This article is from Issue 4, Called to Trust
“This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.”
(1 John 5:4)
The devil has two master tricks. One is to get us discouraged; then for a time at least we can be of no service to others, and so we are defeated. The other is to make us doubt, thus breaking the faith link by which we are bound to our Father. Do not be tricked by either!
It is easy to fall into the habit of doubting, fretting and wondering if God has forsaken us and if after all our hopes are to end in failure. Let us refuse to be discouraged. Let us refuse to be unhappy. Let us “count it all joy” when we cannot feel one emotion of happiness. Let us rejoice by faith, by resolution, by reckoning, and we shall surely find that God will make the reckoning real.
Streams in The Desert
Stop Hesitating
“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
(James 1:8)
We have to stop hesitating and take the first step; and the first step is stop hesitating! “How long will you waver between two opinions?” (1 Kings 18:21) There are times when we wish that God would kick us right over the line and make us DO the thing; but the remarkable thing about God’s patience is that He waits until we stop hesitating.
Some of us have stood so long on the verge of a promise of God’s that we have become like statues on the edge, and if we were asked to give a testimony or do something for God, we would feel very awkward. It would be a good thing for us if we could be pushed over, no matter how it made us sprawl.
If God tells us to do something good and we hesitate over obeying, we endanger our standing in grace. The one who does not put God first is always double-minded. “If I do,” “Supposing…” and “But…” are all in the vocabulary of the double-minded. If we begin to weigh things, we let in that subtle enemy, insinuation.
When God speaks we have to be resolute, and act immediately in faith on what He says. When Peter walked on the water, he did not wait for someone to take his hand; he stepped straight out in recognition of Jesus, and walked on the water.
Oswald Chambers
Thou Has Said
“I believe that it shall be even as it was told me.”
(Acts 27:25)
There is nearly always something deep in our hearts about which some special word has been told us by our Lord, or about which we have some inward assurance that we know is from Him. It is this that satan assaults. He tries, by undermining our confidence, to get us out of peace into fear. Of all the answers to such suggestions as those which he is sure to make, there are none more certain to conquer than this, “I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.”
Amy Carmichael
Taken from Life On The Altar Publications
Issue 4 Spring 2022
Called To Trust
LIFE ON THE ALTAR 