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Andrew Murray
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 A Ministry dedicated to preserving the truth and accuracy of the infallible Word of God. |
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| Devotionals: Counsel And Help, Daily Readings Selected from the Writings of J R Miller | |
Back to Devotionals >> "Counsel And Help" Daily Readings Selected from the Writings of J R Miller January February March April May June July August September October November December Counsel And Help was first published in 1907 by The Pilgrim Press, London. APRIL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 To Give Is To Keep There is a legend of a golden organ in some ancient monastery, which, to save it from robbers, the monks cast into a deep river. In the waters it still continued to send forth sweet music which the floods could not hush. So it is in a true Christian life. The floods do not drown the songs of joy. A visitor made an appeal to a generous man on one occasion for missions, and he made out a cheque for five pounds. Before the ink was dry a telegram was handed to him. He said to the visitor: "I have received bad news. I have lost a great deal of money. Give me back the cheque." The visitor expected the cheque now to be cancelled. But the gentleman, on receiving it, altered the five pounds to fifty pounds, saying: "God has just taught me that I may not much longer possess my property, and that I must use it well while I have it." The only money we keep is that which we give to God.
Joyous In Suffering We may learn to bear troubles submissively, but to rejoice in them is something which to many seems impossible. But the grace of Christ is equal even to this strange task, enabling us to rejoice in our tribulations. Thousands of Christians have done it. St. Paul himself did it. We remember his "songs in the night" at Philippi. This is what Christian faith may always do. The secret of it is perfect trust in the will and love of God. None can rejoice in pain or loss who has not a settled confidence in the rightness of God’s ways. Someone tells how a flute is made. Here is a piece of wood. It is solid and hard, and makes no sound. Then a workman takes it and cuts holes in it and makes a rift through it. It is by thus cutting as if destroying it that it is made into a flute which gives forth sweet music. God seems ofttimes to be destroying His children by tribulations, but He is really preparing them to give forth sweet music.
Restoring The Lost When we see one slipping away from the right path, from truth and holiness, from the Church and sacred things, through the influence of some tempter, getting entangled in bad company and dropping out of the fellowship of the good, we should do shepherd work and try to win back the imperiled one. We are staying here to represent Christ, to do His work. A Christian who is not interested in seeking and restoring lost ones is not the kind of Christian the Good Shepherd wants.
God's Individual Care It is easy enough for us to understand how the Syrian shepherd knows each of his sheep by name. His flock is small, and he can readily know the name of each. But when we think of the millions who are in Christ’s flock, it seems strange to us that He knows and calls each one by name. Yet the truth is made very clear in the Scriptures. Every mother knows her own children by name, and it is as easy for the Good Shepherd to know each of His millions by name as for any human mother to know each of her little group of children. There is comfort in this teaching. WE are not lost in the crowd. Each one of us is individualized in God’s love and thought and care.
Hidden Blessings Many of the best blessings of life may be traced to some affliction. For example, Dr. Moon, inventor of raised reading for the blind, at the very time of his highest attainments and largest usefulness, became totally blind. It seemed a terrible misfortune, and there appeared no alleviation. At first he was rebellious, refusing to submit to God. At length, however, he began to interest himself in the question of how he might be helpful to other people. The result was the invention of the alphabet for the blind which is now used in many countries, by which many millions of blind people in all parts of the world are enabled to read. Thus we can say of Dr. Moon’s blindness, that it came upon him that the works of God might be made manifest in him.
The Peace Of God Christian peace is the calm of the heart which is not dependent on any circumstances, and which no circumstances, however full of danger or alarm, can break. Its secret is, perfect trust in God. The lesson of peace is one that has to be learned in the school of life. It is not gotten by the changing of life’s conditions, so as to hide one away beyond the reach of storm. Nor is it gained through the deadening of the feelings and sensibilities, so that life’s pains and trials will no longer hurt the heart. This would be paying too great a price even for peace. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It comes through the encircling of the life with God’s own peace. "The peace of God shall guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus."
