From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Following Leads to Honor
December 8
If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where lam, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor. (John 12:26)
The highest service is imitation. If I would be Christ’s servant I must be His follower. To do as Jesus did is the surest way of bringing honor to His name. Let me mind this every day.
If I imitate Jesus I shall have His company: if I am like Him I shall be with Him. In due time He will take me up to dwell with Him above, if, meanwhile, I have striven to follow Him here below. After His suffering our Lord came to His throne, and even so, after we have suffered a while with Him here below, we also shall arrive in glory. The issue of our Lord’s life shall be the issue of ours: if we are with Him in His humiliation we shall be with Him in His glory. Come, my soul, pluck up courage and put down thy feet in the blood-marked footprints which thy Lord has left thee.
Let me not fail to note that the Father will honor those who follow His Son. If He sees me true to Jesus, He will put marks of favor and honor upon me for His Son’s sake. No honor can be like this. Princes and emperors bestow the mere shadows of honor; the substance of glory comes from the Father. Wherefore, my soul, cling thou to thy Lord Jesus more closely than ever.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: abiding, arrive, Believe, believers, bestow, Bless, blessing, blood-marked, bring, Christ, Christ's example, Christ's life, Christ's name, Christ's servant, Christ's suffering, Christ's throne, Christians, cling, closely, Comforter, company, courage, day, dwell, Earth, Elohim, Emperors, every, example, fail, faithfulness, favor, follow, followers, footprints, glory, God, God's people, God's Son, Heaven, Heavenly Father, Holy Spirit, honor, humiliation, humility, imitate, imitation, issues, Jehovah, Jesus, like, Lord, marks, note, pluck up, Princes, Promise, protector, Provider, reward, Savior, servant, serve, service, shadows, soul, strive, substances, suffering, surest, true, way, Yahweh, Yeshua
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Mountains Turned to Plains
November 25
Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it. (Zechariah 4:7)
At this hour a mountain of difficulty, distress, or necessity may be in our way, and natural reason sees no path over it, or through it, or round it. Let faith come in, and straightway the mountain disappears and becomes a plain. But faith must first hear the word of the Lord–“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” This grand truth is a prime necessity for meeting the insurmountable trials of life.
I see that I can do nothing and that all reliance on man is vanity. “Not by might.” I see that no visible means can be relied on, but the force is in the invisible Spirit. God alone must work, and men and means must be nothing accounted of. If it be so that the Almighty God takes up the concerns of His people, then great mountains are nothing. He can remove worlds as boys toss balls about or drive them with their foot. This power He can lend to me. If the Lord bids me move an Alp I can do it through His name. It may be a great mountain, but even before my feebleness it shall become a plain; for the Lord hath said it. What can I be afraid of with God on my side?
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: accounted, achieve, afraid, ally, almighty, Alp, attacks, balls, battles, become, believers, Bible, bids, boys, bring, Christ, Christians, Comforter, concerns, crying, Defeat, difficulty, distress, done, drive, Elohim, enemies, enter, entrance, Faith, Fear, feebleness, foot, force, forth, God, God's people, God's Son, grace, grand, great, handicap, headstone, hear, Heavenly Faather, helper, Holy Spirit, hope, hour, illness, insurmountable, invisible, Jehovah, Jesus, kick, lend, leveled, Life, Lord, Lord of Hosts, man, means, meeting, might, mountain, move, name, natural, necessity, nothing, over, overcome, passage, path, pathway, plain, power, prime, protector, Provider, prromise, reason, reliance, rely, remove, round, Savior, shoutings, side, Spirit, through, toss, trials, tribulations, truth, vanity, visible, way, Word of the Lord, work, worlds, Yaahwrh, Yeshua
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
The Outward, Upward Look
November 21
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22)
This is a promise of promises. It lies at the foundation of our spiritual life. Salvation comes through a look at Him who is “a just God and a Saviour.” How simple is the direction! “Look unto me.” How reasonable is the requirement! Surely the creature should look to the Creator. We have looked elsewhere long enough; it is time that we look alone to Him who invites our expectation and promises to give us His salvation.
Only a look! Will we not look at once? We are to bring nothing in ourselves but to look outward and upward to our Lord on His throne, whither He has gone up from the cross. A look requires no preparation, no violent effort: it needs neither wit nor wisdom, wealth nor strength. All that we need is in the Lord our God, and if we look to Him for everything, that everything shall be ours, and we shall be saved.
