Month: January 2022

I do readings from inspired writers as part of my devotion.  I plan to be more consistent as I strive to draw closer to God daily.  As I read the words, many times my heart is drawn out in need and my mind is agitated to ponder deeply and to reassess my purpose and focus in life.  The word of God says, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36, Matthew 16:26.
Have you ever pondered those words? Can all we have gained or hope to gain in this world and this life, be better than what God offers and missing out on heaven?  I guess to answer that question, you would first have to believe that heaven is real and that living for an eternity is also real.  Wrap your mind around living for eternity!!
My contribution to this blog that we have started is to not only bring original thought but to share the inspired pages which, if already well-spoken, need not be reinvented but to be shared for others to consider and enjoy.  Hopefully to inspire a deeper understanding of just how much God loves us and how truly wonderful He is.
With that said, this post is an excerpt from one of my favorite books written by the most prolific American female author, Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages (DA).  This is an inspired work on the life of Jesus Christ. The first chapter, God with Us, is worth the purchase of this book alone.  Truly!!  The excerpt is from Chapter 34, The Invitation, where it is beautifully illustrated God’s request for us to come to Him. 

“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give your rest.”  Matthew 11:28. 
These words of comfort were spoken to the multitude that followed Jesus. The Saviour had said that only through Himself could men receive a knowledge of God. He had spoken of His disciples as the ones to whom a knowledge of heavenly things had been given. But He left none to feel themselves shut out from His care and love. All who labor and are heavy-laden may come unto Him. DA 328.2
Tenderly He bade the toiling people, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” DA 328.4
In these words Christ is speaking to every human being. Whether they know it or not, all are weary and heavy-laden. All are weighed down with burdens that only Christ can remove. The heaviest burden that we bear is the burden of sin. If we were left to bear this burden, it would crush us. But the Sinless One has taken our place. “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6. He has borne the burden of our guilt. He will take the load from our weary shoulders. He will give us rest. The burden of care and sorrow also He will bear. He invites us to cast all our care upon Him; for He carries us upon His heart. DA 328.5

The Elder Brother of our race is by the eternal throne. He looks upon every soul who is turning his face toward Him as the Saviour. He knows by experience what are the weaknesses of humanity, what are our wants, and where lies the strength of our temptations; for He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. He is watching over you, trembling child of God. Are you tempted? He will deliver. Are you weak? He will strengthen. Are you ignorant? He will enlighten. Are you wounded? He will heal. The Lord “telleth the number of the stars;” and yet “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” Psalm 147:4, 3. “Come unto Me,” is His invitation. Whatever your anxieties and trials, spread out your case before the Lord. Your spirit will be braced for endurance. The way will be opened for you to disentangle yourself from embarrassment and difficulty. The weaker and more helpless you know yourself to be, the stronger will you become in His strength. The heavier your burdens, the more blessed the rest in casting them upon the Burden Bearer. The rest that Christ offers depends upon conditions, but these conditions are plainly specified.  They are those with which all can comply.  He tells us just how His rest is to be found. DA 329.1

“Take My yoke upon you,” Jesus says. The yoke is an instrument of service. Cattle are yoked for labor, and the yoke is essential that they may labor effectually. By this illustration Christ teaches us that we are called to service as long as life shall last. We are to take upon us His yoke, that we may be co-workers with Him. DA 329.2
The yoke that binds to service is the law of God. The great law of love revealed in Eden, proclaimed upon Sinai, and in the new covenant written in the heart, is that which binds the human worker to the will of God. If we were left to follow our own inclinations, to go just where our will would lead us, we should fall into Satan’s ranks and become possessors of his attributes. Therefore God confines us to His will, which is high, and noble, and elevating. He desires that we shall patiently and wisely take up the duties of service. The yoke of service Christ Himself has borne in humanity. He said, “I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, thy law is within My heart.” Psalm 40:8. “I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.” John 6:38. Love for God, zeal for His glory, and love for fallen humanity, brought Jesus to earth to suffer and to die. This was the controlling power of His life. This principle He bids us adopt. DA 329.3There are many whose hearts are aching under a load of care because they seek to reach the world’s standard. They have chosen its service, accepted its perplexities, adopted its customs. Thus their character is marred, and their life made a weariness. In order to gratify ambition and worldly desires, they wound the conscience, and bring upon themselves an additional burden of remorse. The continual worry is wearing out the life forces. Our Lord desires them to lay aside this yoke of bondage. He invites them to accept His yoke; He says, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” He bids them seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and His promise is that all things needful to them for this life shall be added. Worry is blind, and cannot discern the future; but Jesus sees the end from the beginning. In every difficulty He has His way prepared to bring relief. Our heavenly Father has a thousand ways to provide for us, of which we know nothing. Those who accept the one principle of making the service and honor of God supreme will find perplexities vanish, and a plain path before their feet. DA 330.1

