Fasting is the starving out of self. It may not always be by food-abstinence. But it is an absolute essential of progress in the life with Me.
There is no standing still in the Christian life. If there is not progress there is retrogression.
I redeemed you. Bought you back from slavery to sin, of whatever kind.
So, when weakness overcomes you, and you yield to temptation, you make of My Redemption a mockery.
The Way of Holiness differs for each of My followers as the character of each differs. My command for you is not necessarily My command for another.
My followers often forget this. Because I may have told them to take a certain road they are sure that you should be walking in the same way.
Heed them not. Remember, too, that a way of discipline for you may not be My Will for another.
The Unspeakable Joy offered Himself for joyful recognition.
This is a further stage of development.
You enter upon it when you realize that I was the expression in time of the Joy of all Eternity. That joy I offered to all who would see in My way the path of Joy, and who would hail Me not only as the Man of Sorrows but as the Lord of Joy.
This truth becomes known to those only who give joyful recognition to this all-amazing, all-sustaining, all-revealing JOY.
As your faith in Me grows and your sphere of influence extends, your claims will be the greater. Yet no real need of yours shall go unsatisfied.
You will make bigger demands, and ever more and more you will be trusting Me to supply the little wants. This trust will come as you realize My power more and more, and feel My Love and know its tender watchfulness in every detail of your daily life.
“Rejoice, again I say, Rejoice.”
With a loved human friend a big gift may be prized as proof of a big love, but great devotion is displayed even more in the anticipation of the little wants, in the solicitude shown in little ways.
Delight in My Love, so shown.
Talk to Me about the world’s misunderstanding of Me. Tell Me that your Love will seek to comfort Me for that. Tell Me your life shall be devoted to bringing about an understanding between Me and those you meet who love Me not.
As one who knows a prisoner has been wrongly convicted devotes a lifetime to the vindication of that loved one’s name, and counts all the trials and troubles, misunderstandings, and hardships encountered in so doing as nothing, so that his object is accomplished — let it be thus with you, longing to make Me known.
“In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15
All agitation is destructive of good. All calm is constructive of good, and at the same time destructive of evil.
When man wants evil destroyed so often he rushes to action. It is wrong. First be still and know that I am God. Then act only as I tell you. Always calm with God. Calm is trust in action. Only trust, perfect trust can keep one calm.
Never be afraid of any circumstances or difficulties that help you to cultivate this calm. As the world, to attain, has to learn speed, you, to attain, have to learn calm. All great work for Me is done first in the individual soul of the worker.
Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way,
and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16
Speak My Name often during the day. It has the power to banish evil, and to summon Good.
JESUS.
In Me dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead, so that when you call Me you call to your aid all there is of Good to need.
Share your Joy with Me.
Tell Me of all that gladdens you throughout your day. I am near to hear. Feel that I alone share to the full your heart-thrills, because with Me no success of yours engenders regret nor is tinged with envy.
Is it not My Joy, My success, accomplished only in and through Me?
Share all with me. The disappointment, not only in others but all too poignantly in yourself. Share your backward step as well as one of progress.
Bring all to Me, and together, in tender Love, we can sift the dross from the gold.
Come back to Me, ever sure of a welcome, ever glad to feel My Presence in and round you.
See My goodness in the clouds and rain, as well as in the sunshine of life. Both express so wonderfully the goodness and love of your Lord.
Just as the shady glade, the cool riverside, the mountaintop, the blazing highway, all meet the varying needs of man.
Seek and you shall find.
As a mother hiding from her child puts herself in the way of being found, so with Me. So the finding of Me and of the treasures of My Kingdom may not always depend upon ardent intent securing attainment, but upon the mere setting out on the quest.
Is this a comfort to you?
When you set out upon a time of seeking, I place Myself in your way, and the sometime arid path of prayer becomes a fertile glade in which you are surprised to find your search so soon over. Thus mutual Joy.
