Practice Makes Perfect

"GO TO THE ant." Tammerlane used to relate to his friends an anecdote of his early life. "I once was forced to take shelter from my enemies in a ruined building, where i sat alone many hours." he said. "Desiring to divert my mind from my hopeless condition, I fixed my eyes on an ant that was carrying a grain of corn larger than itself up a high wall.I numbered the efforts it made to accomplish this object. The grain fell sixty-nine times to the ground; but the insect persevered, and the seventieth time it reached the top! This sight gave me courage at the moment, and I never forgot the lesson."

Rubenstein, the great musician, once said, "If I omit practice one day, I notice it; if two days, my friends notice it; if three days, the public notices it." It is the old doctrine, "Practice makes man perfect." We must continue believing, continue praying, continue doing His will. Suppose along any line of art, one should cease practicing- we know what the result would be. If we could only use the same quality of common sense in our religion that we use in our everyday life, we should go on to perfection.

The motto of David Livingstone was in these words, "I determined never to stop until I had come to the end and achieved my purpose." By unfaltering persistence and faith in God he conquered.

"Silently sat the artist alone,
Carving a Christ from the ivory bone;
Little by little, with toil and pain
He won his way through the sightless grain,
That held and yet hid the thing he sought,
Till the work stood up like a growing thought

Purpose Behind Darkness

What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Matt 10:27

Our Lord is constantly taking us into the dark in order to tell us something. It may be the darkness of a lonely and desolate life, in which some illness has cut us off from the light and the activity of life; or the darkness of some crushing sorrow and disappointment.

It is there He tells us His secret- great and wonderful, eternal and infinite. He causes our eyes, blinded by the glare of things on earth, to behold the heavenly constellations. And our ears suddenly detect even the whisper of His voice, which has been so often drowned out by the turmoil of earth's loud cries.

Yet these revelations always come with a corresponding responsibility: "What I tell you.....speak in the daylight...proclaim from the roofs." We are not to linger in the darkness or stay in the closet. Soon we will be summoned to take our position in the turmoil and the storms of life. And when that moment comes, we are to speak and proclaim what we have learned.

This gives new meaning to suffering, the saddest part of which s often the apparent feeling of uselessness it causes. We tend to think, "How useless I am! What am I doing that is making a difference for others? Why is the 'expensive perfume'(John 12:3) of my soul being wasted?" These are the desperate cries of the suffer, but God has a purpose in all of it. He takes His children to higher levels of fellowship so they may here Him speaking" face to face, as a man speaks with his friend"(Exodus 33:11), and then deliver the message to those at the foot of the mountain. Were the forty days Moses spent on the mountain wasted? What about the time Elijah spent at Mount Horeb or the years Paul spent in Arabia?

There is no shortcut to life of faith, which is an absolute necessity for a holy and victorious life. We must have periods of lonely meditation and fellowship with God. Our souls must have times of fellowship with Him on the mountain and experience valleys of quiet rest in the shadow of great rock. We must spend some nights beneath the stars, when darknes has covered the things of earth, silenced the noise of human life, and expanded our view, revealing the infinite and the eternal. All these are as absolutely essential as food is for our bodies.

In the way alone can the sense of God's presence becoome the unwavering possession of our souls, enabling us to continually say, as the psalmist once wrote, "You are near, O Lord" Psalms 119:151.

Some hearts, like evening promises, open more beautifully in the shadows of life.

Watch For God!!!!

I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me. Habakkuk 2:1

Without watchful expectation on our part, what is in waiting on God for help? There will be no help without it. If we ever fail to receive strenght and protection from Him, it is because we have not been looking for it. Heavenly help is often offered yet goes right past us. We miss it because we are not standing in the tower, carefully watching the horizon for evidence of its approach, and then are unready to throw the gates of our heart open so it may enter. The person who has no expectations and therfore fails to be on the alert will receive little help. Watch for God in the events of your life.

There is an old saying: "They who watch for the providence of God will never lack the providence of God to watch for." And we could turn the saying around as well and say, "They who never watch for providence of God will never have the providence of God to watch for." Unless you put the water jars out when it rains, you will never collect the water.

We need to be more businesslike and use common sense with God in claiming His promise. If a man were to go to the bank several times a day, lay his check at the teller's window, and then pick it up and leave without cashing it, it would not be long befor the bank would have him ordered from the premises.

People who got to the bank have a purpose in mind. They present their check, recieve their cash, and then leave, having transacted real business. They do not lay their check on the counter, discuss the beauty of the signature, and point out the lovely design on it. No, they want to receive money for their check and will not be satisfied without it. These are the people who are always welcome at the bank , Unlike those who simply waste the teller's time.

Unfortunately, a great many people also play at praying. They do not expect God to give them an answer, so they simply squander their prayer time. Our heavenly Father desires us to transact real business with Him in our prayer.