Come, far-off ones, look hither! Ye ends of the earth, turn your eyes this way! As from the furthest regions men may see the sun and enjoy his light, so you who lie in death’s borders at the very gates of hell may by a look receive the light of God, the life of heaven, the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God and therefore able to save.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: able to save, almighty, alone, borders, bring, Christ, Creator, creature, Cross, death's, direction, Earth, effort, Elohim, else, elsewhere, ends, ends of the earth, enjoy, enough, everything, expectation, Eyes, false gods, far-off, foundation, further, gates of hell, God, God's Son, gone, Heavenly Father, hither, Holy Spirit, I Am, iniquity, invites, Jehovah, Jesus, just, lie, lies, Life, life of heaven, light, light of God, long, look, Lord, men, needs, neither, none, nothing, ourselves, outward, preparation, Promise, Promises, protector, Provider, reasonable, receive, regions, requirement, requires, salvation, salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ, Saved, Savior, see, simple, sin, spiritual, strength, sun, time, True God, turn, up, upward, violent, wealth, wisdom, wit, Yahweh, Yeshua
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
The Lord’s Free Men
November 11
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. (Romans 6:14)
Sin will reign if it can: it cannot be satisfied with any place below the throne of the heart. We sometimes fear that it will conquer us, and then we cry unto the Lord, “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me. This is His comforting answer: “Sin shall not have dominion over you. ” It may assail you and even wound you, but it shall never establish sovereignty over you.
If we were under the law, our sin would gather strength and hold us under its power; for it is the punishment of sin that a man comes under the power of sin. As we are under the covenant of grace, we are secured against departing from the living God by the sure declaration of the covenant. Grace is promised to us by which we are restored from our wanderings, cleansed from our impurities, and set free from the chains of habit.
We must lie down in despair and be “content to serve the Egyptians” if we were still as slaves working for eternal life; but since we are the Lord’s free men, we take courage to fight with our corruptions and temptations, being assured that sin shall never bring us under its sway again. God Himself giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: against, almighty, assail, assured, be content, below, bring, chains, Christ, cleansed, conquer, contentment, corruptions, courage, covenant, cry, declaration, departing, despair, dominion, Egyptians, Elohim, establish, eternal life, everfree, Fear, fight, forever, free men, freedom, gather, gives, glory, God, God's Son, grace, habit, heart, Heavenly Father, hold, Holy Spirit, iniquities, Jehovah, Jesus, law, lie down, living, Lord, never, over, place, power, Pray, prayer, Promise, promised, punishment, reign, restored, satisfied, Savior, secured, serve, sin, slaves, sovereignty, strength, sure, sway, take, temptations, Throne, through, under, victory, wanderings, working, wound, Yahweh, Yehua
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Delight and Desires
November 6
Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. (Psalm 37:4)
Delight in God has a transforming power and lifts a man above the gross desire of our fallen nature. Delight in Jehovah is not only sweet in itself, but it sweetens the whole soul, till the longings of the heart become such that the Lord can safely promise to fulfill them. Is not that a grand delight which molds our desires till they are like the desires of God?
Our foolish way is to desire and then set to work to compass what we desire. We do not go to work in God’s way, which is to seek Him first and then expect all things to be added unto us. If we will let our heart be filled with God till it runs over with delight, then the Lord Himself will take care that we shall not want any good thing. Instead of going abroad for joys let us stay at home with God and drink waters out of our own fountain. He can do for us far more than all our friends. It is better to be content with God alone than to go about fretting and pining for the paltry trifles of time and sense. For a while we may have disappointments; but if these bring us nearer to the Lord, they are things to be prized exceedingly, for they will in the end secure to us the fulfillment of all our right desires.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: above, abroad, added, alike, all, almighty, alone, any, Award, believers, better, bring, care, Christ, Christian, closer, Comforter, compass, content, contentment, delight, desires, desiresmfallen, direction, disappointments, do, drink, Elohim, end, example, exceedingly, expect, first, foolish, formsmremakes, fountain, fretting, friends, fulfill, fulfillment, give, given, God, God's people, God's Son, going, good thing, grand, gross, guidance, heart, Heavenly Father, Holy Spirit, home, iniquity, Jehovah, Jesus, joys, lack, longings, Lord, molds, more, multiplied, nature, nearer, over, overflowing, own, paltry, pining, powermlifts, prized, Promise, Provider, reward, right desires, runs, safely, Savior, secure, seek, sense, set, similar, sin, soul, stay, sweetmsweetens, take, things, thyself, time, transforming, trifles, want, waters, way, whole, without, works, worldly, worrying, Yahweh, Yeshua
forhisgloryandpraise 