him music or honour and he is hungry still. These are not suitable to his appetite. Gi...  Read More

According to the excellence of the object that we embrace in our hearts is the degree of our happiness. Saints have chosen to rest in God. Let a sinner have what he considers his treasure, and even un...  Read More

In affliction, God makes himself known to his people. In the Word we hear of God, but in affliction we see him. Prosperity is the nurse of atheism. When we are prosperous the sense of God is little by...  Read More

The life of faith is the only safe life. Its fortifications are impregnable. Trust in the Lord forever, for in him is everlasting strength. Ages pass away but the Lord our Rock abides forever. He that...  Read More

In affliction we learn the lesson of the necessity of living by faith and not feeling or perception. God teaches this by the uncertainty of life’s changes: hope today, and tomorrow at the point of dea...  Read More

Affliction makes the Word of God sweet. In prosperity, many times we cannot see its sweetness. When God keeps his children fasting from the world's dainties, how sweet are his words to our taste! Affl...  Read More