December 1 – The Next-Best Thing
When you long for your prayer to be answered, when your need is great and you ask great things, then your way is so clear.
Take the next simple duty that lies to your hand and seek to do that thoroughly . . . and so with the next.
As you do it, remember My Promise.
Be faithful in that which is least, and I will make thee ruler over many things.
December 2 – Learning Times
In performing the simple duty, and in the restraint you achieve in doing it, and not in the feverish looking for the answer to your prayer for the big thing — maybe you learn the one thing needful before I entrust you with what you desire.
With Me, and in obedience to My Will, you have now become suited for that answer.
These are learning-times, rather than testing-times.
December 3 – Your Faith Confirmed
“Whom do men say that I am?” That is the first question I put to each man. My Claim, and the world’s interpretation of My Mission and its culmination must be a matter of consideration.
Then comes My second question, and upon the answer to this depends the man’s whole future. Here we have left the realm of the mind. Conviction must be of the heart. “Whom do you say that I am?”
“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” was Simon’s answer. Then, and not till then, was it possible, without infringement of man’s right of Free Will, to add to that profession of faith, the confirmation of My Father, “This is My Beloved Son.”
I had lived My Life naturally, as a man among men. But always with the Longing that those I had chosen might have the eyes to see, the faith to penetrate the Mystery of Incarnation, and to see Me, the God revealed.
The faith of a personal conviction is always cemented by the assurance of My Father. It is that which makes the faith of My true followers so unshakable.
December 4 – Withdraw Yourself
It is not in the crowd that lovers learn to know and cherish each other. Is in the quiet times alone.
So with My own and Me. It is in the tender alone-times that they learn all that I can be to each.
Shut out the world with its all too-insistent claims. Then, because of the power and the peace and the joy that come to you, you will crave to be alone with Me.
December 5 – Perfect Achievement
Yield to My demands.
Obey My Will, that is God’s Will, for My MEAT was ever to do the Will of Him that sent Me. Obeying that Will, making it yours, all you will must be granted.
That Will is creative, secures perfect achievement, and, being of God (One and indivisible), secures all that is of God — Love, Peace, Joy, Power, in the measure that one of His creatures can absorb them.
December 6 – A New Song
You are being led forth. You have crossed the Red Sea. Your wilderness wanderings are nearly over. Behold I make all things new.
A new birth, a new heart, a new life, a new song.
Let this time be to you a time of renewal.
Cast away all that is dead. Truly live the Risen Life. In mind and spirit turn out all that offends.
December 7 – Secret Service
You are blessed, very richly blessed. Never forget that you have My Love and Protection. No Treasures of the world can mean to you what that can.
Never forget, too, that you are guided. Every word, every letter, every meeting, God-planned and God-blessed. Just feel that, know that.
You are not a stray and uncared for. You belong to the Secret Service of Heaven. There are privileges and protections for you all along the way.
December 8 – But For My Grace
You are Mine. Mine to control, to lead, to cherish. Trust Me for all.
In thinking of and dealing with others realize that whatever their sin, you would be as they are but for My protection, but for My tender forgiveness.
Remember, too, that My Command of “Judge not” was as explicit as that of “Thou shalt do no murder,” “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Obey Me in all.
December 9 – Power To Help
Not so much on what you say as on your willingness to let My Influence flow through you, will your power to help others depend.
The Power of My Father is summoned by you to the aid of those whom you desire to help.
Live in the consciousness of My Presence, and your thoughts of Love, anxiety, and even interest will let loose a flood of Power to save.
December 10 – Successful Failures
You grieve that you have failed Me. Remember it was for the failures that I hung on Calvary’s Cross. It was a failure I greeted first in the Easter Garden.
It was to one of the failures I entrusted My Church, My Lambs, My Sheep.
It was to one who had thwarted and despised Me, who had tortured and murdered My followers that I gave My great world Mission to the Gentiles.
But each had first to learn to know Me as Savior and Lord by a bitter consciousness of having failed Me.
If you would work for Me, then you must be ready for the valley of humiliation through which all My followers have to pass.
December 11 – Help Is Here
You have been told to end all prayer upon a note of praise. That note of praise is not only faith rising up through difficulties to greet me. It is more.
It is the echo in the heart of the sound borne on Spirit waves — of that Help upon the way. It is given to those who love and trust Me to sense this approach. So rejoice for truly your redemption draweth nigh.
December 12 – Prove Me Now
You have to prove Me. To come to Me walking upon the water. No sure, accustomed earth beneath you. But remember He to Whom you come is Son of God and Son of Man.
