From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Men as Men; God as God
December 20
I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor? (Isaiah 51:12-13)
Let the text itself be taken as the portion for today. There is no need to enlarge upon it. Trembling one, read it, believe it, feed on it, and plead it before the Lord. He whom you fear is only a man after all; while He who promises to comfort you is God, your Maker, and the creator of heaven and earth. Infinite comfort more than covers a very limited danger.
“Where is the fury of the oppressor?” It is in the Lord’s hand. It is only the fury of a dying creature; fury which will end as soon as the breath is gone from the nostril. Why, then, should we stand in awe of one who is as frail as ourselves? Let us not dishonor our God by making a god of puny man. We can make an idol of a man by rendering to him excessive fear as well as by paying him inordinate love. Let us treat men as men, and God as God; and then we shall go calmly on in the path of duty, fearing the Lord and fearing nobody else.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: afraid, almighty, awe, Believe, believers, Bible, breath, calmly, Christ, Christians, comfort, Comforter, courage, covers, created, Creation, Creator, creature, danger, Death, destroy, dishonor, dying, Earth, Elohim, else, end, equal, excessive, faithfulness, false god, Fear, fearing nobody, feed, foundations, frail, fury, God, God's people, God's Son, God's Word, gone, Heavenly Father, heavens, Holy Spirit, honor, hope, I Am, idol, idolatry, infinite, iniquity, inordinate, Jehovah, Jesus, level, limited, Lord, Lord's hand, love, Maker of Heaven and Earth, man, men, nature, normal men, nostril, oppressor, path of duty, paying, plead, portion, Pray, prayer, Promises, protect, protector, Provider, puny man, read, rendering, Savior, Scriptures, sin, stand, text, treat, trembling, trust, unequal, weak, 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
Like this:
Like Loading...
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”
Covered and Protected
December 4
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. (Psalm 91:4)
A condescending simile indeed! Just as a hen protects her brood and allows them to nestle under her wings, so will the Lord defend His people and permit them to hide away in Him. Have we not seen the little chicks peeping out from under the mother’s feathers? Have we not heard their little cry of contented joy? In this way let us shelter ourselves in our God and feel overflowing peace in knowing that He is guarding us.
While the Lord covers us, we trust. It would be strange if we did not. How can we distrust when Jehovah Himself becomes house and home, refuge and rest to us?
This done, we go out to war in His name and enjoy the same guardian care. We need shield and buckler, and when we implicitly trust God, even as the chick trusts the hen, we find His truth arming us from head to foot. The Lord cannot lie; He must be faithful to His people; His promise must stand. This sure truth is all the shield we need. Behind it we defy the fiery darts of the enemy.
Come, my soul, hide under those great wings, lose thyself among those soft feathers! How happy thou art!
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: allows, almighty, arming, attacks, away, battles, behind, brood, buckler, care, chicks, Christ, come, Comforter, condescending, contented, cover, cry, Defeat, defend, defy, distrust, Elohim, enemies, enemy, enjoy, faithful, faithfulness, farts, feathers, feel, fiery, fight, foot, God, God's name, God's people, God's Son, God's truth, great, guardian, guarding, happiness, happy, head, heard, Heavenly Father, help, hen, hide, Holy Spirit, home, hope, house, implicity, Jehovah, Jesus, joy, lie, Lord, lose, Mother, need, nestle, overflowing, peace, peeping, permit, Promise, protection, protector, protects, Provider, provision, refuge, rest, save, Savior, seecurity, seen, shelter, shield, simile, soft, soul, srruggles, stand, strange, thyself, trust, truth, under, victory, war, way, weapons, wings, Yahweh, Yeshua
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Walk Without Stumbling
November 10
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved. (Psalm 121:3)
If the Lord will not suffer it, neither men nor devils can do it. How greatly would they rejoice if they could give us a disgraceful fall, drive us from our position, and bury us out of memory! They could do this to their heart’s content were it not for one hindrance, and only one: the Lord will not suffer it; and if He does not suffer it, we shall not suffer it.
The way of life is like traveling among the Alps. Along the mountain path one is constantly exposed to the slipping of the foot. Where the way is high the head is apt to swim, and then the feet soon slide; there are spots which are smooth as glass and others that are rough with loose stones, and in either of these a fall is hard to avoid. He who throughout life is enabled to keep himself upright and to walk without stumbling has the best of reasons for gratitude. What with pitfalls and snares, weak knees, weary feet, and subtle enemies, no child of God would stand fast for an hour were it not for the faithful love which will not suffer his foot to be moved.
