My Times are in Thy Hand

My times are in Thy hand, O Lord! And, surely, that is the best. Were I to choose, they should be in no other hands, neither mine own, nor any others. When He withholds mercies or comforts for a season, it is but till the due season. Therefore it is our wisdom and our peace to resign all things into His hands, to have no will nor desires, but only this, that we may still wait for Him. Never was any one who waited for Him miserable with disappointment.

ROBERT LEIGHTON

Depending on Our Circumstances for Contentment

Be assured of this, you do not know God in truth, and have no true peace, if you are depending upon times and places. Remember that whatever God gives you to do, from moment to moment, that is the very best thing you could possibly be doing, and you little know where and when the Lord will meet you.

John Tauler

Taking up Our Cross

And He said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

LUKE 9:23

THE more you accept daily crosses as daily bread, in peace and simplicity, the less they will injure your frail, delicate health; but forebodings and frettings would soon kill you.

FRANCOIS DE LA MOTHE FeNELON

We speak of the crosses of daily life, and forget that our very language is a witness against us, how meekly we ought to bear them, in the blessed steps of our holy Lord; how in "every cross and care," we ought not to acquiesce simply, but to take them cheerfully,--not cheerfully only but joyfully; yea, if they should even deserve the name of "tribulation," to "joy in tribulation" also, as seeing in them our Father's hand, our Saviour's cross.

E. B. PUSEY

Taking up Our Cross

And He said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

LUKE 9:23

THE more you accept daily crosses as daily bread, in peace and simplicity, the less they will injure your frail, delicate health; but forebodings and frettings would soon kill you.

FRANCOIS DE LA MOTHE FeNELON

We speak of the crosses of daily life, and forget that our very language is a witness against us, how meekly we ought to bear them, in the blessed steps of our holy Lord; how in "every cross and care," we ought not to acquiesce simply, but to take them cheerfully,--not cheerfully only but joyfully; yea, if they should even deserve the name of "tribulation," to "joy in tribulation" also, as seeing in them our Father's hand, our Saviour's cross.

E. B. PUSEY

A Key to Contentment

Try to make an instantaneous act of conformity to God's Will, at everything which vexes you.

Edward B. Pusey

Not Forgotten

Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?

LUKE 12:6

Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

MATTHEW 10:31

The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon which He hath planted; where the birds make their nests; as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.

PSALMS 104:16,17

IT was a beautiful sight to see the herons come home, rising into the golden sunlight above the hills I could not tell from whence, and sailing on the glorious arches of their wings, on and on--always alone, and each as he came down with outstretched neck and pendent legs ready to settle, taking one last sweep down, then up, on to the summit of the tall Scotch fir, to take a survey of the realm, and, as another approached, plunging into the thick heads of lower trees with a loud good-night to his neighbors, and to all the fair land and water round about him, and a Deo Gratias for all his day's happiness, pleasant unto the ear of his dear God, if not consciously addressed to Him. MY HEAVENLY FATHER CARETH FOR THEM, I AM OF MORE VALUE THAN MANY HERONS.

EDWARD WHITE BENSON

Contentment

HEAVENLY FATHER,

If I should suffer need, and go unclothed,

and be in poverty,

make my heart prize thy love,

know it, be constrained by it,

though I be denied all blessings.

It is thy mercy to afflict and try me with wants,

for by these trials I see my sins,

and desire severence from them.

Let me willingly accept misery, sorrows, temptations,

if I can thereby feel sin as the greatest evil,

and be delivered from it with gratitude to thee,

acknowledging this as the highest testimony of thy love.

When thy Son, Jesus, came into my soul instead of sin,

he became more dear to me than sin had formerly been ;

his kindly rule replaced sin's tyranny.

Teach me to believe that if every I would have any sin subdued

I must not only labour to overcome it,

but must invite Christ to abound in the place of it,

and he must become to me more than vile lust had been,

that his sweetness, power, life may be there.

Thus I must seek a grace from him contrary to sin,

but must not claim it apart from himself.

When I am afraid of evils to come,

comfort me by showing me

that in myself I am a dying, condemned wretch,

but in Christ I am reconciled and live;

that in my self I find insufficiency and no rest,

but in Christ there is satisfaction and peace;

that in mys self I am feeble and unable to do good,

but in Christ I have ability to do all things.

Though no I have his graces in part,

I shall shortly have them perfectly

in that state where thou wilt show thyself

fully reconciled,

and alone sufficient, efficient,

loving me completely,

with sin abolished.

O Lord, hasten that day.

~ A Puritian Prayer

A Reason for Contentment

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.

I JOHN 4:16

As flame streams upward, so my longing thoughtFlies up with Thee,Thou God and Saviour, who hast truly wroughtLife out of death, and to us, loving, broughtA fresh, new world; and in Thy sweet chains caught,And made us free!

MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN

WHAT a blessed and glorious thing human existence would be, if we fully realized that the infinitely wise and infinitely powerful God loves each one of us, with an intensity infinitely beyond what the most fervid human spirit ever felt towards another, and with a concentration as if He had none else to think of! And this love has brought us into being, just that we might be taught to enter into full sympathy with Him, receiving His,--giving our own--thus entering into the joy of our Lord. This is the hope--the sure and certain hope--set before us,--sure and certain,--for "the mountains shall depart, and the hills be re-moved; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee."

THOMAS ERSKINE

The Tenth Commandment

Question 146: Which is the tenth commandment?
Answer: The tenth commandment is, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.

Question 147: What are the duties required in the tenth commandment?
Answer: The duties required in the tenth commandment are, such a full contentment with our own condition, and such a charitable frame of the whole soul toward our neighbor, as that all our inward motions and affections touching him, tend unto, and further all that good which is his.

Question 148: What are the sins forbidden in the tenth commandment?
Answer: The sins forbidden in the tenth commandment are, discontentment with our own estate; envying and grieving at the good of our neighbor, together with all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his

Contentment

But godliness is great gain, if a man be content with that he hath.

I Timothy 6:6