Great Quotes: Jesus—Ever Near, Forever Glorious

Jesus, ever near me, ever looking on; seeing my intentions before He beholds my failures; knowing my desires before He sees my faults; cheering me to endeavor greater things, and yet accepting the least; inviting my poor service, and yet, above all, content with my poorer love. The humblest and the simplest, the weakest and the most encumbered, may love Him not less than the busiest and strongest, the most gifted and laborious. If our heart be clear before Him; if He be to our chief and sovereign choice, dear above all, and beyond all desired; then all else matters little. That which concerns us He will perfect in stillness and in power. –H.E. Manning

What is highest in this world is lowest in the other, and what is highest in that world is lowest in this. Gold is on top here; they pave the streets with it there. To serve is looked upon as ignoble here; there those that serve reign and the last are first. I never saw a girl unwilling to fling away paste diamonds when she could have real stones, and when a man understands what God can be to the soul, he is independent of things he used to care for most. – F.B. Meyer

 

Waiting

God doesn’t always answer our prayers at the moment we ask. It may be His plan to answer us, but not always in the timetable we think. Also, God doesn’t always fulfill the words He speaks to us at the moment He reveals them.

Why does God sometimes delay and what does He want us to learn while we are waiting. The book of Hebrews gives us some wonderful insight into this question, “We desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6:11-12 (NKJV)

Here, in paraphrase form, is God’s answer to the question of waiting, “In times of waiting I want you to learn to stay steady and attentive to what I am saying. I want you to develop a hope that will keep you moving forward in my will until the end of your journey. Above all, I want you to add to your faith the benefit of patience, which will allow you to wait without complaint and with a calm willingness to receive what I have for you, in the time frame that fits perfectly into My plan for your life.”

Great Quotes:

Thankful For All Things

Never complain of your birth, your training, your employments, your hardships; never fancy that you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned you. God understands His own plan, and He knows what you want a great deal better than you do. The very things that you most deprecate, as fatal limitations or obstructions, are probably what you most want. What you call hindrances, obstacles, discouragements, are probably God’s opportunities. –H. Bushnell

Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20 NKJV

Thankful In All Things

Everything that Satan says against you is an argument why Christ should love you the more. I saw something like this once. There was a blacksmith, one blow of whose hand would fell the strongest antagonist in his neighborhood—a strong, broad-shouldered, glorious man. He came home where his little child was ill. She held out her trembling, thin hands to him, and brought down his big head to her low level as she lay on the bed. Then I saw that what strength cannot do, weakness can; what the strongest man in the neighborhood could not do, the little child did; she could bring her father to the dust. So your weakness will bring Christ down to your very utter most need.  –F.B. Meyer

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 NKJV

God’s Best to You

God can only give the best to you, because second best is not a part of His nature, His character, or His heart. If you cast yourself upon Him, He will not let you slip through His hands; if you drink from His fountain you will never taste of tainted waters; if you eat at His table you will never find stale bread; if you walk in His footsteps you will never be led into pathways of confusion. 

 
The Lord bestows [present] grace and favor and [future] glory (honor, splendor, and heavenly bliss)! No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. 12 O Lord of hosts, blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who trusts in You [leaning and believing on You, committing all and confidently looking to You, and that without fear or misgiving]! Psalm 84:11 AMP

God’s Power is Available to Us

Today’s posting is the third in a three part series.

People can be touched by the power of God without being changed by the power of God (the account of the healing of the ten lepers in Luke 17: 12-19 illustrates this). As wonderful as it is to experience God’s supernatural power through wonders and miracles, we must also trust in God’s transforming power to live meaningful, victorious lives.

 
It takes God’s power to remain on a task when you know it is not time to move on; to get the job done when you don’t feel like it; to be faithful when other things want to pull you away; to do what’s right when no one is watching; to be full of joy when you would rather mope; to keep gratitude in your heart when you would rather complain; to continue on in hope when things around you are dark.

