2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
People of faith sometimes think it's strange that they have problems and others perhaps do not. The Bible gives enough evidence that it doesn't need to seem so strange. This questioning comes up often enough in the Psalms (10:1), and then there's the story of Job.
James has some advice that turns it all around: "Count it all joy." How is that possible? For anyone who's been camping, you might have a few stories to tell of various disasters that not only can you laugh about now, but they were also kind of funny at the time! Or in a more serious light, think of Jesus at the Cross (Heb. 12:2), with the "joy" set before Him. For us, pain is pain, but behind every cloud...
So what is it that tries your faith? There are many problems we can think of involving children, sickness, finances, various failures. Sometimes just life in general. All are real problems, but our faith can endure and our joy can be real. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28).
James declares in verse 3 that the trial of faith results in patience, which, as we're involved in these real life issues, can indeed "have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing" (1:4). That's a good result, progress on the way. Faith doesn't need to waver (1:6); we can hang on, and become stronger in our faith. That's really the whole point!
God sustains us through prayer (Phil. 4:6), the word (Rom. 10:17), and by His care (1 Pt. 5:7), just to name a few of the many ways. And in this chapter of James (1:5), God offers wisdom to those who ask it of Him.
So, your faith is on trial. Don't despair! Recognize it, look to God, handle things as best as you can in a spiritual way, and let your faith help you endure everything. It's helpful now and it will be stronger next time.
Showing posts with label self-help. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self-help. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
Words of Wisdom — "A Beggar at God's Door"
1906
Art thou a beggar at God's door, be sure thou gettest a great bowl, for as thy bowl is so will be thy mess. According to thy faith, saith He, be it unto thee. — John Bunyan.
Kind looks, kind words, kind acts and warm handshakes — these are secondary means of grace when men are in trouble and are fighting their unseen battles. — John Hall.
I have looked up every Scripture where anything like meditation is mentioned, and I find that we are never once told to meditate upon sin. — W. H. Griffith Thomas.
Who is meant by our neighbors we cannot doubt; it is every one with whom we are thrown into contact, he or she, whosoever it be, whom we have the means of helping. — Dean Stanley.
You can help your fellow men; you must help them, but the only way you can help them is by being the noblest and the best man that it is possible for you to be. — Phillips Brooks.
Who could believe that from that unpromising bulb would spring the gorgeous flower enveloped in its sheltering leaves? Yet such shall be our body then compared with our body now. — E. H. Bickersteth.
The cure for heartache is to be found in occupations which take us away from our petty self regardings or self pityings, our morbid broodings, and which connect our life with other lives and with other affairs; or merge our individual interest in the larger whole. — Charles G. Ames.
If there be a pleasure on earth which angels cannot enjoy, and which they might almost envy man the possession of, it is the power of relieving distress. If there be a pain which devils might pity man for enduring, it is the death bed reflection that we have possessed the power of doing good, but that we have abused and perverted it to purposes of evil — Lacon.
By giving to the repetition of an act of duty a fixed regularity, I can multiply my moral power in that direction as much as a man multiplies his material power when he gets hold of a lever. By faithful habit I can make that which was at first laborious come to be after a while less difficult, then easy, and perhaps at last spontaneous and delightful. — G. S. Merriam.
Art thou a beggar at God's door, be sure thou gettest a great bowl, for as thy bowl is so will be thy mess. According to thy faith, saith He, be it unto thee. — John Bunyan.
Kind looks, kind words, kind acts and warm handshakes — these are secondary means of grace when men are in trouble and are fighting their unseen battles. — John Hall.
I have looked up every Scripture where anything like meditation is mentioned, and I find that we are never once told to meditate upon sin. — W. H. Griffith Thomas.
Who is meant by our neighbors we cannot doubt; it is every one with whom we are thrown into contact, he or she, whosoever it be, whom we have the means of helping. — Dean Stanley.
You can help your fellow men; you must help them, but the only way you can help them is by being the noblest and the best man that it is possible for you to be. — Phillips Brooks.
Who could believe that from that unpromising bulb would spring the gorgeous flower enveloped in its sheltering leaves? Yet such shall be our body then compared with our body now. — E. H. Bickersteth.
The cure for heartache is to be found in occupations which take us away from our petty self regardings or self pityings, our morbid broodings, and which connect our life with other lives and with other affairs; or merge our individual interest in the larger whole. — Charles G. Ames.
