From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Absolute Assurance
December 28
He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. (Hebrews 13:5)
Several times in the Scriptures the Lord hath said this. He has often repeated it to make our assurance doubly sure. Let us never harbor a doubt about it. In itself the promise is specially emphatic. In the Greek it has five negatives, each one definitely shutting out the possibility of the Lord’s ever leaving one of His people so that he can justly feel forsaken of his God. This priceless Scripture does not promise us exemption from trouble, but it does secure us against desertion. We may be called to traverse strange ways, but we shall always have our Lord’s company, assistance, and provision. We need not covet money, for we shall always have our God, and God is better than gold; His favor is better than fortune.
We ought surely to be content with such things as we have, for he who has God has more than all the world besides. What can we have beyond the Infinite? What more can we desire than almighty Goodness.
Come, my heart; if God says He will never leave thee nor forsake thee, be thou much in prayer for grace that thou mayest never leave thy Lord, nor even for a moment forsake His ways.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Tags: abide, against, almighty, always, assistance, assurance, attacks, battles, believers, better, beyond, Bible, blessings, called, Christ, Christians, come, Comforter, content, contentment, covet, definately, desertion, desire, doubly, doubt, Elohim, emphatic, exemption, fame, forever, forgiveness, forsake, forsaken, fortune, God, God's favor, God's people, God's Son, God's Way, God's Will, gold, goodness, grace, Greek, guidance, harbor, have, heart, Heavenly Father, help, Holy Spirit, hope, infinite, Jehovah, Jesus, justly, keep, leave, leaving, Lord, Lord's company, Lord's friendship, love, make, material goods, mercy, moment, money, more, need, negatives, never, out, paths, possibility, power, Pray, prayer, priceless, Promise, protection, protector, Provider, provision, repeated, safe, salvation, Savior, say, Scriptures, secure, several, shutting, specially, stay, strange, struggles, sure, things, Times, traverse, trials, tribulation, trouble, walk, ways, wealth, World, worldly, Yahweh, Yeshua
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
A Quiet Heart
December 12
In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. (Isaiah 30:15)
It is always weakness to be fretting and worrying, questioning and mis-trusting. What can we do if we wear ourselves to skin and bone? Can we gain anything by fearing and fuming? Do we not unfit ourselves for action and unhinge our minds for wise decision? We are sinking by our struggles when we might float by faith.
Oh, for grace to be quiet! Why run from house to house to repeat the weary story which makes us more and more heart-sick as we tell it? Why even stay at home to cry out in agony because of wretched forebodings which may never be fulfilled? It would be well to keep a quiet tongue, but it would be far better if we had a quiet heart. Oh, to be still and know that Jehovah is God!
Oh, for grace to be confident in God! The holy One of Israel must defend and deliver His own. He cannot run back from His solemn declarations. We may make sure that every word of His will stand though the mountains should depart. He deserves to be confided in; and if we would display confidence and consequent quietness, we might be as happy as the spirits before the throne.
Come, my soul, return unto thy rest, and lean thy head upon the bosom of the Lord Jesus.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Tags: action, agony, almighty, anything, back, battles, be, Belief, believers, better, Bible, bone, bosom, Christ, Christians, come, Comforter, confidant, confided, confidence, consequent, cry out, decisions, declarations, defend, deliver, depart, deserves, display, Faith, far, fearing, fears, float, forebodings, fretting, fulfilled, fuming, gain, God, God's people, God's Son, God's Throne, God's Will, grace, happiness, happy, head, heart, heartsick, Heavenly Father, Holy One, Holy Spirit, home, hope, house, illnesses, Israel, Jesus, know, lean, Lord, minds, mistrusting, more, mountains, protector, Provider, questioning, quiet, quietness, repeat, rest, return, run, salvation, save, Savior, sinking, skin, solemn, soul, spirits, stand, stay, still, story, strength, struggles, tongue, trials, tribulations, trust, unfit, unfulfilled, unhinge, upon, weakness, wear, weary, wise, Word, worrying, wretched
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
He with Us; We with Him
June 22
The fear of the Lord prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened. (Proverbs 10:27)
There is no doubt about it. The fear of the Lord leads to virtuous habits, and these prevent that waste of life which comes of sin and vice. The holy rest which springs out of faith in the Lord Jesus also greatly helps a man when he is ill. Every physician rejoices to have a patient whose mind is fully at ease. Worry kills, but confidence in God is like healing medicine.
