Milo

May 27

“Bring them hither to me.” (Matt. 14:18.)

ARE you encompassed with needs at this very moment, and almost overwhelmed with difficulties, trials, and emergencies? These are all divinely provided vessels for the Holy Spirit to fill, and if you but rightly understood their meaning, they would become opportunities for receiving new blessings and deliverances which you can get in no other way.
Bring these vessels to God. Hold them steadily before Him in faith and prayer. Keep still, and stop your own restless working until He begins to work. Do nothing that He does not Himself command you to do. Give Him a chance to work, and He will surely do so; and the very trials that threatened to overcome you with discouragement and disaster, will become God’s opportunity for the revelation of His grace and glory in your life, as you have never known Him before. “Bring them (all needs) to me.”—A. B. Simpson.
“My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:19.)
What a source—“God!” What a supply—“His riches in glory!” What a channel—“Christ Jesus!” It is your sweet privilege to place all your need over against His riches, and lose sight of the former in the presence of the latter. His exhaustless treasury is thrown open to you, in all the love of His heart; go and draw upon it, in the artless simplicity of faith, and you will never have occasion to look to a creature-stream, or lean on a creature-prop.—C. H. M.

“MY CUP RUNNETH OVER”

There is always something over,
  When we trust our gracious Lord;
Every cup He fills o’erfloweth,
  His great rivers all are broad.
Nothing narrow, nothing stinted,
  Ever issues from His store;
To His own He gives full measure,
  Running over, evermore.

There is always something over,
  When we, from the Father’s hand,
Take our portion with thanksgiving,
  Praising for the path He planned.

Satisfaction, full and deepening,
  Fills the soul, and lights the eye,
When the heart has trusted Jesus
  All its need to satisfy.

There is always something over,
  When we tell of all His love;
Unplumbed depths still lie beneath us,
  Unscaled heights rise far above:
Human lips can never utter
  All His wondrous tenderness,
We can only praise and wonder,
  And His name forever bless.

—Margaret E. Barber.

“How can He but, in giving Him, lavish on us all things.”

27 MAY

Sunshine through the clouds

‘And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.’ Genesis 12:7
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Revelation 21:22–22:6

Though the Lord was always with Abraham to protect and bless him, he manifested himself or appeared to him but now and then. Thus with respect to all necessary supplies of grace and strength, and a liberty to seek his direction and blessing, he is ever with his people—but there is a gracious presence, the light of his countenance, which they do not always enjoy. In this sense he visits them but does not abide, as the sun gives us every day for necessary uses, but does not always shine upon us. When it does, it casts an inimitable glory and gilds every object. Be thankful for the light and for eyes to behold it, but pray likewise for the breaking forth of the Sun of righteousness. If you have it, rejoice in it, yet expect a change. There are reasons both on the Lord’s part and on ours why he does not always shine. But in yonder happy world we shall have unclouded skies.
FOR MEDITATION:
As when the weary traveller gains
The thought of home his spirit cheers,
The height of some o’er-looking hill;
No more he grieves for troubles past;
His heart revives, if cross the plains
Nor any future trial fears,
He eyes his home, though distant still.
So he may safe arrive at last.

While he surveys the much-loved spot,
’Tis there, he says, I am to dwell
He slights the space that lies between;
With JESUS, in the realms of day;
His past fatigues are now forgot,
Then I shall bid my cares farewell,
Because his journey’s end is seen.
And he will wipe my tears away.

Thus, when the Christian pilgrim views
JESUS, on thee our hope depends,
By faith, his mansion in the skies;
To lead us on to thine abode;
The sight his fainting strength renews,
Assured our home will make amends
And wings his speed to reach the prize.
For all our toil while on the road.

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 24 [2/4], GENESIS 12:7

May 26th

Think as Jesus taught

Pray without ceasing. 1 Thess. 5:17.

