In spiritual things, it is the people who are always taking their spiritual temperature, looking at their spiritual tongue, feeling their spiritual pulse and measuring their spiritual stature who have the most trouble. Some people are constantly questioning their own motives. They are constantly asking, “Should I have done that?” They give microscopic attention to the details of their life. They are all the time asking, “Did I do right?” “Am I right?” Everything must have a thorough microscopical examination. The smallest detail of life must not be passed without attention.
It is true that the Bible says, “Examine yourselves,” but it has no reference to such microscopic examinations. If we should be going somewhere and our foot should slip, we should not take for granted that we had turned around and headed in the opposite direction. That one little slip is but an incident in the journey. When the path is observed as a whole, that little incident is only a trifle. The general course has been forward.
Some people cannot sing the song of Christian joyfulness because they are too much absorbed in examining themselves. Neither do they feel like singing, for they are constantly finding little faults and magnifying them out of all proportion to their significance. We all know people who have ingrowing thoughts. It is proper for us to pay due heed to ourselves, but this ought to occupy a comparatively small portion of our time. Some people have so much trouble keeping themselves right that they never get anything else done. The trouble is they are making too hard a task of it. They would be just as nearly right without making half the effort, or perhaps a tenth of the effort. In other words, if they did not make such an effort they would not even then go wrong.
The Secret of the Singing Heart by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
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Have you tried again and again to overcome something and still it troubles you? Well, Paul had such an experience. Of course you remember that oft-mentioned “thorn in the flesh.” Paul tried to get rid of that, but the Lord did not take it away. He said, “My grace is sufficient.”
Sometimes we are tempted to look upon ourselves as failures. I suppose all of us come short of our hopes and expectations many times. One thing, however, is certain. We shall never be real failures unless we surrender to circumstances and give up the fight. Sometimes, out of failure come the greatest victories. What seem to be the greatest failures sometimes prove to be the greatest successes.
If you cannot be what you desire to be, be what you can be, and do not be ashamed of it. Do not let mistakes or imperfections prevent you from doing what you should do.
Be the man or the woman you can be and hold up your head and look the world and circumstances in the face and assert your manhood or your womanhood. Say, “I have failed, but I am not a failure. I have failed, but I will yet succeed.”
There are many things that people have to face— home troubles, business reverses, debts, physical handicaps and many like things. But look upon the great names of history and see how many of those who had such things to meet have risen above them and in spite of them have resolutely gone forward to victory.
Whatever there may be in your life that cannot be helped, do not sit down and fold your hands and spend your days mourning. Make the best of it. There is a way out, and that way leads to victory and success.
The Secret of the Singing Heart by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
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There can be no excuse for our not doing what we can do to repair errors of the past. At the same time, there are many things that cannot be improved by anything we may do. No effort of ours can make them better. We may regret the past ever so much. We may be humiliated by it. It may be a constant trouble, goading us all the time. What shall we do about such things?
Paul had things in his life that troubled him. The blood of God’s saints was upon his garments. He remembered the bitterness and hatred he had put into the pitiless persecution that he had visited upon the Christians. He remembered his part in the death of Stephen. He remembered how he had witnessed against many, had thrown many into prison, had brought many to death. He could not change the past. There was but one thing he could do. He said, “One thing I do. Forgetting those things that are behind, I press forward.” He did not let them hinder him living a life of freedom and activity, of love and sacrifice, of wholehearted devotion to the Christ he had hated. He threw all his energies into today.
Some are chained to the past by griefs and sorrows. We must live in today. Our loved ones would not wish us thus to sorrow for them. They would desire us to enter into the activities of today.
When the Lord accepted us. He accepted us with those things in us. He knew all about them. If those things did not prevent His accepting us, they will not prevent His continuing to love us. They will not prevent our serving Him acceptably. They may cause us trouble and humiliation, but if we cannot help it, we cannot help it, so we must make the best of it.
The Secret of the Singing Heart by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
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Review your life, and count how many troubles you foresaw and feared, whose dark shadow lay across your way, possibly for years. Many of these troubles never arrived. They missed their train somewhere. They failed to make connection, or they were run off in some other direction.
