Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - January 26
Despising the shame. —Hebrews 12:2
And how is that to be done? In two ways. Go up the mountain, and the things in the plain will look very small; the higher you rise the more insignificant they will seem. Hold fellowship with God, and the threatening foes here will seem very, very unformidable. Another way is, pull up the curtain and gaze on what is behind it. The low foot-hills that lie at the base of some Alpine country may look high when seen from the plain, as long as the snowy …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - January 25
My God shall be my strength. —Isaiah 49:5
Oh, do not pray for easy lives! Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks! Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come in you by the grace of God. —Phillips Brooks
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - January 24
He made as though He would have gone further. —Luke 24:28
Is not God always acting thus? He comes to us by His Holy Spirit as He did to these two disciples. He speaks to us through the preaching of the Gospel, through the Word of God, through the various means of grace and the providential circumstances of life; and having thus spoken, He makes as though He would go further. If the ear be opened to His voice and the heart to His Spirit, the prayer will then go up, “Lord, abide …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - January 23
Under His shadow. —Song of Solomon 2:3
Frances Ridley Havergal says: I seem to see four pictures suggested by that: under the shadow of a rock in a weary plain; under the shadow of a tree; closer still, under the shadow of His wing; nearest and closest, in the shadow of His hand. Surely that hand must be the pierced hand, that may oftentimes press us sorely, and yet evermore encircling, upholding and shadowing!
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - January 22
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. —Hebrews 4:9
How sweet the music of this first heavenly chime floating across the waters of death from the towers of the New Jerusalem. Pilgrim, faint under thy long and arduous pilgrimage, hear it! It is rest. Soldier, carrying still upon thee blood and dust of battle, hear it! It is rest. Voyager, tossed on the waves of sin and sorrow, driven hither and thither on the world’s heaving ocean of vicissitude, hear it! The haven is in sight; the very waves that are …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - January 21
Show me Thy ways, O LORD; teach me Thy paths. —Psalm 25:4
There is a path in which every child of God is to walk, and in which alone God can accompany him. —Denham Smith
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - January 20
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up. —Psalm 5:3
The morning is the gate of the day, and should be well guarded with prayer. It is one end of the thread on which the day’s actions are strung, and should be well knotted with devotion. If we felt more the majesty of life we should be more careful of its mornings. He who rushes from his bed to his business and waiteth not …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - January 19
Thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron. —Exodus 28:2
Have we no garments of blue, and purple, and beautiful suggestiveness? We have garments of praise; we are clothed with the Lord Jesus. And have we no ornaments? The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is, in the sight of God, of great price. And have we no golden bells? We have the golden bells of holy actions. Our words are bells, our actions are bells, our purposes are bells. Whenever we move, our motion is thus understood to be a motion …
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - January 18
All things work together for good to them that love God. —Romans 8:28
In one thousand trials it is not five hundred of them that work for the believer’s good, but nine hundred and ninety-nine of them, and one beside. —George Müller
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Thoughts for the Quiet Hour - January 17
Elisha said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. —2 Kings 6:17
This is the prayer we need to pray for ourselves and for one another, “Lord, open our eyes that we may see;” for the world all around us, as well as around the prophet, is full of God’s horses and chariots, waiting to carry us to places of glorious victory. And when our eyes are thus opened, we shall see in all the events of life, whether great or small, whether joyful or sad, …
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