From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Peace Whatever Exposure
December 3
I will make them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. (Ezekiel 34:25)
It is the height of grace that Jehovah should be in covenant with man, a I feeble, sinful, and dying creature. Yet the Lord has solemnly entered into a faithful compact with us, and from that covenant He will never turn aside. In virtue of this covenant we are safe. As lions and wolves are driven off by shepherds, so shall all noxious influences be chased away. The Lord will give us rest from disturbers and destroyers; the evil beasts shall cease out of the land. O Lord, make this Thy promise good even now!
The Lord’s people are to enjoy security in places of the greatest exposure: wilderness and woods are to be as pastures and folds to the flock of Christ. If the Lord does not change the place for the better, He will make us the better in the place. The wilderness is not a place to dwell in, but the Lord can make it so; in the woods one feels hound to watch rather than to sleep, and yet the Lord giveth His beloved sleep even there. Nothing without or within should cause any fear to the child of God. By faith the wilderness can become the suburbs of heaven and the woods the vestibule of glory.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: almighty, aside, away, beasts, believers, better, cause, cease, change, chased, Child of God, Christ, Christians, Comforter, compact, covenant, creature, destroyers, disturbers, driven, dwell, dying, Elohim, enemies, enemies of God, enjoy, entered, evil, exposure, faithful, Fear, feeble, feels, fields, flocks of Christ, folds, give, glory, God, God's people, God's Son, good, grace, greatest, Heaven, Heavenly Father, height, Holy Spirit, hound, influences, Jehovah, Jesus, land, lions, Lord, Lord's people, make, man, nothing, noxious, off, out, pastures, peace, place, places, Promise, protection, protector, Provider, provision, rest, safe, safely, safety, Savior, securitty, shepherds, sinful, sleep, solemnly, suburbs, turn, vestibule, virtue, watch, wilderness, within, without, wolves, woods, Yahweh, Yeshua
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Acquiring Perseverance
November 23
The Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little. (Deuteronomy 7:22)
We are not to expect to win victories for the Lord Jesus by a single blow. Evil principles and practices die hard. In some places it takes years of labor to drive out even one of the many vices which defile the inhabitants. We must carry on the war with all our might, even when favored with little manifest success.
Our business in this world is to conquer it for Jesus. We are not to make compromises but to exterminate evils. We are not to seek popularity but to wage unceasing war with iniquity. Infidelity, popery, drink, impurity, oppression, worldliness, error; these are all to be “put out.”
The Lord our God can alone accomplish this. He works by His faithful servants, and blessed be His name. He promises that He will so work. “Jehovah thy God will put out those nations before thee.” This He will do by degrees that we may learn perseverance, may increase in faith, may earnestly watch, and may avoid carnal security. Let us thank God for a little success and pray for more. Let us never sheathe the sword till the whole land is won for Jesus.
Courage, my heart! Go on little by little, for many littles will make a great whole.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: accomplish, addictions, adultery, alcoholism, almighty, alone, avoid, battle, before, bigotry, blessed, blow, business, carnal, carry on, Christ, compromise, conquer, courage, Defeat, defile, degrees, die, drink, drive, drug use, earnestly, elitism, Elohim, enemies, error, evil, evils, expect, expel, exterminate, Faith, faithful, fame, favored, fight, God, God's Son, great, harrd, hatred, heart, Heavenly Father, helper, Holy Spirit, impurity, increase, infidelity, inhabitants, iniquity, Jehovah, Jesus, labor, land, leader, learn, lies, little, littles, Lord, lust, make, manifest, many, might, more, name, nations, not, oppression, out, persecution, perseverance, places, popery, popularity, possession, power, practices, Pray, Prayers, principles, Promises, protector, Provider, put out, racism, remove, Savior, security, seek, servants, sheath, sin, single, slavery, success, sword, takes, temptations, thank, thankfulness, unceasing, vices, victories, victory, wage, war, watch, wealth, whole, win, won, works, World, worldliness, Yahweh, years, Yeshua
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
The Unfailing Watch
November 13
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121:4)
Jehovah is “the Keeper of Israel.” No form of unconsciousness ever steals over Him, neither the deeper slumber nor the slighter sleep. He never fails to watch the house and the heart of His people. This is a sufficient reason for our resting in perfect peace. Alexander said that he slept because his friend Parmenio watched; much more may we sleep because our God is our guard.