“Learn of Me,” says Jesus; “for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest.” We are to enter the school of Christ, to learn from Him meekness and lowliness. Redemption is that process by which the soul is trained for heaven. This training means a knowledge of Christ. It means emancipation from ideas, habits, and practices that have been gained in the school of the prince of darkness. The soul must be delivered from all that is opposed to loyalty to God. DA 330.2

In the heart of Christ, where reigned perfect harmony with God, there was perfect peace. He was never elated by applause, nor dejected by censure or disappointment. Amid the greatest opposition and the most cruel treatment, He was still of good courage. But many who profess to be His followers have an anxious, troubled heart, because they are afraid to trust themselves with God. They do not make a complete surrender to Him; for they shrink from the consequences that such a surrender may involve. Unless they do make this surrender, they cannot find peace. DA 330.3

It is the love of self that brings unrest. When we are born from above, the same mind will be in us that was in Jesus, the mind that led Him to humble Himself that we might be saved. Then we shall not be seeking the highest place. We shall desire to sit at the feet of Jesus, and learn of Him. We shall understand that the value of our work does not consist in making a show and noise in the world, and in being active and zealous in our own strength. The value of our work is in proportion to the impartation of the Holy Spirit. Trust in God brings holier qualities of mind, so that in patience we may possess our souls. DA 330.4

Those who take Christ at His word, and surrender their souls to His keeping, their lives to His ordering, will find peace and quietude. Nothing of the world can make them sad when Jesus makes them glad by His presence. In perfect acquiescence there is perfect rest. The Lord says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.” Isaiah 26:3. Our lives may seem a tangle; but as we commit ourselves to the wise Master Worker, He will bring out the pattern of life and character that will be to His own glory. And that character which expresses the glory—character—of Christ will be received into the Paradise of God. A renovated race shall walk with Him in white, for they are worthy.” 

“For they are worthy”.  Love those words.  I want to be worthy to meet Christ in peace, to stand in His presence and live with Him throughout eternity.  What about you? 

My last post was entitled “Early Will I seek Thee”.  I hope that you enjoyed reading and meditating upon those inspiring words as I enjoyed writing and sharing with you.  As I continue to read E.M. Bounds on Prayer, I will share certain excerpts that I believe will challenge us, make us consider our walk with God and our prayer life.  Is it a prayer life that pants and thirsts after righteousness, as David uttered in Psalms 42:1,2  “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.  My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?”

I will begin with a quote from Charles Spurgeon:
“We must remember that the goal of prayer is the ear of God.  Unless that is gained, the prayer has utterly failed. The uttering of it may have kindled devotional feeling in our minds, the hearing of it may have comforted and strengthened the hearts of those with whom we have prayed, but if the prayer has not gained the heart of God, it has failed in its essential purpose.” 

Excerpts from E.M. Bounds on Prayer, Chapter 3:

“In prayer, man’s access to God opens everything, and makes his impoverishment his wealth.  We have seen how prayer changes the purposes of God, and stays or moves His mighty hand.  All things are available to man through prayer.  Man is given the privilege to command God, who has all this authority and power, in accordance with the demands of God’s earthly kingdom.  Look again at the passage in Psalm 2, beginning with verse eight:
“Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.  Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”  Psalms 2:8,9.  
Heaven, with all that is has, is under obligation to carry out the ultimate, final, and glorious purposes of God.  Why, then, is the time so long in carrying out these wise benedictions for man?  Why, then, does sin reign so long?  Why are the oath-bound covenant promises so long in coming to their gracious end?  Sin reigns, Satan reigns, sighing marks the lives of many; all tears are fresh and full. 
Why is all this so?  Because we have not prayed to bring the evil to an end; we have not prayed as we must pray.  We have not met the conditions of prayer. 
More praying, and better praying, is the key to the whole matter.  The more time we spend in prayer, and the more preparations we make to meet God, the more we will commune with God through Christ.  But our manner of praying, and the things about which we pray, are not entirely pleasing to God.  Baptist philosopher John Foster has said, “More and better praying will bring the surest and readiest triumph to God’s cause; feeble, formal, listless praying brings decay and death.” 

