From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Doing what God Can Bless
November 28
The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto. (Deuteronomy 28:8)
If we obey the Lord our God He will bless that which He gives us. Riches are no curse when blessed of the Lord. When men have more than they require for their immediate need and begin to lay up in storehouses, the dry rot of covetousness or the blight of hard-heartedness is apt to follow the accumulation; but with God’s blessing it is not so. Prudence arranges the saving, liberality directs the spending, gratitude maintains consecration, and praise sweetens enjoyment. It is a great mercy to have God’s blessing in one’s iron safe and on one’s banking account.
What a favor is made ours by the last clause! “The Lord shall bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand unto.” We would not put our hand to anything upon which we dare not ask God’s blessing, neither would we go about it without prayer and faith. But what a privilege to be able to look for the Lord’s help in every enterprise! Some talk of a lucky man: the blessing of the Lord is better than luck. The patronage of the great is nothing to the favor of God. Self-reliance is all very well; but the Lord’s blessing is infinitely more than all the fruit of talent, genius, or tact.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: accumulation, almighty, arranges, ask, banking account, begin, Bless, blessed, blessing, blight, Christ, clause, Comforter, command, consecration, covetousness, curse, directs, do, dry rot, Elohim, employment, enterprise, Faith, favor, ffollow, fruit, genius, gives, God, God's blessing, God's Son, gratitude, great, hands, hard-heartedness, have, Heavenly Father, Holy Spirit, immediate, iron safe, Jehovah, Jesus, lay, liberality, look, Lord, Lord's help, lucky, maintains, mercy, more, need, obedience, obey, patronage, praise, Pray, prayer, privilege, Promise, Provider, provision, prudence, require, riches, saving, Savior, self-reliance, set, spending, storehouses, sweetens, tact, talent, work, Yahweh, Yeshua
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Heavenly Alchemy
November 26
Your sorrow shall be turned into joy. (John 16:20)
Their particular sorrow was the death and absence of their Lord, and it was turned into joy when He rose from the dead and showed Himself in their midst. All the sorrows of saints shall be thus transmuted, even the worst of them, which look as if they must forever remain fountains of bitterness.
Then the more sorrow, the more joy. If we have loads of sorrow, then the Lord’s power will turn them into tons of joy. Then the bitterer the trouble the sweeter the pleasure: the swinging of the pendulum far to the left will cause it to go all the farther to the right. The remembrance of the grief shall heighten the flavor of the delight: we shall set the one in contrast with the other, and the brilliance of the diamond shall be the more clearly seen because of the black foil behind it.
Come, my heart, cheer up! In a little while I shall be as glad as I am now gloomy. Jesus tells me that by a heavenly alchemy my sorrow shall be turned into joy. I do not see how it is to be, but I believe it, and I begin to sing by way of anticipation. This depression of spirit is not for long; I shall soon be up among the happy ones who praise the Lord day and night, and there I shall sing of the mercy which delivered me out of great afflictions.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: absence, afflictions, almighty, among, anticipation, battles, begin, behind, Believe, bitter, bitterness, black, brilliance, cause, cheer, Christ, clearly, come, Comforter, contrast, day, dead, Death, delight, deliverance, delivered, Depression, diamond, Elohim, faithful, far, farther, flavor, foil, forever, fountains, glad, gloomy, go, God, God's Son, grief, happy, heart, heavenly, Heavenly Father, heighten, Holy Spirit, illnesses, Jehovah, Jesus, joy, left, little, loads, long, look, Lord, Lord's power, mercy, midst, more, night, one, other, particular, pendulum, pleasure, power, praise, Promise, protector, Provider, remain, remembrance, resurrection, right, risen, rose, saints, Savior, seen, set, shall, short, showed, sing, sorrow, Spirit, struggles, sweeter, swinging, tons, transmuted, trials, tribulation, trouble, turned, up, way, while, worst, Yahweh, Yeshua, your