“Behold” is here set up to call our attention to the cheering truth. Israel, when he had a stone for his pillow, fell asleep; but His God was awake and came in vision to His servant. When we lie defenseless, Jehovah Himself will cover our head.
The Lord keeps His people as a rich man keeps his treasure, as a captain keeps a city with a garrison, as a sentry keeps watch over his sovereign. None can harm those who are in such keeping. Let me put my soul into His dear hands. He never forgets us, never ceases actively to care for us, never finds Himself unable to preserve us.
O my Lord, keep me, lest I wander and fall and perish. Keep me, that I may keep Thy commandments. By Thine unslumbering care prevent my sleeping like the sluggard and perishing like those who sleep the sleep of death.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: actively, Alexander, almighty, appeared, asleep, attention, awake, behold, believers, call, came, caotain, care, ceases, cheering, Christ, Christians, city, Comforter, commandments, cover, dear, deeper slumber, defenseless, Elohim, fails, fall, fell, finds, forgets, form, friend, garrison, God, God's people, God's Son, guard, hands, harm, heads, heart, Heavenly Father, historical, Holy Spirit, house, Israel, Jacob, Jehovah, Jesus, keep, Keeper of Israel, keeping, keeps, lie, Lord, never, over, Parmenio, people, perfect peace, perish, perishing, pillow, preservation, preserve, prevent, prevention, protection, protector, Provider, put, reason, resting, rich man, safety, Savior, sentry, servant, sleep, sleep of death, slighter sleep, sluggard, slumber, soul, sovereign, steals, stone, sufficient, treasure, truth, unable, unconciousness, unslumbering, vision, wander, watch, watched, Yahweh, Yeshua
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
An Angel Encampment
July 8
The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. (Psalm 34:7)
We cannot see the angels, but it is enough that they can see us. There is one great Angel of the Covenant, whom not having seen we love, and His eye is always upon us both day and night. He has a host of holy ones under Him, and He causes these to be watchers over His saints and to guard them from all ill. If devils do us mischief, shining ones do us service.
Note that the Lord of angels does not come and go and pay us transient visits, but He and His armies encamp around us. The headquarters of the army of salvation is where those live whose trust is in the living God. This camp surrounds the faithful so that they cannot be attacked from any quarter unless the adversary can break through the entrenchments of the Lord of angels. We have a fixed protection, a permanent watch. Sentineled by the messengers of God, we shall not be surprised by sudden assaults nor swallowed up by overwhelming forces. Deliverance is promised in this verse — deliverance by the great Captain of our salvation, and that deliverance we shall obtain again and again until our warfare is accomplished and we exchange the field of conflict for the home of rest.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: Angel of the Covenant, anges, attack, attacks, battles, care, Christ, day, deliverance, demons, devils, Elohim, enemies, evil ones, Fear, fights, God, Heavenly Father, hedge of protection, help, Holy Spirit, host, Jehovah, Jesus, Lord, love, night, Promise, protection, protector, Satan, Savior, trials, tribulations, troubles, watch
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Avoid That Slip
March 21
Then shalt thou walk in thy way of safety, and thy foot shall not stumble. (Proverbs 3:23)
That is to say, if we follow the ways of wisdom and holiness we shall be preserved in them. He who travels by daylight along the highway is under some protection. There is a way for every man, namely, his own proper calling in life, and if we devoutly walk therein in the fear of God He will preserve us from evil. We may not travel luxuriously, but we shall walk safely. We may not be able to run like young men, but we shall be able to walk like good men.
Our greatest danger lies in ourselves: our feeble foot is so sadly apt to stumble. Let us ask for more moral strength that our tendency to slip may be overcome. Some stumble because they do not see the stone in the way: divine grace enables us to perceive sin and so to avoid it. Let us plead this promise and trust in Him who upholds His chosen.