What, then, are we to do?  We must prepare ourselves to pray, to be like Christ, and to pray like Christ.  We must meet the conditions of prayer.  We can begin to examine the conditions of prayer by reading these verses from Isaiah:
“Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.  I have made the earth, and created man upon it:  I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.”  Isaiah 45:11, 12.

Ask of Me. Ask of God.  We have not rested on prayer.  We have not made prayer the sole condition.  There has been a violation of the primary condition of prayer.  We have not prayed correctly.  We have not prayed at all.  God is willing to give, but we are slow to ask.  The Son, through His saints, is ever praying (see Hebrews 7:25), and God the Father is ever answering.
 Ask of Me.  In the invitation is conveyed the assurance of an answer; the shout of victory is there and may be heard by the listening ear.  The Father holds the authority and power in His hands.  How easy is the condition, and yet how slow we are in fulfilling the condition!  Nations are in bondage; the uttermost parts of the earth are still not possessed.  The earth groans (see Romans 8:22); the world is still in bondage; and Satan and evil hold sway. 
Ask of Me.  The Father holds Himself in the attitude of Giver, and a petition to God the Father empowers all agencies, inspires all movements.  The Gospel is divinely inspired, and behind all its inspirations is prayer.  Standing as the endowment of the enthroned Christ is the oath-bound covenant of the Father:  “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” Psalms 2:8.  And men shall prayer to Him continually.  See Psalms 72:15. 
But not all praying is true praying.  The driving power, the conquering force in God’s cause, must be God Himself.  “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3), is God’s challenge to pray.  Prayer puts God in full force into His own work. “Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me” (Isaiah 45:11), is God’s carte blanche to prayer.  Faith is only omnipotent when on its knees; and when its outstretched hands take hold of God, then it draws upon the utmost of God’s capacity, for only a praying faith can get God’s “all things whatsoever.” 

“…The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.  And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”  James 5:16-18.
But why do we not obtain results by our praying?  Why are our prayers not answered?  Our lack of results, and the cause of all our feebleness in faith, was explained by the apostle James in these words:  “Ye have not, because ye ask not.  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”  James 4:2, 3.
Oneness with Christ is the glorious climax of spiritual attainment, because we can then “ask what we will, and it shall be done unto us” (John 15:7).  Therefore, we must be one with Him.  We must pray in His name, for prayer in Jesus’ name puts the crowning crown on God; it glorifies Him through the Son and pledges the Son to give to men “whatsoever” and anything they ask.  That is the whole truth, in a nutshell.” 

What a wonderful promise that we can ask anything in Jesus’ name as it is in God’s will because He knows what is best. 
I will share again, but may God richly bless and strengthen us in our prayer life and to do His will. 

I have struggled for years with getting to bed on time, that is at least by 10 pm.  May be different for others.  As a physician I know the benefits of getting a good night’s rest.  It is during those hours of inactivity that the body has time to heal, rejuvenate and restore.

However, there is also a very important reason to get to bed early, so that we can rise early.  It is for our spiritual health.  Just as the physical body heals, rejuvenates and restores, so it is with our spiritual body when we rise early to meet with God in prayer. 

The Psalmist, David wrote “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee…”  Psalms 63:1  and “My voice shalt thou hear early in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up”.  Psalms 5:3

I will share a chapter from the book, E.M. Bounds on Prayer, section on Power through Prayer, chapter 7.  Here is eloquently shared the importance and reward of seeking God first and early.  As Robert Murray McCheyne stated, “I feel that it is far better to begin with God – to seek His face first – to get my soul near Him before it is near another”.