He knows your needs. He knows how difficult it must be for mortals to learn to live more and more a life that is not of the senses. To know that when I say “Come,” I asked no impossibility.
Seeing the waves Peter was afraid.
Refuse to look at the waves. Know that with your eyes on Me you can override all storms. It is not what happens that matters, but where your gaze is fixed.
December 13 – The Narrow Way
You must obey My Will unhesitatingly if you would realize My Blessings. It is a straight and narrow way that leads into the Kingdom.
If man turns aside to follow his own will he may be in bypaths where My fruits of the Spirit do not grow, where My blessings are not outpoured.
You must remember that you have longed to help a world, the sorrows of which have eaten into your very souls. Do you not understand that I am answering your prayers?
The world is not always helped by the one who walks in sunlight on a flower-strewn path. Patient suffering, trials bravely borne, these show men a courage which could only be maintained by Help Divine.
December 14 – Songs Of Rejoicing
You must pray about all you plan to meet. Pray that you may leave them the braver, better, and happier for having seen and talked with you.
Life is so serious, let nothing turn you from your desire to serve and help. Realize all you are able to accomplish in your moments of highest prayer and service, and then think that, were your desire as intense always what could you not accomplish?
Rejoice in Me. The Joy of the Lord must indeed be your strength. You must step aside, and wait until the Joy floods all your being if you wish to serve.
Let Joy keep your hearts and minds lifted above frets and cares. If you want the walls of the city to fall down, you must go round it with songs of rejoicing.
December 15 – Excess Of Joy
Your life is full of Joy. You realize now that though I was the Man of Sorrows in My deep Experience of life, yet companionship with Me means an excess of Joy such as nothing else can give.
Age may have its physical limitations, but, with the soul content to dwell with Me, age has no power to limit the thrill of Love, the ecstasy of Joy-giving Life.
Reflect this Joy that it may be seen by souls weary of life, chafing at its limitations, lonely and sad, as the door closes on so many activities. They will learn by this reflection something of the Joys that Eternal Life here and hereafter brings to those who know and love Me.
So Joy.
December 16 – Varied Delights
Poor indeed is the life that does not know the riches of the Kingdom. A life that has to depend on the excitement of the senses, that does not know, and could not realize, that delight, Joy, expectation, wonder, and satisfaction can be truly obtained only in the Spirit.
Live to bring men to the realization of all they can find in Me. I, Who change not, can supply the soul of man with Joys and delights so varied as to bring ever changing scenes of beauty before him.
I am truly the same, yesterday, today, and forever; but man, changing as he is led nearer and nearer to the realization of all I can mean to him, sees in Me new wonders daily. There can be no lack of glad adventure in a life lived with Me.
December 17 – Vision of Delights
Praise. Pray until you praise. That is the note upon which you have been told to end all prayer. Such marvels, truly such marvels are here.
Have no fear. Live in My Love. Draw nearer and nearer to Me. I will teach you. You shall see.
Before you could pass on to the Vision of Delights, you had to be taught the foundation Truths of honesty, trustworthiness, order, and perseverance. All is very well. Have no fear.
December 18 – Watch Me
Pray ever with watchful eyes on Me, your Master, your Giver, your Example. “As the eyes of servants are on the hands of their Master, so are our eyes unto the Lord our God.”
Ever look unto Me. From Me comes your help, your all. The servant watches for support, for wages, for everything. Life is for him in the hands of his master.
So look to Me for all. Intent, gazing with a look of complete faith and surrender that draws all it needs towards you. Not merely faith, but intent regard. You must watch the bestowal, so that you may bestow.
December 19 – Spiritual Practice
Pray without ceasing until every thought and every wish is a prayer. This can only be so by following the plan of recollection which I have set you.
How rarely My followers realize that Spiritual Practice is as necessary as any practice to become perfect in any art or work.
It is by the drudgery of the little steps of practice that you will ascend to Spiritual Attainment.
December 20 – Make His Paths Straight
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His Path. Must you not do this before you see His coming? Must you not be content to clear a way for Me, leaving it to Me to pass along it when I will?
This is My way and work for you, one of silent, unapplauded preparation.
Preparation not for your work but for Mine.
Your feet shod with the Gospel of Peace.
Yes, the preparation must first be made in your own heart. If unrest is there, nothing can make you well shod.
December 21 – Adore Him
Prove your adoration in your life. All should be calm and joy. Calm and joy are the outward expressions of adoration.
Adoration is that welling up of the whole being in Love’s wonder-praise to Me.
