Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - July 21
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. —Philippians 2:12, 13
What a staggering weight of thought is excited by these words! Stay, my soul, and wonder that the Eternal God should stoop to work within thy narrow limits. Is it not a marvel indeed, that He, whom the heavens cannot contain, and in whose sight they are not clean, should trouble Himself to work on such material, so unpromising, and amidst circumstances …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - July 20
Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy. —Matthew 8:6
We, in this age of the church, are in the position of that sick servant at Capernaum. To the eye of sense we are separated from the Savior. We see Him not—we can touch Him not—the hand cannot steal amid the crowd to catch His garment hem—we cannot hear His loved footsteps as of old on our threshold; but faith penetrates the invisible; the messenger—prayer—meets Him in the streets of the New Jerusalem; and faith and prayer together, the twin delegates …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - July 19
Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe. —Psalm 119:117
Do not spoil the chime of this morning’s bells by ringing one half a peal! Do not say, “Hold thou me up,” and stop there, or add, “But all the same I shall stumble and fall!” Finish the peal with God's own music, the bright words of faith that He puts into your mouth: “Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe!” —Frances Ridley Havergal
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - July 18
Sow beside all waters. —Isaiah 32:20
Never mind whereabouts your work is. Never mind whether it be visible or not. Never mind whether your name is associated with it. You may never see the issues of your toils. You are working for eternity. If you cannot see results here in the hot working day, the cool evening hours are drawing near, when you may rest from your labors and then they will follow you. So do your duty, and trust God to give the seed you sow “a body as it hath …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - July 17
Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. —James 1:4
Are you where God would have you be? If not, come out, and at once, for you certainly ought not to be there. If you are, then be afraid to complain of circumstances which God has ordained on purpose to work out in you the very image and likeness of His Son. —Mark Guy Pearse
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - July 16
Ye shall not eat of it. —Genesis 3:3
The Sin of Paradise was eating the tree of knowledge before the tree of life. Life must ever be first. Knowing and not being, hearing and not doing, admiring and not possessing, all are light without life. —Selected
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - July 15
He [John] saith, Behold the Lamb of God! And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. —John 1:36, 37
To be a Christian means to know the presence of a true personal Christ among us, and to follow. —Phillips Brooks
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - July 14
Behold the man! —John 19:5
“Behold the man!” was Pilate’s jeer. That is what all the ages have been doing since, and the vision has grown more and more glorious. As they have looked, the crown of thorns has become a crown of golden radiance, and the cast-off robe has glistened like the garments He wore on the night of the transfiguration. Martyrs have smiled in the flames at that vision. Sinners have turned at it to a new life. Little children have seen it, and have had awakened by it dim …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - July 13
Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. —Song of Solomon 4:16
There are two winds mentioned in this beautiful prayer. God may send either or both, as seemeth Him good. He may send the north wind of conviction, to bring us to repentance, or He may send the south wind of love, to melt us into gratitude and holy joy. If we often require the sharp blasts of trial to develop our graces, do we not also need the warm …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - July 12
Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. —Song of Solomon 4:16
Sometimes God sends severe blasts of trial upon His children to develop their graces. Just as torches burn most brightly when swung violently to and fro; just as the juniper plant smells sweetest when flung into the flames; so the richest qualities of a Christian often come out under the north wind of suffering and adversity. Bruised hearts often emit the fragrance that God loveth to smell. Almost every …
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