Alas! Our worst peril is our own carelessness, but against this the Lord Jesus has put us on our guard, saying, “Watch and pray.”
Oh, for grace to walk this day without a single stumble! It is not enough that we do not actually fall; our cry should be that we may not make the smallest slip with out feet but may at the last adore Him “who is able to keep us from stumbling.”
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: assurance, daylight, evil, fall, foot, God, help, highway, holiness, holy, Jehovah, Jesus, Lord, man, patk, Pray, Promise, protection, safety, stumble, travels, walk, watch, wisdom, Yahweh
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
A Heavenly Escort
January 30
And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest. (Genesis 28:15)
Do we need journeying mercies? Here are choice ones – God’s presence and preservation, In all places we need both of these, and in all places we shall have them if we go at the call of duty, and not merely according to our own fancy. Why should we look upon removal to another country as a sorrowful necessity when it is laid upon us by the divine will? In all lands the believer is equally a pilgrim and a stranger; and yet in every region the Lord is His dwelling place, even as He has been to His saints in all generations. We may miss the protection of an earthly monarch, but when God says, “I will keep thee,” we are in no real danger. This is a blessed passport for a traveler and a heavenly escort for an emigrant.
Jacob had never left his father’s room before; he had been a mother’s boy and not an adventurer tike his brother. Yet he went abroad, and God went with him. He had little luggage and no attendants; yet no prince ever journeyed with a nobler bodyguard. Even while he slept in the open field, angels watched over him, and the Lord God spoke to him. If the Lord bids us go, let us say with our Lord Jesus, “Arise, let us go hence.”
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: angels, call, duty, God, Heaven, Heavenly Father, Jacob, Jehovah, Jesus, Lord, presence, preservation, Promise, protection, safety, sleep, watch
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
The Unfailing Watch
November 13
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121:4)
Jehovah is “the Keeper of Israel.” No form of unconsciousness ever steals over Him, neither the deeper slumber nor the slighter sleep. He never fails to watch the house and the heart of His people. This is a sufficient reason for our resting in perfect peace. Alexander said that he slept because his friend Parmenio watched; much more may we sleep because our God is our guard.
“Behold” is here set up to call our attention to the cheering truth. Israel, when he had a stone for his pillow, fell asleep; but His God was awake and came in vision to His servant. When we lie defenseless, Jehovah Himself will cover our head.
The Lord keeps His people as a rich man keeps his treasure, as a captain keeps a city with a garrison, as a sentry keeps watch over his sovereign. None can harm those who are in such keeping. Let me put my soul into His dear hands. He never forgets us, never ceases actively to care for us, never finds Himself unable to preserve us.
O my Lord, keep me, lest I wander and fall and perish. Keep me, that I may keep Thy commandments. By Thine unslumbering care prevent my sleeping like the sluggard and perishing like those who sleep the sleep of death.
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: attack, believers, evil, God, heart, Heavenly Father, house, Israel, Jehovah, Jesus, keep, Lord, Promise, protection, restlessness, safety, sleep, slumber, watch
From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
He Came; He Is Coming
December 25
This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts 1:11)
Many are celebrating our Lord’s first coming this day; let us turn our thoughts to the promise of His second coming. This is as sure as the first advent and derives a great measure of its certainty from it. He who came as a lowly man to serve will assuredly come to take the reward of His service. He who came to suffer will not be slow in coming to reign.
This is our glorious hope, for we shall share His joy. Today we are in our concealment and humiliation, even as He was while here below; but when He cometh it will be our manifestation, even as it will be His revelation. Dead saints shall live at His appearing. The slandered and despised shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Then shall the saints appear as kings and priests, and the days of their mourning shall be ended. The long rest and inconceivable splendor of the millennial reign will be an abundant recompense for the ages of witnessing and warring.
Oh, that the Lord would come! He is coming! He is on the road and traveling quickly. The sound of His approach should be as music to our hearts! Ring out, ye bells of hope!
From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: bells, celebrating, Christmas, clouds, God, Heaven, Jesus, Lord, Promise, Second Coming, watch
forhisgloryandpraise 