Another encouraging excerpt from the writings of James Smith.

 

A few quotes by Susanna Wesley (1669-1742)

“The child that never learns to obey his parents in the home will not obey God or man out of the home.”

“Would you judge the lawfulness or unlawfulness of pleasure, of the innocence or malignity of actions? Take this rule: whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind – that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.”

“Help me, Lord, to remember that religion is not to be confined to the church… nor exercised only in prayer and meditation, but that every where I am in Thy Presence.”

“There are two things to do about the gospel. Believe it and behave it.”

“I am content to fill a little space if God be glorified.”

“When I had forgotten God, yet I then found He had not forgotten me. Even then He did by His Spirit apply the merits of the great atonement to my soul, by telling me that Christ died for me.”

“You, O Lord, have called us to watch and pray. Therefore, whatever may be the sin against which we pray, make us careful to watch against it, and so have reason to expect that our prayers will be answered.”

“He is so infinitely blessed, that every perception of His blissful presence imparts a gladness in the heart. Every degree of approach to Him is, in the same proportion, a degree of happiness.”

I don't believe I recall hearing or reading any of these quotes before...

I do remember the fact that she had 19 children... And everyday she would sit in her chair and covering her face with her apron, spend time in prayer. Her little ones knew not to disturb their mother when the apron was there... I didn't recall the fact that only 8 of her children were still alive when Susanna died. I'm still amazed by the fact that she taught them all Greek and Latin!!

I think I should be able to learn a few things from her example, and I'm glad the Lord gave us the hymns of her sons John and Charles. 

Are we thirsty? Are we seeking the Lord?

Ho, every one that is thirsty in spirit,

Ho, every one that is weary and sad;

Come to the fountain, there’s fulness in Jesus,

All that you’re longing for, come and be glad.

Refrain:

“I will pour water on him that is thirsty,

I will pour floods upon the dry ground;

Open your heart for the gift I am bringing;

While you are seeking Me, I will be found.”

Child of the world, are you tired of your bondage?

Weary of earth-joys, so false, so untrue?

Thirsting for God and His fulness of blessing?

List to the promise, a message for you!

Child of the Kingdom, be filled with the Spirit!

Nothing but fulness thy longing can meet:

‘Tis the enduement for life and for service;

Thine is the promise, so certain, so sweet.

Although this hymn is in the Redemption hymnal, I hadn't noticed it there... 

Written by Lucy Rider Meyer born in Vermont, 1849, died in 1922.

Some of R. A. Torrey's thoughts on the topic of Prayer and the Bible

I'd heard the name often enough but I had only read one or two of his quotes. 

Here are a few that I thought are particularly worth sharing. 

"For eighteen centuries every engine of destruction that human science, philosophy, wit, reasoning or brutality could bring to bear against a book has been brought to bear against that book to stamp it out of the world, but it has a mightier hold on the world today than ever before. If that were man’s book it would have been annihilated and forgotten hundreds of years ago…  It stands absolutely unshaken today. At times almost all of the wise and great of the earth have been pitted against the Bible, and only an obscure few for it. Yet it has stood."

"The great need to-day in individuals, in churches and in preachers is that the Wind of God blow upon us." 

"God has not changed; and His ear is just as quick to hear the voice of real prayer, and His hand is just as strong to save, as it ever was." 

"There must be, in any complete revelation of God's mind and will and character and being, things hard for the beginner to understand, and the wisest and best of us are but beginners."

"The truly wise man is he who believes the Bible against the opinions of any man. If the Bible says one thing, and any body of men says another, the wise man will decide, "This book is the Word of Him who cannot lie."

"To have as one's ever-present friend, and to be conscious that one has as his ever-present friend, the Holy Spirit, and to surrender one's life in all it's departments entirely to His control - this is true Christian living."

"It is true that He does sometimes require of us things that to others seem hard. But when the will is once surrendered, the revolutionized life plans become just the plans that are most pleasant, and the things that to others seem hard, are just the things that are easiest and most delightful. Do not let Satan deceive you into being afraid of God's plans for your life."

"To win men to acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord is the only reason Christians are left in this world."

 

"A verse must be read often, and re-read and read again before the wondrous message of love and power that God has put into begins to appear. Words must be turned over and over in the mind before their full force and beauty takes possession of us. One must look a long time at the great masterpieces of art to appreciate their beauty and understand their meaning, and so one must look a long time at the great verses of the Bible to appreciate their beauty and understand their meaning."

"God's Word is pure and sure, in spite of the devil, in spite of your fear, in spite of everything." 

" The reason why many fail in battle is because they wait until the hour of battle. The reason why others succeed is because they have gained their victory on their knees long before the battle came… Anticipate your battles; fight them on your knees before temptation comes, and you will always have victory."

"Prayer that is born of meditation upon the Word of God is the prayer that soars upward most easily to God's listening ears." 

"If we then let the Words of Christ abide in us, they will stir us up in prayer."

"The chief purpose of prayer is that God may be glorified in the answer." 

" When Jesus died, He died as my representative, and I died in Him; when He arose, He rose as my representative, and I arose in Him; when He ascended up on high and took His place at the right hand of the Father in the glory, He ascended as my representative and I ascended in Him, and today I am seated in Christ with God in the heavenlies. I look at the cross of Christ, and I know that atonement has been made for my sins; I look at the open sepulcher and the risen and ascended Lord, and I know the atonement has been accepted. There no longer remains a single sin on me, no matter how many or how great my sins may have been. "

Hope you're blessed and encouraged as you ponder the Scriptural truth behind them. 

Food for thought from A. W. Tozer

Sorry if some of these are blurry, don't know why that happened but hopefully if you click on them, it should become clear.

I found these encouraging. Hope you do too.
Most quotes from the book "Dangers of a shallow faith."
The last is a prayer from today's devotional.

Here's an excellent short video I came across yesterday.

A quote from Spurgeon, a quote from Tozer and Psalm 86:5