We think rightly or wrongly about prayer according to the conception we have in our minds of prayer. If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly. The blood flows ceaselessly, and breathing continues ceaselessly; we are not conscious of it, but it is always going on. We are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect joint with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life. Beware of anything that stops ejaculatory prayer. “Pray without ceasing,” keep the childlike habit of ejaculatory prayer in your heart to God all the time.
Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer; He had the boundless certainty that prayer is always answered. Have we by the Spirit the unspeakable certainty that Jesus had about prayer, or do we think of the times when God does not seem to have answered prayer? “Every one that asketh receiveth.” We say—‘But …, but …’ God answers prayer in the best way, not sometimes, but every time, although the immediate manifestation of the answer in the domain in which we want it may not always follow. Do we expect God to answer prayer?
The danger with us is that we want to water down the things that Jesus says and make them mean something in accordance with common sense; if it were only common sense, it was not worth while for him to say it. The things Jesus says about prayer are supernatural revelations.

May 26

“Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it.” (Num. 21:17.)

THIS was a strange song and a strange well. They had been traveling over the desert’s barren sands, no water was in sight and they were famishing with thirst. Then God spake to Moses and said:
“Gather the people together, and I will give them water,” and this is how it came.
They gathered in circles on the sands. They took their staves and dug deep down into the burning earth and as they dug, they sang,
“Spring up, O well, sing ye unto it,” and lo, there came a gurgling sound, a rush of water and a flowing stream which filled the well and ran along the ground.
When they dug this well in the desert, they touched the stream that was running beneath, and reached the flowing tides that had long been out of sight.
How beautiful the picture given, telling us of the river of blessing that flows all through our lives, and we have only to reach by faith and praise to find our wants supplied in the most barren desert.
How did they reach the waters of this well? It was by praise. They sang upon the sand their song of faith, while with their staff of promise they dug the well.
Our praise will still open fountains in the desert, when murmuring will only bring us judgment, and even prayer may fail to reach the fountains of blessing.
There is nothing that pleases the Lord so much as praise. There is no test of faith so true as the grace of thanksgiving. Are you praising God enough? Are you thanking Him for your actual blessings that are more than can be numbered, and are you daring to praise Him even for those trials which are but blessings in disguise? Have you learned to praise Him in advance for the things that have not yet come?—Selected.

“Thou waitest for deliverance!
  O soul, thou waitest long!
Believe that now deliverance
  Doth wait for thee in song!

“Sigh not until deliverance
  Thy fettered feet doth free:
With songs of glad deliverance
  God now doth compass thee.”

26 MAY

Room for the exercise of faith

‘And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land …’ Genesis 12:7
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Romans 4:13–25

God’s promises still leave room for the exercise of faith. So Abraham found it. The land which he saw was for his seed, which was cause of rejoicing, but attended with two abatements.
(i) Though it was given to his seed, he himself had no possession, but was a sojourner in tents all his days. Yet he was not disappointed as to his own best interests; he was taught to consider this earthly inheritance as a type of a better [one], that is, an heavenly (Hebrews 11:10, 13–14). So the promises run to believers: all things are theirs; they shall inherit the earth. In the meanwhile many of them are destitute and in want of all things. Here sense is ready to complain, but faith takes up the best meaning. All things are mine so far as the Lord sees good, and I shall have his blessing with them, but my great inheritance is on high, therefore none of these things move me.
(ii) His chief [abatement] was that the promise was made to his seed, when as yet he had no child and little prospect of any, for his wife was barren and he himself advancing in years. This difficulty grew harder every day as he and his wife grew older, and though his faith surmounted it, yet it was not without conflicts, as we may gather from 15:2. In this instance the faith of Abraham is especially commended to our imitation (Romans 4:18–22). Great things believers expect in their walk with God: peace, joy, strength and sweet communion. Nor shall they be disappointed if they believe. But when they are acquainted with the evil of their own hearts and the temptations belonging to their warfare, they are in much the same situation as Abraham, who could never have had a comfortable hope of a child, if he had given way to the reasonings of flesh and blood. He waited twenty-five years and when at last it seemed impossible, then his desire was fulfilled.

FOR MEDITATION: Two considerations supported the Word and the power of God: he had promised, and he was able to perform. Apply this to yourself, poor soul. Are you saying, Can these dry bones live? [Ezekiel 37:3] Can grace and comfort ever dwell in this heart? Yes. The Lord has spoken, and therefore you may rejoice, for he who has promised is able also to perform.

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 24 [1/4], GENESIS 12:7