E.M. Bounds, Power through Prayer, Chapter 7:

“The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees.  He who fritters away the early morning – its opportunity and freshness – in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seeking Him the rest of the day.  If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, He (God) will be last during the remainder of the day. 

Behind this early rising and early praying is the intense desire that urges us into this pursuit after God.  Morning listlessness indicates a listless heart.   The heart that is lax in seeking God in morning has lost its relish for God.  David’s heart was ardent after God.  He hungered and thirsted after God.  He sought God early, before daylight.  The bed and sleep could not chain his soul in the eagerness after God.  Christ longed for communion with God; and so, rising a great while before day, He would go out to the mountain to pray.  The disciples, when fully awake and ashamed of their indulgence, knew where to find Him.  We could list men who have mightily impressed the world for God, and we would find that they were early in seeking after God. 

A desire for God that cannot break the chains of sleep is a weak thing and will do little good for God.  The desire for God that stays far behind the Devil and the world at the beginning of the day will never catch up. 

It is not simply getting up that has brought men to the front and has made them leaders in God’s hosts.  It is the overwhelming desire that stirs and breaks all self-indulgent chains that does so.  But getting up gives vent, increase, and strength to the desire.  If they had lain in bed and indulged themselves, the desire would have quenched.  The desire aroused them and inspired them to reach out for God. 

This heeding and acting on the call gave their faith its grasp on God, and their hearts the sweetest and fullest revelation of Him.  This strength of faith and fullness of revelation made them saints by eminence.  The halo of their sainthood has come down to us, and we have entered into the enjoyment of their conquests.  But we take our fill in enjoyment of them, and not in imitating them.  We build their tombs and write their epitaphs, but are careful not to follow their examples. 

We need a generation of preachers who seek God and seek Him early.  We need men who give the freshness and dew of effort to God, and in return secure the freshness and fullness of His power, that He may be as the dew to them – full of gladness and strength through all the heal and labor of the day.  Our laziness after God is our crying sin.  The children of this world are far wiser than we.  They are at it early and late.  We do not seek God with ardor and diligence.  No man receives God who does not follow hard after Him.  And no soul follows hard after God who is not after Him in early morn.” 

I will close with an admonition from a renowned preacher, Charles Spurgeon on prayer:

“One night alone in prayer might make us new men (or women), change from poverty of soul to spiritual wealth, from trembling to triumphing.  We have an example of it in the life of Jacob.  He was once the crafty shuffler, always bargaining and calculating, unlovely in almost every respect.  Yet, one night in prayer turned the supplanter into a prevailing prince, and robed him with celestial grandeur.  From that night, he lived on the sacred page as one of the nobility of heaven.  Could we not, at least now and then, in these weary earthbound years, hedge about a single night for such enriching traffic with the skies? 

What, have we no sacred ambition?  Are we deaf to the yearnings of divine love?  Yet, my fellow believers, men will cheerfully quit their warm couches for wealth and for science.  Can we not do it now and again for the love of God and the good of souls?  Where is our zeal, our gratitude, or sincerity?  I am ashamed while I thus upbraid both myself and you.  May we often tarry at Jabbok (the river near which Jacob wrestled through the night), and cry with Jacob, as he grasped the angel –
With thee all night I mean to stay,
And wrestle till the break of day.

Surely brethren, if we have given whole days to folly, we can afford a space for heavenly wisdom.

There was a time when we gave whole nights to chambering and wantonness, to dancing and the world’s revelry; we did not tire then; we were chiding the sun that he rose so soon, and wishing the hours would lag awhile that we might delight in wilder merriment and perhaps deeper sin.  Oh, why then do we weary in heavenly employments?  Why do we grow weary when asked to watch with our Lord?  Up, sluggish heart, Jesus calls you!  Rise and go forth to meet the heavenly Friend in the place where He manifests Himself.”

After reading the chapter and this quote from Spurgeon, I felt as they did, ashamed because God is so faithful to me and He sustains each breath that I breathe, every second of every day.  He does this for you and for me, although so unworthy, because of unconditional love. 

I hope that you are inspired with me to, “purpose in our hearts” to meet with Him early each day to be renewed, strengthened and guided to do His will.