If there be a pleasure on earth which angels cannot enjoy, and which they might almost envy man the possession of, it is the power of relieving distress. If there be a pain which devils might pity man for enduring, it is the death bed reflection that we have possessed the power of doing good, but that we have abused and perverted it to purposes of evil — Lacon.
By giving to the repetition of an act of duty a fixed regularity, I can multiply my moral power in that direction as much as a man multiplies his material power when he gets hold of a lever. By faithful habit I can make that which was at first laborious come to be after a while less difficult, then easy, and perhaps at last spontaneous and delightful. — G. S. Merriam.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Things To Learn in Life
1907
Learn to laugh. A good laugh is better than medicine.
Learn to attend strictly to your own business — a very important point.
Learn how to tell a story. A well-told story is as welcome as a sunbeam in a sick room.
Learn to stop grumbling. If you cannot see any good in this world keep the bad to yourself.
Learn to keep your own troubles to yourself. The world is too busy to care for your ills and sorrows.
Learn to greet your friends with a smile. They carry too many frowns in their own hearts to be bothered with any of yours.
Learn to hide your aches and pains under a pleasant smile. No one wants to know if you have the toothache or headache.
Bread and Lilies
The Chinese have a saying: "If you have two loaves of bread, sell one and buy a lily. It is not the body alone that needs to be fed. Mind, heart and soul grow hungry, and many a time they are famishing when the larder is full. There are homes where the lilies are entirely crowded out by loaves, where there is no room for beauty or enjoyment, or even for love, to grow, because of the mad scramble after wealth. Fewer loaves and more lilies — less of the rush after material good, and more time for the gracious and beautiful things God has placed within reach of us all — would make happier and nobler lives.
Learn to laugh. A good laugh is better than medicine.
Learn to attend strictly to your own business — a very important point.
Learn how to tell a story. A well-told story is as welcome as a sunbeam in a sick room.
Learn to stop grumbling. If you cannot see any good in this world keep the bad to yourself.
Learn to keep your own troubles to yourself. The world is too busy to care for your ills and sorrows.
Learn to greet your friends with a smile. They carry too many frowns in their own hearts to be bothered with any of yours.
Learn to hide your aches and pains under a pleasant smile. No one wants to know if you have the toothache or headache.
Bread and Lilies
The Chinese have a saying: "If you have two loaves of bread, sell one and buy a lily. It is not the body alone that needs to be fed. Mind, heart and soul grow hungry, and many a time they are famishing when the larder is full. There are homes where the lilies are entirely crowded out by loaves, where there is no room for beauty or enjoyment, or even for love, to grow, because of the mad scramble after wealth. Fewer loaves and more lilies — less of the rush after material good, and more time for the gracious and beautiful things God has placed within reach of us all — would make happier and nobler lives.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
The Sin of Fretting
1895
There is one sin which it seems to me is everywhere and by everybody underestimated, and quite too much overlooked in valuations of character. It is the sin of fretting.
It is as common as air, as speech, so common that unless it rises above its usual monotone we do not even observe it. Watch any ordinary coming together of people, and see how many minutes it will be before somebody frets — that is, makes a more or less complaining statement of something or other which probably every one in the room, or in the car, or the street corner, it may be, knew before, and probably nobody can help. Why say anything about it? It is cold, it is hot, it is wet, it is dry; somebody has broken an appointment, ill-cooked a meal; stupidity or bad faith somewhere has resulted in discomfort.
There are plenty of things to fret about. It is simply astonishing how much annoyance may be found in the course of every day's living, even at the simplest, if one only keeps a sharp eye out on that side of things. Even Holy Writ says we are prone to trouble as sparks fly upward. But even to the sparks flying upward, in the blackest of smoke, there is a blue sky above; and the less time they waste on the road the sooner they will reach it. Fretting is all time wasted on the road. — Helen Hunt.
There is one sin which it seems to me is everywhere and by everybody underestimated, and quite too much overlooked in valuations of character. It is the sin of fretting.
It is as common as air, as speech, so common that unless it rises above its usual monotone we do not even observe it. Watch any ordinary coming together of people, and see how many minutes it will be before somebody frets — that is, makes a more or less complaining statement of something or other which probably every one in the room, or in the car, or the street corner, it may be, knew before, and probably nobody can help. Why say anything about it? It is cold, it is hot, it is wet, it is dry; somebody has broken an appointment, ill-cooked a meal; stupidity or bad faith somewhere has resulted in discomfort.