We have therefore all the arrangements for long life, and if it be really for our good, we shall see a good old age and come to our graves as shocks of corn in their season. Let us not be overcome with sudden expectation of death the moment we have a finger-ache, but let us rather expect that we may have to work on through a considerable length of days.
And what if we should soon be called to the higher sphere? Certainly there would be nothing to deplore in such a summons but everything to rejoice in. Living or dying we are the Lord’s. If we live, Jesus will be with us; if we die, we shall be with Jesus.
The truest lengthening of life is to live while we live, wasting no time but using every hour for the highest ends. So be it this day.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Tags: believers, Christ, days, Death, doubt, Elohim, Faith, Fear, God, God's Will, habits, handicaps, Healer, health issues, Heaven, holiness, illness, injuries, Jehovah, Jesus, lengthened, Life, live, longer, Lord, prolong, Promise, rest, Savior, shortened, trust, vitues, waste, wicked, work, wounds, Yahweh, yeats
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
True Heart-Energy
April 2
Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. (1 Timothy 4:15)
This is, practically, a promise that, by diligent meditation and the giving up of our whole mind to our work for the Lord we shall make a progress which all can see. Not by hasty reading but by deep meditation we profit by the Word of God. Not by doing a great deal of work in a slovenly manner, but by giving our best thought to what we attempt, we shall get real profit. “In all labor there is profit” but not in fuss and hurry without true heart-energy.
If we divide ourselves between God and mammon, or Christ and self, we shall make no progress. We must give ourselves wholly to holy things, or else we shall be poor traders in heavenly business, and at our stocktaking no profit will be shown.
Am I a minister? Let me be a minister wholly and not spend my energies upon secondary concerns. What have I to do with party politics or vain amusements? Am I a Christian? Let me make my service of Jesus my occupation, my lifework, my one pursuit. We must be in-and-in with Jesus, and then out-and-out for Jesus, or else we shall make neither progress nor profit, and neither the church nor the world will feel the forceful influence which the Lord would have us exercise.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Tags: calling, concentrate, focus, God, God's Will, Heavenly Father, holy, Jehovah, Jesus, lifeldaily living, Lord, meitate, mind, mission, perseverance, politics, profit, progress, Promise, Reading, Spirit, think, thoughts, wholeheartedly, work, Yahweh
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
Tags: attempt, blessing, commaand, curse, direction, Faith, God, God's Will, hope, Jesus, job, Lord, luck, need, Promise, pyayer, riches, storehouses, trust, work
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Dauntless Faith
March 29
I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee. (Acts 18:10)
So long as the Lord had work for Paul to do in Corinth, the fury of the mob was restrained. The Jews opposed themselves and blasphemed; but they could neither stop the preaching of the gospel nor the conversion of the hearers. God has power over the most violent minds. He makes the wrath of man to praise Him when it breaks forth, but He still more displays His goodness when He restrains it; and He can restrain it. “By the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone, till thy people pass over, I Lord.”
Do not, therefore, feel any fear of man when you know that you are doing your duty. Go straight on, as Jesus would have done, and those who oppose shall be as a bruised reed and as smoking flax. Many a time men have had cause to fear because they were themselves afraid; but a dauntless faith in God brushes fear aside like the cobwebs in a giant’s path. No man can harm us unless the Lord permits. He who makes the devil himself to flee at a word can certainly control the devil’s agents. Maybe they are already more afraid of you than you are of them. Therefore, go forward, and where you looked to meet with foes you will find friends.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Tags: enemies, friends, fury, God, God's Will, harm, help, Hurt, Jesus, Lord, mob, Promise, protection, restrain
forhisgloryandpraise 