I needed this reminder today.

The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. (Exod 14:15)

In the past he said to them, “This is where security can be found. Provide security for the one who is exhausted! This is where rest can be found.” But they refused to listen. (Isa 28:12)

Why dost thou worry thyself? What use can thy fretting serve? Thou art on board a vessel which thou couldst not steer even if the great Captain put thee at the helm, of which thou couldst not so much as reef a sail, yet thou worriest as if thou wert captain and helmsman. Oh, be quiet; God is Master!

Dost thou think that all this din and hurly-burly that is abroad betokens that God has left His throne?

No, man, His coursers rush furiously on, and His chariot is the storm; but there is a bit between their jaws, and He holds the reins, and guides them as He wills! Jehovah is Master yet; believe it; peace be unto thee! be not afraid.
--C. H. Spurgeon

“Tonight, my soul, be still and sleep;
The storms are raging on God’s deep—
God’s deep, not thine; be still and sleep.

“Tonight, my soul, be still and sleep;
God’s hands shall still the tempter’s sweep—
God’s hands, not thine; be still and sleep.

“Tonight, my soul, be still and sleep;
God’s love is strong while night hours creep—
God’s love, not thine; be still and sleep.

“Tonight, my soul, be still and sleep;
God’s heaven will comfort those who weep—
God’s heaven, not thine; be still and sleep."

I entreat you, give no place to despondency. This is a dangerous temptation—a refined, not a gross temptation of the adversary. Melancholy contracts and withers the heart, and renders it unfit to receive the impressions of grace. It magnifies and gives a false coloring to objects, and thus renders your burdens too heavy to bear. God’s designs regarding you, and His methods of bringing about these designs, are infinitely wise.
--Madame Guyon

found here: https://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/desert/

More quotes. Highlights from "The Shining Highway" by H. L. Gee

(I haven't quite finished the book, but I'm really enjoying it so far.)

"In life," said the preacher, "it isn't enough to be a signpost, just pointing the way to righteousness. We have to walk that way ourselves."


"Perhaps I'm a bit old-fashioned," she said quietly. "But I feel His presence so wonderfully. He often comes into the scullery with me. I never feel ashamed of His seeing me with my coarse apron on. He understands. You see, I just trust Him, so I know it's all right. I used to worry a lot years ago, but now I find it all so simple. All you have to do is to take Him at His Word."


"And for myself, sir, why every day I take out of my mind whatever is unwholesome - or I should say I have it taken out for me."
"How?"
"By prayer. Every night I am still for a bit."
"But it is not always easy to be still. I have little time for doing nothing."
"Ah, but a man isn't doing nothing if he's waiting on the Lord. That is praying, and God can do anything with a man on his knees. He can do anything with any of us when we'll let Him."
"You let Him?"
"To be sure. A man cannot go through the day without a bit of himself rotting, so every night I ask that the rottenness may be cut away as I cut out the rotting wood in this fence."
"And in the morning?"
"In the morning, sir, I go down on my knees again... and I pray for a right spirit to be renewed within me. I ask for new power to serve and to do right, and for new grace, and new and stronger faith, and a new vision of God in place of the old one that sometimes grows dim. It always comes. I am born again every day, and though the outward body decay, the inward spirit keeps young..."
"So he talked, this simple, old-fashioned, God-fearing man, and I wondered greatly that in the twentieth century this simplicity and purity should still be found."


"We may as well be honest with each other and agree that we sometimes come to drab patches in life. Then it is that we need more than ever something within us, for when there are few riches to be gathered along the road it is good to have some already in our minds and hearts. Happy are we if there is a gladness springing up inside us, a song singing in our thoughts when no lark sings in the sky, a portrait gallery of memories to look on when the way is across a countryside with few striking features, a close friendship for the lonely miles with One who is nearer than hands and feet."