Amidst a thousand snares I stand
Upheld and guarded by thy hand;
That hand unseen shall hold me still,
And lead me to thy holy hill.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: almighty, Alps, among, attacks, avoid, battles, believers, best, bury, Child of God, Christ, constantly, content, could, demons, devils, disgraceful, do, drive, Elohim, enabled, enemies, exposed, faithful, fall, fast, feet, foot, give, glass, God, God's people, God's Son, gratitude, greatly, guarded, hand, hard, head, hearts, Heavenly Father, help, high, hill, himself, hindrance, hold, holy, Holy Spirit, hope, hour, Jehovah, Jesus, keep, knees, lead, Life, loose, Lord, love, memory, men, mountain, moved, out, path, pitfalls, position, Promise, protection, protector, reasons, rejoice, rough, safety, Satan, Savior, slide, slipping, smooth, snares, spots, stand, still, stones, struggles, stumbling, subtle, suffer, swim, temptations, thousand, throughout, traveling, trials, tribulations, unseen, upheld, upright, walk, way, way of life, weak, weary, without, would, Yahweh, Yeshua
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Complete Deliverance
July 5
But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord; and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid. (Jeremiah 39:17)
When the Lord’s faithful ones are suffering for Him, they shall have sweet messages of love from Himself, and sometimes they shall have glad tidings for those who sympathize with them and help them. Ebed-melech was only a despised Ethiopian, but he was kind to Jeremiah, and so the Lord sent him this special promise by the mouth of His prophet. Let us be ever mindful of God’s persecuted servants, and He will reward us.
Ebed-melech was to be delivered from the men whose vengeance he feared. He was a humble… man, but Jehovah would take care of him. Thousands were slain by the Chaldeans, but [he] could not be hurt. We, too, may be fearful of some great ones who are bitter against us; but if we have been faithful to the Lord’s cause in the hour of persecution, He will be faithful to us. After all, what can a man do without the Lord’s permission? He puts a bit into the mouth of rage and a bridle upon the head of power. Let us fear the Lord, and we shall have no one else to fear. No cup of cold water given to a despised prophet of God shall be without its reward; and if we stand up for Jesus, Jesus will stand up for us.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: affliction, afraid, battles, care, Chaldeans, Christ, Compassion, concern, courage, deliverance, Elohim, enemies, faithful, Fear, God, Heavenly Father, hemlp, Holy Spirit, hope, Jehovah, Jesus, Lord, love, messages, oppressed, oppression, persecuted, persecution, prayer, Promise, protector, remember, Savior, stand, suffering, sweet, trials, Yahweh
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
We May Speak for God
May 19
Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth. (Jeremiah 15:19)
Poor Jeremiah! Yet why do we say so? The weeping prophet was one of the choicest servants of God and honored by Him above many. He was hated for speaking the truth. The word which was so sweet to him was bitter to his hearers, yet he was accepted of his Lord. He was commanded to abide in his faithfulness, and then the Lord would continue to speak through him. He was to deal boldly and truthfully with men and perform the Lord’s winnowing work upon the professors of his day, and then the Lord gave him this word: “Thou shalt be as my mouth.”
What an honor! Should not every preacher, yea, every believer, covet it? For God to speak by us, what a marvel! We shall speak sure, pure truth; and we shall speak it with power. Our word shall not return void; it shall be a blessing to those who receive it, and those who refuse it shall do so at their peril. Our lips shall feed many. We shall arouse the sleeping and call the dead to life.
O dear reader, pray that it may be so with all the sent servants of our Lord.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: acceptance, believer, Elohim, God, Jehovah, Jeremiah, Jesus, Lord, message, peril, preach, preacher, Precious, Promise, prophecy, prophet, return, Share, sin, stand, vile, weeping, wickedness, witness, Yahweh
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Lead the Way
March 28
The Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail. (Deuteronomy 28:13)
If we obey the Lord, He will compel our adversaries to see that His blessing rests upon us. Though this be a promise of the law, yet it stands good to the people of God; for Jesus has removed the curse, but He has established the blessing.
