Ministry & Encouragement

Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference: John 17:15 

In Not Of

I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
JOHN 17:15

IN the hour of trial,
Jesu, plead for me;
Lest by base denial
I depart from Thee.
JAMES MONTGOMERY

OUR Lord would have His people to be in the world, and yet to be separate from it. He would have them be separated, not by isolation from it, but by living loyally under Him as their King, where His claims are denied and His rule is rejected; by courageously living in obedience to righteousness where desire is too generally the impelling and formative power. To live in the world as Christ's soldiers and servants; to witness for Him by word and deed as we live in obedience to His will--this is the separation which Christ teaches, this is the separation that gives glory to God. Woe be to us if we fail in expressing by loyal obedience here our loyalty to Christ as our King! To fail here is to bear stamped on us the brand of a traitor's moral cowardice, and a brand of greater shame than it no mortal brow can bear.
GEORGE BODY

Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference: Philippians 4:11 

Accept Our Daily Bread

I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content.

PHILIPPIANS 4:11 (R. V.)

FORGIVE us, Lord, our little faith;
And help us all, from morn till e'en,
Still to believe that lot the best
Which is,--not that which might have been.
GEORGE ZABRISKIE GRAY

THOU givest within and without precisely what the soul needs for its advancement in a life of faith and self-renunciation. I have then only to receive this bread, and to accept, in the spirit of self-sacrifice, whatever Thou shalt ordain, of bitterness in my external circumstances, or within my heart. For whatever happens to me each day is my daily bread, provided I do not refuse to take it from Thy hand, and to feed upon it.
FRANCOIS DE LA MOTHE FÉNELON

Judge that only necessary which God, in His eternal wisdom and love, proportions out unto us. And when thou comest hither, thou wilt come to thy rest; and as thou abidest here, thou wilt abide in thy soul's true rest, and know the preciousness of that lesson, and of whom thou art to learn it, even, in every state to be content.
ISAAC PENINGTON

Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference: Deuteronomy 8:2 

Count Your Blessings

Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee.
--DEUTERONOMY 8:2

NOT mindless of the growing years
Of care and loss and pain,
My eyes are wet with thankful tears
For blessings that remain.
--J. G. WHITTIER

THE years of available and happy life which have been already enjoyed ought to be the cause of thankfulness, even if "the days of darkness" were many. "The sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things," says Tennyson. Surely, in the sphere of Faith, at least, there is some mistake here. "For what we have received the Lord make us truly thankful."
--JAMES SMETHAM

A bright, happy soul, rejoicing in all God's gifts, seeing cause for thankfulness and gladness in everything, counting up mercies rather than trials, looking at the bright side, even of sickness, bereavement, and death--what a very fountain of goodness and love of Christ such an one is! I remember one who, worn with sickness and sleepless nights, answered to the question if the nights did not seem interminable: "Oh no, I lie still, and count up my blessings!"
--H. L. SIDNEY LEAR