by James Smith
"Food for the Soul" 1867
"Should it be according to your mind?" Job 34:33
Thus the infinitely wise God appeals to us–His poor foolish creatures.
We want our own way. We wish to carve for ourselves. But God loves us too well, to allow us to do so!
He has drawn the plan of our lives. He has marked out the paths we are to tread. He has fixed the bounds of our habitation. Yes, He has numbered the very hairs of our head!
He has arranged everything to secure our spiritual and eternal good. This He has told us in His Word–and yet we are not satisfied. But, "Should it be according to your mind?"
by James Smith
by Vance Havner
There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass. Joshua 21:45
In recounting the goodness of God to Israel, Joshua tells us that the Lord gave them the Promised Land Just as He had said He would. Joshua repeats it in an address to the people (23:14). Solomon said it in like fashion years later (I Kings. 8:56).
If you will survey the path already trod you will say so too. “There hath failed not ought of any good thing God has spoken…all came to pass.” If it hasn’t, it will. He which hath begun a good work in us will finish it. He will perfect that which concerneth us.
It ought to fill our hearts with thanksgiving, our eyes with tears and our lips with praise, for “the goodness of God leadeth to repentance.”
“There failed not ought…” But how we have failed Him!
by Vance Havner
by Oswald Chambers
. . . strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men —Acts 24:16
God’s commands to us are actually given to the life of His Son in us. Consequently, to our human nature in which God’s Son has been formed (see Galatians 4:19), His commands are difficult. But they become divinely easy once we obey.
Conscience is that ability within me that attaches itself to the highest standard I know, and then continually reminds me of what that standard demands that I do. It is the eye of the soul which looks out either toward God or toward what we regard as the highest standard. This explains why conscience is different in different people. If I am in the habit of continually holding God’s standard in front of me, my conscience will always direct me to God’s perfect law and indicate what I should do. The question is, will I obey? I have to make an effort to keep my conscience so sensitive that I can live without any offense toward anyone. I should be living in such perfect harmony with God’s Son that the spirit of my mind is being renewed through every circumstance of life, and that I may be able to quickly “prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2 ; also see Ephesians 4:23).
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by Oswald Chambers
Death no longer has dominion over Him. . . . the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God . . . —Romans 6:9-11
Co-Eternal Life. Eternal life is the life which Jesus Christ exhibited on the human level. And it is this same life, not simply a copy of it, which is made evident in our mortal flesh when we are born again. Eternal life is not a gift from God; eternal life is the gift of God. The energy and the power which was so very evident in Jesus will be exhibited in us by an act of the absolute sovereign grace of God, once we have made that complete and effective decision about sin.
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by George Whitten
Matthew 24:46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
We are called to be servants, are we not? Well, what does a servant do? He (or she) carries out the will of his master. A servant doesn’t tell his master what to do — he performs whatever tasks the master requests of him. A servant doesn’t choose what days or times it’s most convenient to serve his master. A servant’s function is simply to follow and obey his master’s instructions. A servant does not develop a vision for the master either. The master is the one with the vision — and he wants his servants to be ready and available to carry out that vision and bring it to fruition.
How can we experience fulfillment in our lives? Simply by serving our Master — our Heavenly Father. The world encourages us to seek counterfeit fulfillment — power success — prosperity. The more of these things we gain, the more our flesh wants more. It is our sinful human nature. We will never find true fulfillment when we seek these things.
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by A.W. Tozer
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. 1 Peter 3:15a
Once the heart is freed from its contrary impulses, Christ within becomes a wondrous experiential fact. The surrendered heart has no more controversy with God, so He can live in us congenial and uninhibited. Then He thinks His own thoughts in us: thoughts about ourselves, about Himself, about sinners and saints and babes and harlots; thoughts about the Church, about sin and judgment and hell and heaven. And He thinks about us and Himself and His love for us and our love for Him; and He woos us to Himself as a bridegroom woos his bride. Yet there is nothing formal or automatic about His operations within us. We are personalities and we are engaged with personality. We are intelligent and have wills of our own.
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by A.W. Tozer
For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Philippians 2:13
God does not dwell passively in His people; He wills and works in them (Phil. 2:13); and remember, wherever He is, God always acts like Himself. He will do in us whatever His holy nature moves Him to do; and unless He is hindered by our resistance He will act in us precisely as He acts in heaven. Only an unsanctified human will can prevent Him. Without doubt we hinder God greatly by our willfulness and our unbelief. We fail to cooperate with the holy impulses of the in-living Spirit; we go contrary to His will as it is revealed in the Scriptures, either because we have not taken time to discover what the Bible teaches or because we do not approve it when we do. This contest between the indwelling Deity and our own fallen propensities occupies a large place in New Testament theology. But the warfare need not continue indefinitely. Christ has made full provision for our deliverance from the bondage of the flesh. A frank and realistic presentation of the whole thing is set forth in Romans 6 and 7, and in the 8th chapter a triumphant solution is discovered: it is, briefly, through a spiritual crucifixion with Christ followed by resurrection and an infusion of the Holy Spirit.
by A.W. Tozer
by James Smith