True Perspective Life’s actions do not appear to us in the same colours when viewed in the noontide glare and in the evening’s twilight. Little things in our treatment of others, which at the times, under the crosslights of emulation and rivalry or in the excitement of business and social life, do not seem wrong, when seen from the shadows of final separation or great grief, fill us with shame and regret. This after view is by far the truest. After thoughts are the wiser thoughts. We get the most faithful representation of life in retrospect. The things we regret in such an hour are things we ought not to have done. The things we wish then we had done are things we ought to have done. There could be no better test of life’s actions than the question, "How will this appear when I look back upon it from the end? Will it give me pleasure or pain?"
Meeting Trouble Half Way One way to train ourselves to cheerful views of life is resolutely to refuse to be frightened at shadows, or even to see trouble where there is none. Half or more of the things that most worry us have no existence save in a disordered fancy. Many things that in the dim distance look like shapes of peril, when we draw near to them, melt into harmless shadows, or even change into forms of friendliness. Much of the gloomy tinge that many people see on everything is caused by the colour of the glasses through which they look. We sit behind our blue glass windows, and then wonder what makes everything blue. The greater part of our discontent is caused by some imaginary trouble which never really comes.
Wayside Ministries In every life there are opportunities for wayside ministry. Indeed, the voluntary activities of any life do not by any means measure its influence. The things we do with deliberate intention make but a small part of the sum total of our life results. Our influence has no nights and keeps no Sabbaths. It is as continuous as life itself. We are leaving impressions all the while on other lives.
Heart Peace There is no life into which do not come many things calculated to cause anxiety and distraction of mind. There are great sorrows; there are perplexities as to duty; there are disappointments and losses; there are annoyances and hindrances; there are chafings and irritations in ordinary life; and there are countless petty cares and frets. All of these tend to break the hearts’ peace and to disturb its quiet, yet there is no lesson that is urged more continuously or more earnestly in the Scriptures than that a Christian should never worry or let care oppress his heart. He is to live without distraction and with peace unbroken even in the midst of the most trying experiences.
Individual Responsibility The truth of personal responsibility is one of tremendous moment. We do not escape it by being in a crowd, one of a family, or of a congregation. No one but ourselves can live our life, do our work, meet our obligation, and bear our burdens. No one but ourselves can stand for us at last before God to render an account of our deeds. In the deepest, realest sense each one of us lives alone. We are responsible only for our own life and duty.
Bearing With Each Other We should train ourselves to such regard, to such reverence for human life, that we shall never hurt the heart of one of God’s creatures, even by a disdainful look. Our love ought also to be patient. Our neighbour may have his faults. But we are taught to bear with one another’s infirmities. If we knew the story of men’s lives, the hidden loads they are carrying ofttimes for others, the unhealed sore in their heart, we would have most gentle patience with them. Life is hard for most people, certainly hard enough without our adding to its burdens by our censoriousness, our uncharity, our jeering and contempt.
The Patience Of Christ To whatever phase of Christ’s wonderful life we turn we see sublime patience. He was patient in accepting His Father’s will, patient toward the world’s sin and sorrow, patient with men’s unreasonableness, uncharity, unkindness, patient with ignorance and prejudice, patient in suffering wrong. Marvelous, indeed, is that quality in our Lord’s life. Who is not ready to turn the benediction into a prayer? "Lord, direct my heart … into the patience of Christ."
God Requires Service Devotion is good. It is very sweet to commune with God in the closet, in the Church, at the Sacramental Table; but we must not spend all our time in these holy exercise. While the raptures thrill our souls we must not forget that outside there are human wants crying for help and sympathy; we must tear ourselves away from our warmest devotions and most exalted experiences to go down to answer these cries. Religion is not for enjoyment only: God gives us spiritual enjoyment that we may be strong for all loving service.
