For My New Year's Resolution!
My prayer is that we would acquire Godly Characteristics which come only through pruning and adversities. May we respond to Christ with obedient and humble hearts and without grumbling.
To find out why this short prayer, read January 1 post)
This is an excerpt from the new uploaded Kindle which contains all the 11 volumes of J. C. Philpot's quotes
that they might go to a city of habitation."
Psalm 107:7
Those very times when God's people think
they are faring ill, may be the seasons when
they are really faring well. For instance, when
their souls are bowed down with trouble, it
often seems to them that they are faring ill.
God's hand appears to be gone out against
them. Yet perhaps they never fare better than
when under these circumstances of trouble,
sorrow, and affliction.
These things wean them from the world.
If their heart and affections were going out
after idols—they instrumentally bring them back.
If they were hewing out broken cisterns
—they dash them all to pieces.
If they were setting up, and bowing down to
idols in the chambers of imagery, affliction
and trouble smite them to pieces before their
eyes—take away their gods—and leave them
no refuge but the Lord God of hosts.
So that when a child of God thinks he is faring very
ill, because burdened with sorrows, temptations,
and afflictions—he is never faring so well. The darkest
clouds in due time will break, the most puzzling
enigmas will sooner or later be unriddled by the
blessed Spirit interpreting them—and the darkest
providences cleared up—and we shall see that God
is in them all—leading and guiding us by the right
way, that we may go to a city of habitation.
If you are at home in the world
"We are here for only a moment, sojourners and
strangers in the land as our ancestors were
before us. Our days on earth are like a shadow,
gone so soon without a trace." 1 Chron. 29:15
If you possess the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, you, like them, confess that you are a stranger;
and your confession springs out of a believing heart
and a sincere experience.
You feel yourself a stranger in this ungodly world.
It is not your element.
It is not your home.
You are in it during God's appointed time,
but you wander up and down this world . . .
a stranger to its company,
a stranger to its maxims,
a stranger to its fashions,
a stranger to its principles,
a stranger to its motives,
a stranger to its lusts,
a stranger to its inclinations—and all in which
this world moves as in its native element.
Grace has separated you by God's sovereign power,
that though you are in the world, you are not of it.
I can tell you plainly if you are at home in the
world—if the things of time and sense are your
element—if you feel one with . . .
the company of the world,
the maxims of the world,
the fashions of the world, and
the principles of the world,
grace has not reached your heart—the faith
of God's elect does not dwell in your bosom.
The first effect of grace is to separate.
It was so in the case of Abraham. He was called
by grace to leave the land of his fathers, and go
out into a land that God would show him. And so
God's own word to His people is now, "Come out
from among them, and be separate, says the Lord,
and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive
you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall
be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."
Separation, separation, separation from the world;
is the grand distinguishing mark of vital godliness.
There may be indeed separation of body where there
is no separation of heart. But what I mean is . . .
separation of heart,
separation of principle,
separation of affection,
separation of spirit.
And if grace has touched your heart, and you are
a partaker of the faith of God's elect—you are a
stranger in the world—and will make it manifest
by your life and conduct that you are such.
From a burning hell—to a blissful heaven!
"I consider that our present sufferings are
not worth comparing with the glory that
will be revealed in us." Romans 8:18
What is to be compared with the salvation of the
soul? What are—riches, honors, health, long life?
What are all the pleasures which the world can
offer, sin promise, or the flesh enjoy? What is
all that men call good or great? What is everything
which the eye has seen, or the ear heard, or has
entered into the carnal heart of man—put side by
side with being saved in the Lord Jesus Christ
with an everlasting salvation?
For consider what we are saved FROM,
as well as what we are saved UNTO.
From a burning hell—to a blissful heaven!
From endless wrath—to eternal glory!
From the dreadful company of devils and damned
spirits, mutually tormenting and tormented—to
the blessed companionship of the glorified saints,
all perfectly conformed in body and soul to the image
of Christ, with thousands and tens of thousands of
holy angels—and, above all, to seeing the glorious
Son of God as he is, in all the perfection of His beauty,
and all the ravishments of His presence and love.
To be done forever with . . .
all the sorrows, troubles, and afflictions of this life;
all the pains and aches of the present clay tabernacle;
all the darkness, bondage, and misery of the body of sin and death.
To be perfectly holy in body and soul, being in both
without spot, or blemish, or any such thing, and ever
to enjoy uninterrupted communion with God!
