God has given us everything we need to pull off the impossible.
~Makala B. Doulos
I may not have many more opportunities of preaching, and I make up my mind to this one thing, that I will waste no time upon secondary themes, but when I do preach it shall be the gospel or something closely bearing upon it. I will endeavour each time to strike under the fifth rib, and never beat the air.
~Charles H. Spurgeon
Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.
— 1 Corinthians 16:13
— 1 Corinthians 16:13
Beloved, there are some days where we don’t feel courage about our faith. Or, we just want to back off a little bit. Or, maybe we think we deserve a few minutes of self-pity.
Sorry, this writer doesn’t see any of that posturing ever validated by G_d in His word. Surely we rest in Him. Absolutely we wait on Him. But we don’t back off. We don’t pout. We don’t whine. Seriously? Yeah, seriously, we are to pull up our “big-boy pants” and be about the work G_d has set before us. He’ll give us the strength and courage we need. Just go…
Enough! Let me defer to an expert for the rest of this entry. C.H. Spurgeon wrote this as an entry in his devotional “Morning and Evening.”
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“Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar.”
—Psalm 120:5
As a Christian you have to live in the midst of an ungodly world, and it is of little use for you to cry “Woe is me.” Jesus did not pray O that you should be taken out of the world, and what He did not pray for you need not desire. Better far in the Lord’s strength to meet the difficulty, and glorify Him in it. The enemy is ever on the watch to detect inconsistency in your conduct; be therefore very holy. Remember that the eyes of all are upon you, and that more is expected from you than from other men. Strive to give no occasion for blame. Let your goodness be the only fault they can discover in you. Like Daniel, compel them to say of you, “We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.” Seek to be useful as well as consistent. Perhaps you think, “If I were in a more favourable position I might serve the Lord’s cause, but I cannot do any good where I am”; but the worse the people are among whom you live, the more need have they of your exertions; if they be crooked, the more necessity that you should set them straight; and if they be perverse, the more need have you to turn their proud hearts to the truth. Where should the physician be but where there are many sick? Where is honour to be won by the soldier but in the hottest fire of the battle? And when weary of the strife and sin that meets you on every hand, consider that all the saints have endured the same trial. They were not carried on beds of down to heaven, and you must not expect to travel more easily than they. They had to hazard their lives unto the death in the high places of the field, and you will not be crowned till you also have endured hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Therefore, “stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.”
