Take Courage

Wealth lost-something lost; Honor lost-much lost; Courage lost-all lost.

~ Old German proverb

It takes courage To refrain from gossip when others about you delight in it. To stand up for an absent person who is being abused. To live honestly within your means and not dishonestly on the means of others. To be a real man, a true woman, by holding fast to your Christian ideals when it causes you to be looked upon as strange and peculiar. To be talked about and yet remain silent when a word would justify you in the yes of others, but which you cannot speak without injury to another. To refuse to do a thing which is wrong, though other do it. To dress according to you income and to deny yourself what you cannot afford to buy. To live always according to your convictions.

~ Anonymous

Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord.

~ Psalm 27:14

I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]

~ John 16:33

Do the Next Thing

One week of homekeeping laid out.

DO not yield to the temptation of looking at everything at once, as if everything would happen at once, and all the events of the day be crowded into an hour. Do not thus forecast, but take each thing as it comes to you, and look upon it as the present expression of the will of God concerning you; then regard the next in the same way, and thus receive your day piece by piece from Him who will remember always when He gives you work to do, that you need strength to do it.
Often, when you have almost fainted in spirit, the thought comes, "If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, what shalt thou do with the horsemen?" Put it from you, it is a faithless thought; if you need more strength, you will have it, be sure of that; or the call to greater exertion may never come to you. Your business is with the present; leave the future in His hands who will be sure to do the best, the very best for you.

~ Priscilla Maurice

Do the next thing.

~ Elisabeth Eliot  

Tried, Refined, and Purified

Psalm 66

To the Chief Musician. A song. A Psalm.

 ¹MAKE A joyful noise unto God, all the earth;    ²Sing forth the honor and glory of His name; make His praise glorious!
    ³Say to God, How awesome and fearfully glorious are Your works! Through the greatness of Your power shall Your enemies submit themselves to You [with feigned and reluctant obedience].
    ⁴All the earth shall bow down to You and sing [praises] to You; they shall praise Your name in song. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
    ⁵Come and see the works of God; see how [to save His people He smites their foes; He is] terrible in His doings toward the children of men.
    ⁶He turned the sea into dry land, they crossed through the river on foot; there did we rejoice in Him.
    ⁷He rules by His might forever, His eyes observe and keep watch over the nations; let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
    ⁸Bless our God, O peoples, give Him grateful thanks and make the voice of His praise be heard,
    ⁹Who put and kept us among the living, and has not allowed our feet to slip.
    ¹⁰For You, O God, have proved us; You have tried us as silver is tried, refined, and purified.
    ¹¹You brought us into the net (the prison fortress, the dungeon); You laid a heavy burden upon our loins.
    ¹²You caused men to ride over our heads [when we were prostrate]; we went through fire and through water, but You brought us out into a broad, moist place [to abundance and refreshment and the open air].
    ¹³I will come into Your house with burnt offerings [of entire consecration]; I will pay You my vows,
    ¹⁴Which my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in distress.
    ¹⁵I will offer to You burnt offerings of fat lambs, with rams consumed in sweet-smelling smoke; I will offer bullocks and he-goats. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
    ¹⁶Come and hear, all you who reverently and worshipfully fear God, and I will declare what He has done for me!
    ¹⁷I cried aloud to Him; He was extolled and high praise was under my tongue.
    ¹⁸If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me;^{(A)
    19}But certainly God has heard me; He has given heed to the voice of my prayer.
    ²⁰Blessed be God, Who has not rejected my prayer nor removed His mercy and loving-kindness from being [as it always is] with me.

~ Amplified Version

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not our home

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

Can You Imagine?

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us, is that it did not know Him.

1 John 3:1 (NIV)

Half-Hearted Hoping

God is wholly good, if good at all, and those who hope in Him will be wiser if they hope with all their hearts than if they hope with only half their hearts.

William R. Huntington

Ownership

"Ye are Christ's." --1 Corinthians 3:23

Ye are Christ's." You are His by donation, for the Father gave you to the Son; His by His bloody purchase, for He counted down the price for your redemption; His by dedication, for you have consecrated yourself to Him; His by relation, for you are named by his name, and made one of His brethren and joint-heirs. Labour practically to show the world that you are the servant, the friend, the bride of Jesus. When tempted to sin, reply, "I cannot do this great wickedness, for I am Christ's." Immortal principles forbid the friend of Christ to sin. When wealth is before you to be won by sin, say that you are Christ's, and touch it not. Are you exposed to difficulties and dangers? Stand fast in the evil day, remembering that you are Christ's.

Are you placed where others are sitting down idly, doing nothing? Rise to the work with all your powers; and when the sweat stands upon your brow, and you are tempted to loiter, cry, "No, I cannot stop, for I am Christ's. If I were not purchased by blood, I might be like Issachar, crouching between two burdens; but I am Christ's, and cannot loiter." When the siren song of pleasure would tempt you from the path of right, reply, "Thy music cannot charm me; I am Christ's." When the cause of God invites thee, give thy goods and thyself away, for thou art Christ's. Never belie thy profession. Be thou ever one of those whose manners are Christian, whose speech is like the Nazarene, whose conduct and conversation are so redolent of heaven, that all who see you may know that you are the Saviour's, recognizing in you His features of love and His countenance of holiness. "I am a Roman!" was of old a reason for integrity; far more, then, let it be your argument for holiness, "I am Christ's!"

Rejoice in the Lord

17Though the fig tree does not blossom and there is no fruit on the vines, [though] the product of the olive fails and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold and there are no cattle in the stalls,

18Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the [victorious] God of my salvation!

19The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds' feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]! For the Chief Musician; with my stringed instruments.

Habakkuk 3:17-19 (Amplified Bible)

Teach Me, Lord, to Wait!

Why do you say, O Jacob,
And speak, O Israel;
"My way is hidden from the Lord,
And my just claim is passed over by my God?"
Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints or is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait upon the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings as eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:27