As We Sow We Reap The Golden Rule rests upon a deep principle in life: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." What we do to others they will do to us. That is the principle. If we want mercy, we must be merciful; if we expect sympathy and help, we must give both sympathy and help. We have only to change places with people, and then ask them how we would want them to do to us. As a rule, people do not give warmth for coldness, courtesy for rudeness, kindness for unkindness. The principle applies even to the divine treatment of us. In God’s judgment we receive according to our deeds. He who obtains forgiveness is he who forgives others. He who finds mercy is he who shows mercy to others. He whom Christ will confess before His Father is he who here before men confess Christ. So for eternity we shall reap what we have sowed, and gather what we have scattered.
The Keynote Of True Life Nowhere in the Bible can we find either ingratitude or joylessness commanded or commended. All ungrateful feelings and dispositions are condemned. A great deal is said in disapproval of murmuring, discontent, worrying, and all forms of ingratitude. Again and again we are taught that joy is the keynote of a true life. It is not enough to rejoice when the sun shines, when all things are going well with us, when we are in the midst of prosperity; we are to rejoice as well when clouds hide the blue sky, when our circumstances seem to be adverse, or when we are passing through sufferings.
Devotion Precedes Duty Devotion is not all. Peter wished to stay on the Mount of Transfiguration, to go back no more to the cold, sin-stricken world below, but no: down at the mountain’s base, human suffering and sorrow were waiting for the coming of the Healer, and the Master and His disciples must leave the rapture of heavenly communion, and hasten down to carry healing and comfort. It is always so. Amid the raptures of devotion we hear the calls of duty waiting without. We should never allow our ecstasies of spiritual enjoyment to make us forgetful of the needs of others around us. Even the Mount of Transfiguration must not hold us away from ministry.
Vision And Obedience Longing not only sees the heavenly visions, but is obedient to them, and strives to realize them. It struggles up toward the excellence that shines before it: it seeks to attain the fine qualities which it admires. It is not satisfied with good resolves, but sets forward to make them come true. When Joan of Arc was asked what virtue she supposed dwelt in her white standard that made it so victorious, she replied, "I said to it: ‘Go boldly among the English,’ and then I followed it myself." So when we send out the white banner of pure and noble longings, we must be sure to follow them ourselves if we would win the blessings which our hearts crave.
Tactful Comforters True sympathy draws us very close to the sufferer. It also gives us that thoughtfulness, and that delicacy of feeling and touch, which makes us gentle in all our treatment of grief; for no other ministry is refinement of spirit so essential as for that of dealing with pained or wounded hearts. A wrong touch, or a harsh word, or the quick flash of an eye, may do irreparable harm, only opening afresh, with new pain and torture, the wound it was meant to heal. We need the most delicate gentleness for the office of comfort.
God's Unchanging Love God’s love changes not; nothing can separate us from it. Yet unbelief can rob us of all the blessing of that love. We can shut it out of our hearts if we will. Then everything in life will harm instead of help us. The one secret of being in the world and not of the world, of passing through life and not being hurt by life’s evil, of having all things work together for good to us – the one and the only secret – is to have the love of God in our hearts. No one can be lost whose heart keeps in it always this blessed love.
Christ's Forbearance Christ is very gentle with those who have sinned and are trying to begin again. He has no tolerance with sin, but is infinitely patient with the sinner. He saves by forgiving. He loves unto the uttermost. His grace is inexhaustible. However often we fail, when we come back and ask to try again, He welcomes us and gives us another chance. This is our hope – if He were not thus gentle with us we should never get home.
Heralds Of Hope If we are true and loyal messengers of Christ, we can never be prophets of gloom, disheartenment, and despair. We must ever be heralds of hope. We must always have good news to tell. There is a gospel which we have a right to proclaim to everyone, whatever be his sorrow. In Christ there is always hope, a secret of victory, a power to transmute loss into gain, to change defeat to victory, to bring life from death. We are living worthily only when we are living victoriously ourselves at every point, when we are inspiring and helping others to live victoriously, and when our life is a song of hope and gladness, even though we sing out of tears and pain.
