Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - September 12
Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. —Matthew 20:18
Never had there been such a going up to Jerusalem as that which Jesus here proposes to His disciples. He goes up voluntarily. The act was not enforced by any external compulsion. Jerusalem might at this time have been avoided. It was deliberately sought. It was a going up to a triumph to be reached through defeat, a coronation to be attained through ignominy and humiliation.
O believer, in your walk through the world to-day, be strengthened, be comforted, be inspired, by the spectacle …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - September 11
Now are we the sons of God: and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. —1 John 3:2
“Now are we the sons of God.” That is the pier upon one side of the gulf. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when He shall appear we shall be like Him.” That is the pier on the other. How are the two to be connected? There …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - September 10
In the daytime . . . He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. —Psalm 78:14
My day is my prosperity; it is the time when the sun of fortune is bright above me, and, therefore, it is the time when I need a shade. If my sunshine were not chequered I would forget Thee, O my God.
But I have nights to meet as well as days. The night is my adversity; it is the time when the sun of fortune has gone down behind the …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - September 9
This beginning of miracles did Jesus. —John 2:11
It was out of the common thing that the precious thing was brought; and it is out of the common things of daily life, presented obediently to Jesus and laid at His feet, that He brings His own glorious gifts, so that our whole lives become one great sacrament. —W. Hay Aitken
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - September 8
He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest it him, even length of days or ever and ever. —Psalm 21:4
When poor men make requests of us we usually answer them as the echo does the voice—the answer cuts off half the petition. We shall seldom find among men Jael’s courtesy, giving milk to those that ask water, except it be as this was, an entangling benefit, the better to introduce a mischief. There are not many Naamans among us, that, when you beg of them one talent, will force you to …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - September 7
The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. —Romans 15:13
In spiritual as in earthly things there is great strength in hope, and, therefore, God’s people are carefully to cultivate that grace. A well-grounded hope that, having been made new creatures in Jesus Christ, we are His; that with our names, though unknown to fame, written in the Book of Life, we have grace in possession and heaven in prospect; that after a few …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - September 6
The church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. —Acts 20:28
Surely He may do what He will with His own. The price He has paid to make them His own is a sufficient guarantee that He will never make light of anything in which their welfare is at all concerned. We are precious to Him by the virtue of the blood which He has shed for us, and for Him to be found at any time wanting in solicitude for our happiness would be for Him to treat …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - September 5
It is high time to awake out of sleep. —Romans 13:11
I have heard of a painter who loved to work by the morning light. He said that the colors were better understood by the light of the early day, and so he was wont to be in his studio waiting for the rising of the sun. Then every moment it grew lighter, and he found he could accomplish things which he could not reach if he waited till the day had advanced.
Is there not work waiting for us—work that no …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - September 4
To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness. —Daniel 9:9
As a spring lock closes itself, but cannot be unlocked without a key, so we ourselves may run into sin, but cannot return without the key of God's grace. —Cawdray
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - September 3
My presence shall go with thee. —Exodus 33:14
We should never leave our prayer closets in the morning without having concentrated our thoughts deeply and intensely on the fact of the actual presence of God there with us, encompassing us, and filling the room as literally as it fills heaven itself. It may not lead to any distinct results at first, but, as we make repeated efforts to realize the presence of God, it will become increasingly real to us. And, as the habit grows upon us, when alone in a room, …
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