If you truly adored, your whole life would be in harmony with that adoration, expressing as far as you were able, in all its varied manifestations, that Beauty of the Lord Whom you adore.
December 22 – All Loves Apart
A hush fell on the earth at My first coming. In the still hours of night I came. A silence broken only by the angels’ song of praise.
So in the fret and turmoil of the world’s day let that hush fall. A hush so complete that the soft footfall of your Master may not pass unnoticed. Forget the blows of life, and its adverse conditions, so that you may be ever sensitive to the touch of My Hand on your brow.
For a time you may put aside the loves of earth, and your human friendships, so that the vibrations from the heart of the Eternal may stir your hearts, and strengthen your lives.
December 23 – Welcome The Interruption
I went to prepare a place for you, but I still need My Bethany Homes and My Upper Rooms. These can be prepared only by loving hearts.
When you have prepared your home, My Home, you must be prepared to receive any whom I may send. Be ready for any interruption. Treat it as from Me.
You know neither the day nor the hour when your Lord will come. You know not the guise in which He will come, in that of a prince or in that of a beggar.
See in the unwanted your Much-desired Lord.
December 24 – Eve Of Christmas
“A Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.”
“Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given . . . his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God . . . the Prince of Peace.”
“And the Angel said unto her, ‘Fear not, Mary . . . behold thou shalt bring forth a son and shalt call his name Jesus. . . .’ “
” ‘The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing, which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.’ “
December 25 – Miracle Of The Ages
“And the Word was made flesh.”
Word proceeding from the Father, the thought. Dwell this evening upon this miracle of all ages. This stupendous fact of all mankind’s history:
God made man.
I came to restore to man his lost dignity. To show him that his physical and mental being could only be maintained at their intended height and power by constant communion with the Maker of man’s being.
I came, God, to live with man, to show man how to live with God.
December 26 – Perfect Rest
Even My Perfection could be no place of rest for weary souls. Rest in My Love. No true rest but that.
How much of earth’s weariness is sin-caused. Contact with My Perfection would but make your sin seem the greater. The sight of it might truly spur you on to further effort, to further emulation, but rest — –? No. And so with other attributes of Divinity.
But in My Love! in that you can rest. Pillowed like a tired child, a happily tired child. Pillowed in security, cradled in a Love, tireless and limitless. In a Love that will not only care for the weary, and rest the weary, but will rest you until in the very strength of Love you can face your life again.
Rest in My Love. Here alone is perfect Rest. Rest for Spirit, mind, and body.
December 27 – When Evil Smiles
Remember that the forces of evil are always ranged against you. They know the power you can become as a channel for God-Power.
I had to conquer them in the wilderness before My Life of Healing and Helpfulness could be all-powerful.
Not by great falls but by little stumbles does evil seek the downfall of My friends. Your Mountain of Transfiguration can only come after your conquest in the wilderness. Temptations at which your whole nature would shudder are no temptations for you.
Beware the smiling face of evil, it’s seeming innocence, its hand of friendliness.
Fail Me not. Will you not walk the path I trod?
December 28 – Still Seek Me
Softly I speak to the tired and the distressed, yet in My quiet Voice there is healing and strength.
A healing for the sores and sickness of spirit, mind, and body and a bracing strength that bids those who come to Me rise to battle for Me and My Kingdom.
Search until you find Me, not merely the Truth about Me. None ever sought Me in vain.
December 29 – Safe At The Last
Safe amid storms, calm amid a world-unrest, certain amid insecurity. Safely through the year.
The only safe way is the sure way of Divine Guidance. Not the advice of others, not the urgings of your own hearts and wills. Just My Guidance.
Think more of its wonder. Dwell more in its rest. Know that you are safe, secure.
December 30 – Sensitive To Me
So silently I teach, and that silent teaching depends upon your approach.
Let every discipline, every joy, every difficulty, every fresh interest serve to draw you nearer, serve to render you more receptive to My Word, serve to make you more sensitive, more spiritually aware.
It is this sensitiveness that is the prelude to the joy I give you. The sweetest harmony can be played on a sensitive instrument.
Those who fail to hear think Me far off. I am ever ready to speak but they have missed the power of discipline, the wonder of Communion with Me.
December 31 – New Year’s Eve
Bring to Me this eventide the past year with its sins, its failures, its lost opportunities.
Leave that past with Me, your Savior today as ever, and go into the New Year forgiven, unladen, free.
Bring to Me your youth or age, your powers, your love — and I, as your God-guide through the year to come, will bring My agelessness, My powers, My love.
So shall we share the burdens and the joys, and the work of the days that lie ahead.