God's Will Day By Day Who does not many a time have his day’s beautiful schedule disarranged by little things that come in, without announcements, and claim his thought, his time, and his strength? Sometimes we may be disposed to chafe a little at what seems to be interference with the programme we have mapped out for ourselves in the morning. But we should remember that we are learning by practice. We promised to do God’s will all the day, and these things are God’s will for us. We had left no place for doing things for God, and He had to force them into our well ordered schedule.
Working With God In one of his Epistles St. Paul has a remarkable passage about working for God. He tells us that god and we are co workers, and that we can do nothing without Him. This is true even in our common affairs. In a little shop on a back street a man makes a mariner’s compass. It is taken on board a great ship, and by means of its trembling needle the vessel is guided over the sea unerringly to its destination. A man made the compass. Yes; a man and God. A man did the mechanical work, put the wonderful instrument together; but it was God who put into the magnet its mysterious power. This illustrates a common law. God and man are co-worker; and without God man can do nothing, while God’s perfect work needs man’s best.
Self Forgetfulness We should train ourselves not to think about our own good deeds. If we have done anything beautiful, made self-denial for another’s sake, conquered a feeling of resentment, given help or shown a kindness, the temptation will be to think about it in a spirit of self commendation. But it is better we should resolutely turn form it, not allowing our thoughts to linger for a moment on the thing we have done. If we stop to contemplate our own virtues, attainments, or achievements, we do not know what the end will be. The only safe thing is to refuse to think at all of ourselves or our work. Self consciousness is always a mark of unwholesomeness.
Holiness Not Unattainable Divine grace assures us that it is not impossible even for the most unholy life to be transformed into holiness. The being that saturated with sin can be made whiter than snow. The wolf can be changed into lamblike gentleness. The fiercest disposition can be trained to meekness. There is no nature, therefore, however unhappy it may be because of its original quality or its early training, which cannot, through God’s help, learn the lesson of happiness.
The Comfort Of God If we creep into God’s bosom, and nestle there like a tired child in the mother’s arms, and let God’s love enfold and embrace us, and flow into our heart, however deep the sorrow may be, we shall be comforted, satisfied. And even if every source of human joy has been cut off, and we are left utterly bereft, we can still find in God that which will suffice. His love alone is great enough to fill our heart, and His hand alone has skill to bind up our wounds.
Our Errand In Life We mistake when we fancy that we are in this world to make a name for ourselves. We need not give ourselves the slightest concern upon this subject. Indeed, any thought of name or fame for ourselves always detracts from the purity of our motive and spirit as Disciples of Christ.
Losing Life To Save It Young people should scorn ever to be satisfied with a life of self indulgence. The great Teacher said that he who saveth is life shall lose it. He meant the man who withholds himself from hard toil, self denial, and service, who will only do easy things. He said further that he who loses his life, that is who lavishes it in duty, who shrinks from no cost, no labour, no sacrifice, in obeying love’s behests, saves it. The only way to make life truly worth while is to empty it out, as Christ emptied out His most precious life for God and for the world. Only the grain of wheat which falls into the ground and dies grows up into beauty and fruitfulness. The grain which is kept warm and dry and safe comes to nothing.
Seed Sowing Every call to a hard or costly duty is a seed. It lies in our hand – what shall we do with it? Shall we keep our little ease, our piece of money, our pleasure, our quiet hour? Or shall we let it fall into the ground? Someone puts it thus: "I was given a seed to keep as mine. When I most loved it, I was bidden to bury it in the ground; I buried it, not knowing that I was sowing." We know what comes from sowing, – the seed springs up into a plant, beautiful, fragrant; or into grain that waves in a golden harvest; or into a tree, on which grow luscious fruits. |
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