Each of us needs God’s power to live a godly life, and thankfully, that power is available to us.  2 Peter 1:3 tells us, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.”

God’s Power Changes Us

Today’s posting is the second in a three part series.

In Colossians 1:10-12 we discover that God’s power can change us from within—
“That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.”

 
It takes the power of God to cause a crippled man to walk, to open the eyes of someone who cannot see, to bring hearing to deaf ears, and to set someone free from demonic powers. But, it also takes the power of God to stop someone from grumbling and complaining, from being impatient, from giving up, from being ungrateful, or from being controlled by wrong attitudes.

 
We experience the power of God to change us when we are cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, when we take up our cross and embrace His will, when we are filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit, when we walk in obedience to His word, and when we trust Him with all our hearts.

God’s Power Works Wonders

This is the first of a three part series on God's power.

God is ALL powerful. When we hear about God’s power we often think about wonders and miracles. These quickly get people’s attention. His miraculous power can draw large crowds, cause people to travel long distances, and stir up great excitement. The Bible gives us many glimpses into God’s wonder-working power—healing a sick body (Mark 1:30-31), turning water into wine (John 2:9), feeding a multitude (Matthew 14:19), calming a stormy sea  (Matthew 8:27), and raising the dead (John 11:43).

 
Wonders and miracles are manifestations of God’s power that glorify Him, but they are not the only way God’s power is revealed to us.  In Ephesians 3:20 Paul tells about the power of God that works within us. Here, the emphasis is not upon what God’s power can do for us, but what God’s power can do to us.

Sadly, the subject of miracles typically draws more attention than the subject of sanctification. There are many who will seek God for a new manifestation, but will not seek Him for a new disposition; for a new sign, but not for a new heart; for a new wonder, but not for a new life.

 
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. Ephesians 3:20 NKJV

There’s Something Different About You

There’s something different about you—in uncertain times you are secure; while others walk in fear, you walk by faith; in a world that is like sand, your feet stand upon a rock; with worry all around you, you have peace beyond understanding; in the midst of heaviness and discouragement, you have joy unspeakable; in troubled times, you have every comfort and consolation; while the world wonders what will happen next, you have hope strongly planted in your heart.

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.   
1 Peter 2:9 NKJV

Great Quotes: Being Used by God to Bless Others

“Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing.” Luke 5:5. What was the reason for this? They understood the work. Had they gone about the toil unskillfully? No. Had they lacked industry? No. They had toiled. Had they lacked perseverance? No. They had toiled all the night. Was there a deficiency of fish in the sea? Certainly not, for as soon as the Master came, they swam to the net in schools. What, then, is the reason? It is because there is no power in themselves apart from the presence of Jesus! Without Christ we can do nothing, but with Him we can do all things. Christ’s presence confers success.” –C. H. Spurgeon

 
I used to ask God if He would come and help me; then I asked God if I might come and help Him; then I ended by asking God to do His own work through me. –Hudson Taylor

Men ask for a rainbow in the cloud; but I would ask more from Thee. I would be, in my cloud, myself a rainbow—a minister to others’ joy. –George Matheson

Once

You, who were once far from God, have now been drawn close to His heart;
(Ephesians 2:13)

You, who were once in spiritual poverty, have now been made lavishly rich;
(Ephesians 2:7)

You, who were once without fruit, have now been made to flourish;
(John 15:16)

You, who were once extremely needy, have now been made complete; 
(Colossians 2:10)

You, who were once alone and empty, have now been immersed in love;
(Ephesians 3:18-19)

You, who were once a wandering sheep, have now been brought into the fold;  
(1 Peter 2:25)

You, who were once an alien, have now been made a citizen of heaven; 
(Ephesians 2:19)

You, who were once an orphan, have now been adopted into God’s family;
(Romans 8:15)

You, who were once going your own way, have now been brought into His glorious will and plan.
(Galatians 2:20)