Your hope will not be cut off. Proverbs 23:18

All Things Work Together For Good

How many people are like birds with clipped wings! Life holds them enchained by some handicap. They feel they can never rise, and the temptation comes to settle down to despair or lassitude. But the spirit need not be earthbound. Its range is not restricted or its possibilities limited by physical handicap. Though he could not hear, Beethoven gave the world some of its finest music; Milton's blindness did not affect the noble range of his soul's vision. History has many instances of those who overcame handicaps because they lived in the spirit. Their souls were touched by an eternal flame, and any defect of body could not dim the light that was in them.

Sir Walter Scott is a brilliant example of grace and grit. He overcame lameness and misfortune, and instead of being crushed in spirit and defeated, he won out.

Charles P. Steinmetz, who rivaled Thomas A. Edison in his discoveries and inventions in the field of electrical engineering, was greatly deformed. He did most of his work half standing, half leaning upon a stool. However, he did not allow his handicap to embitter or discourage him. He knew he would have to fight his way. There was no personal popularity, no pleasant social contacts to speed him along. He tortured his brain into headaches and his eyes into burning balls of pain. Time after time he was defeated and undone, but Steinmetz kept climbing until he became the greatest electrical wizard of his time.

The march of progress is the conquering of impossibilities. The mountain that cannot be climed may be tunneled

Lean Upon......

The fact of our salvation does not depend upon our feelings. They are the least reliable of things to rest upon, they are treacherous and not to be trusted. As surely as we rest upon these frauds-our feeling-the Lord will see fit to withdraw them, in order that we may learn to rest upon Him. Therefore stay your faith upon Christ, not upon your most hallowed feelings, but upon Christ Himself and His written promises. Whenever you are in doubt, perplexed, and unhappy, go at once to the Lord and His unfailing Word, and God's truth will disperse any mists of darkness which surround your soul.

Let us learn to lean more upon the fact and less upon our apprehensions of it. We are to walk by faith and not by feelings.

Believe! and the feeling
may come or may go,
Believe in the Word, that
was written to show
That all who believe their
salvation may know;
Believe and keep right on
believing."

By believing, we do not make anything true that was not true before. We simply bring ourselves into accord with what is and has always been the truth. There are some who say that is true for us which finds us, or works in our case. But that only is true for us, when it finds us or works for us, which was true already in itself. There is an order, a divine order..... true, whatever we may think or deny, find or miss. Faith does not create this order. It realizes it. It is the loyal and loving acceptance of it. What we think and do is only a tardy response to the thought of God, and to what He has ever doing for us.

Practice The Presence Of God

What a warning lesson we have in the life of David who had slain Goliath but was nearly slain himself long after by a famous giant, and had to be rescued from the peril and shame by his men! Years of court life had gradually sapped his early vigour and simplicity, and when the "evil day" came, he was not able "to stand".

Are you in danger? Tell your Lord. Are you tempted? Tell Him. Did you slip by the way and grieve Him ? Tell Him. Never wait for the evening hour for confession and forgiveness. Pardon waits for your confession; make it immediately, wherever you are, in the train, in the office, on the street, amid the busy rush of the busy day, express your need in prayer. Practice the presence of God and speak to Him under stress and strain at every point whenever you feel you are burdened or in need.

I cannot snap my own chains or slay my own enemies. Thou knowest temptation, for Thou wast tempted. Thou knowest how to succour me in my hour of conflict. Thou canst save me from sinning,and save me when I have sinned. It is promised in Thy very name that Thou wilt do this, and I pray Thee let me this day verify the prophecy. Save me unto holiness of life, that the name of Jesus may be glorified in me abundantly!

"When temptation assails you, when the enemy pours in upon your soul, then be as the bird and seek the heights." "Flee as a bird to your mountain."

Who knows a mountain? One who has trod its cloud-swept summit alone with God!

The Confident Hope

Over the years, each time we have seen new attacks upon the name of Christ. I have drawn much comfort from an essay by the noted English writer F. W. Boreham. It is beautifully titled "The Candle and the Bird". Boreham makes the comment that God's presence is more analogous to a bird than it is to a candle. When a candle is extinguished, the light goes out. But when a bird is driven away, it only leaves to sing on another bough.

Even as England was becoming barren of a godly influence, the Moravians were raised up in Germany. From that movement missionaries were sent to the ends of the globe. But the Moravian movement began to wane. Had the light been extinguished?? No, the bird was singing on a different bough. Later in the century it was William Carey who set foot in India on the very day that the cross was being burned in France. While Volraire and hostile philosophers had done their work and Europe was threatening slaughter against gospel, William Carey, with a Bible in one hand and the annals of Moravian Mission in the other, was going to touch the heart of India. And as Scotland saw its heros fade, suddenly the voice of Charles Haddon Spurgeon rang out from London to thousands at home and abroad.

No, the light is never extinguished. As a bird, it has sung its song from different boughs. I am convinced that as dark as it may seem to us, there are strains of a melody beginning. The Lord of history may well be tuning His instruments as never before. Let us not look at the dark side. The bird is singing its song. But the melody must first be sung in each of our hearts. The philosopher may debate. The skeptic may scoff. Experience may be deceptive. But the Word of God abides forever, and that Word has shone upon the face of our Lord Jesus Christ.

....while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
But westward, look, the land is bright!!