There are plenty of things to fret about. It is simply astonishing how much annoyance may be found in the course of every day's living, even at the simplest, if one only keeps a sharp eye out on that side of things. Even Holy Writ says we are prone to trouble as sparks fly upward. But even to the sparks flying upward, in the blackest of smoke, there is a blue sky above; and the less time they waste on the road the sooner they will reach it. Fretting is all time wasted on the road. — Helen Hunt.
Ere You Censure, Look Within (poetry)
1895
Ere You Censure, Look Within
Should you feel inclined to censure
Faults you may in others view,
Ask your own heart, 'ere you venture,
If that has not failings too.
Let no friendly vows be broken,
Rather strive a friend to gain;
Many a word in anger spoken,
Finds its passage home again.
Do not, then, in idle pleasure,
Trifle with a brother's fame;
Guard it as valued treasure,
Sacred as your own good name.
Do not form opinions blindly;
Hastiness to trouble tends;
Those of whom we thought unkindly,
Oft become our warmest friends.
Ere You Censure, Look Within
Should you feel inclined to censure
Faults you may in others view,
Ask your own heart, 'ere you venture,
If that has not failings too.
Let no friendly vows be broken,
Rather strive a friend to gain;
Many a word in anger spoken,
Finds its passage home again.
Do not, then, in idle pleasure,
Trifle with a brother's fame;
Guard it as valued treasure,
Sacred as your own good name.
Do not form opinions blindly;
Hastiness to trouble tends;
Those of whom we thought unkindly,
Oft become our warmest friends.
Friday, April 20, 2007
The Power of Faith - Phillips Brooks
1905
The man who accomplishes anything in this world is and must be a man of faith. Strong men, forcible men, virile men are men of faith. It may be a low type of faith — faith in self — but it is faith. Beaxendale says: "Weak faith makes weak men." How much stronger should be the man who has faith in God, the faith that says: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthened me." This is faith of the highest type.
Be done with saying what you don't believe, and find in your soul the divinest, truest thing in which you do believe, and work that out. Be the noblest man that your present faith, poor and weak and imperfect as it is can make you to be. So, and so only as you take the next step forward, as you stand where you are now, so only as you think the curtain will draw back, there will be revealed to you what lies beyond. — Phillips Brooks.
—The Ada Evening News, Ada, Oklahoma, January 21, 1905, page 2.
The man who accomplishes anything in this world is and must be a man of faith. Strong men, forcible men, virile men are men of faith. It may be a low type of faith — faith in self — but it is faith. Beaxendale says: "Weak faith makes weak men." How much stronger should be the man who has faith in God, the faith that says: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthened me." This is faith of the highest type.
Be done with saying what you don't believe, and find in your soul the divinest, truest thing in which you do believe, and work that out. Be the noblest man that your present faith, poor and weak and imperfect as it is can make you to be. So, and so only as you take the next step forward, as you stand where you are now, so only as you think the curtain will draw back, there will be revealed to you what lies beyond. — Phillips Brooks.
—The Ada Evening News, Ada, Oklahoma, January 21, 1905, page 2.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
"Metaphysical Self-Helps" at Universal Messianic Center
Oakland, California, 1921
MESSIANIC CHURCH
"Self-Expression" will be the theme of an address to be given by Mabelle B. Fuller tomorrow evening at 8 o'clock, at the Universal Messianic Center, 562 Fifteenth street. Every Wednesday evening, from 7:30 to 8 o'clock, a half-hour of silent meditation is held, followed by a healing service conducted by Mrs. Anna Stockley. On Tuesday, beginning at 3 o'clock, the church is "a home" to all friends and strangers.
—Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, May 14, 1921, page 9.
SELF-HELP TALKS
Talks on "Metaphysical Self-Helps" will be given tomorrow and succeeding Wednesday afternoons and evenings at the Universal Messianic hall, 562 Fifteenth street, by Mrs. A. L. Stockley.
—Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, May 17, 1921, page 20.
MESSIANIC CHURCH
"Self-Expression" will be the theme of an address to be given by Mabelle B. Fuller tomorrow evening at 8 o'clock, at the Universal Messianic Center, 562 Fifteenth street. Every Wednesday evening, from 7:30 to 8 o'clock, a half-hour of silent meditation is held, followed by a healing service conducted by Mrs. Anna Stockley. On Tuesday, beginning at 3 o'clock, the church is "a home" to all friends and strangers.
—Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, May 14, 1921, page 9.
SELF-HELP TALKS
Talks on "Metaphysical Self-Helps" will be given tomorrow and succeeding Wednesday afternoons and evenings at the Universal Messianic hall, 562 Fifteenth street, by Mrs. A. L. Stockley.
—Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, May 17, 1921, page 20.
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