It is for saints to lead the way among men by holy influence: they are not to be the tail, to be dragged hither and thither by others. We must not yield to the spirit of the age, but compel the age to do homage to Christ. If the Lord be with us, we shalt not crave toleration for religion, but we shall seek to seat it on the throne of society. Has not the Lord Jesus made His people priests? Surely they are to teach and must not be learners from the philosophies of unbelievers. Are we not in Christ made kings to reign upon the earth? How, then can we be the servants of custom, the slaves of human opinion?
Have you, dear friend, taken up your true position for Jesus? Too many are silent because diffident, if not cowardly. Should we allow the name of the Lord Jesus to be kept in the background? Should our religion drag along as a tail? Should it not rather lead the way and be the ruling force with ourselves and others?
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: adversaries, believers, blessings, Christ, church, courage, cowardice, Faith, first, followers, God, head, Jehovah, Jesus, last, law, Lord, obedience, people of God, Promise, religion, stand, tail, World, Yahweh
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Whose Battle?
March 11
And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saith not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands. (1 Samuel 17:47)
Let this point be settled, that the battle is the Lord’s, and we may be quite sure of the victory, and of the victory in such a way as will best of all display the power of God. The Lord is too much forgotten by all men, yea, even by the assemblies of Israel; and when there is an opportunity to make men see that the great First Cause can achieve His purposes without the power of man, it is a priceless occasion which should be well employed. Even Israel looks too much to sword and spear. It is a grand thing to have no sword in the hand of David, and yet for David to know that his God will overthrow a whole army of aliens.
If we are indeed contending for truth and righteousness, let us not tarry till we have talent, or wealth, or any other form of visible power at our disposal; but with such stones as we find in the brook, and with our own usual sling, let us run to meet the enemy. If it were our own battle we might not be confident; but if we are standing up for Jesus and warring in His strength alone, who can withstand us? Without a trace of hesitancy let us face the Philistines; for the Lord of hosts is with us, and who can be against us?
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: assembly, battles, courage, David, enemies, fight, God, Goliath, hands, hope, Israel, Jehovah, Jesus, Lord, Promise, sling, spear, stand, strength, sword, troops, victory, win
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Free to Travel
October 11
And I will strengthen them in the Lord: and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord. (Zechariah 10:12)
A solace for sick saints. They have grown faint, and they fear that they shall never rise from the bed of doubt and fear; but the Great Physician can both remove the disease and take away the weakness which has come of it. He will strengthen the feeble. This He will do in the best possible way, for it shall be “in Jehovah. ” Our strength is far better in God than in self. In the Lord it causes fellowship, in ourselves it would create pride. In ourselves it would be sadly limited, but in God it knows no bound.
When strength is given, the believer uses it. He walks up and down in the name of the Lord. What an enjoyment it is to walk abroad after illness, and what a delight to be strong in the Lord after a season of prostration! The Lord gives His people liberty to walk up and down and an inward leisure to exercise that liberty. He makes gentlemen of us: we are not slaves who know no rest and see no sights, but we are free to travel at our ease throughout Immanuel’s land.
Come, my heart, be thou no more sick and sorry; Jesus bids thee be strong and walk with God in holy contemplation. Obey His word of love.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: disease, God, Great Physician, healing, hope, illness, Jehovah, Jesus, Lord, petience, pride, Promise, saints, sickness, stand, strength, walk, weakness
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Our Holiest Example
December 2
I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. (Psalm 16:8)
This is the way to live. With God always before us, we shall have the noblest companionship, the holiest example, the sweetest consolation, and the mightiest influence. This must be a resolute act of the mind. “I have set,” and it must be maintained as a set and settled thing. Always to have an eye to the Lord’s eye and an ear for the Lord’s voice–this is the right state for the godly man. His God is near him, filling the horizon of his vision, leading the way of his life, and furnishing the theme of his meditation. What vanities we should avoid, what sins we should overcome, what virtues we should exhibit, what joys we should experience if we did indeed set the Lord always before us! Why not?
This is the way to be safe. The Lord being ever in our minds, we come to feel safety and certainty because of His being so near. He is at our right hand to guide and aid us; and hence we are not moved by fear, nor force, nor fraud, nor fickleness. When God stands at a man’s right hand, that man is himself sure to stand. Come on, then, ye foemen of the truth! Rush against me like a furious tempest, if ye will. God upholds me. God abides with me. Whom shall I fear?
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: companionship, God, hand, influence, Jesus, Life, Lord, right, stand
forhisgloryandpraise 