Many other troubles that looked so great in prospect, when you actually faced them, when they were close enough to touch, were not at all the terrible things you thought them to be. Some of them you surmounted easily. Some of them you laughed at. Some of them you made stepping stones. Some of them just faded out of the picture.
Never go out into the future to meet your troubles. If they are coming, they will come anyway. They will get to you soon enough. Do not run to meet them. Just let them alone, and most of them will go some other way. In one way or another, they will miss the train and never reach you.
At many railroad crossings there are derails. If one train is about to run into another on a crossing, it can be derailed and a collision prevented. We need a derail for our troubles. Perhaps another figure would be a sidetrack. One can become quite an expert in sidetracking troubles. The best way to sidetrack our troubles is set forth in the text, “Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you.” This is a lesson we all need to learn. The Lord is ever ready to help us in all times of need. We do not have to bear anything alone. The Lord is a present help in every time of trouble. Let us learn to rely upon Him.
The Secret of the Singing Heart by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
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Many people have unfavorable tendencies. They seem naturally disposed to be easily discouraged or gloomy, looking on the dark side. They are timid, sensitive or unsociable. These unfavorable natural tendencies should not be permitted to have sway in the life. If we are inclined to become easily discouraged, we should cultivate hope.
If we are inclined to be gloomy and to look on the dark side of things, let us compel ourselves to look on the bright side. Perhaps we may feel there is no bright side, but there is always a bright side to everything. If there is no naturally bright side, let us turn it up toward God and let the sunshine of His love fall upon it. That will brighten any circumstance.
I have spoken of the rope of the joy bells. Most bells do not ring of themselves. So we must ring the joy bells.
We need to attach a rope of faith to our joy bells, and through the exercise of this faith we can cause them to ring. We can have an inner source of joy and peace that is not disturbed by the storms of life, that does not depend upon circumstances but has its root and fountain deep in the heart. We can be so hid away with Christ in God that the storms will pass us by.
God gives to us the gift of rejoicing. Jesus said He gave us His peace, “That your joy may be full.” Paul rejoiced in the midst of his tribulations, “We are exceeding joyful in all our tribulations." And he exhorted the Thessalonians to “rejoice evermore.” If we cannot rejoice in the things of the present, in the realization of our hopes, we can at least rejoice in hope of better things to come.
The truly and permanently happy people are those who have a source of happiness too deep, or too high, to be seriously disturbed by ordinary troubles.
The Secret of the Singing Heart by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
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Each of us has a large capacity for enjoyment. Some are naturally more exuberant than others. Some are lighthearted and cheerful. Others are sober and thoughtful. Some are emotional. Some are unemotional. Some are inclined to look on the bright side of things; others upon the dark side. But each of us has within joy bells which may be made to peal out the glad tidings of a joyful heart.
It is important to have the will to be joyful. “I mean to be happy” should be the motto of each of us. There need be nothing selfish in such an attitude. It is perfectly right and in complete harmony with God’s will that we hold such an attitude and that we use our best endeavors to make it a reality in our lives.
The Christian religion is not a long-faced, gloomy thing. It is the greatest source of true happiness. We should set ourselves to the task of developing our capacity to be happy. We should not be like a woman who once lived neighbor to my grandfather. She constantly wore a sunbonnet that extended some inches before her face. Asked why she did it, she said she wore it lest she should see something to make her laugh. A part, of her idea of being a Christian was refraining from laughter. Others, while not so extreme, think it a mark of spirituality to be grave and dignified and to shut out of life the things that would make it bright, cheerful and happy.
For twenty-one years I have kept my bed. a constant sufferer, but I am happy. I am happy every day. I will not be any other way. I have had my troubles, many of them. I shall probably have more. I have learned that troubles do not make unhappiness. It is only a wrong attitude toward trouble that does so.
The Secret of the Singing Heart by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
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One of the best ways to get rid of worries is to ignore the doubts upon which they are founded. Troubles left alone have a way of curing themselves.
The surest way to get rid of the “worry tree” is to cut it down with the ax of faith. There is no worry or fear in trust. When you worry, you do not trust. When you trust you, do not worry.
Take your Bible and some paper. Write out a list of promises, promises that meet your need. Read these promises over every day. Read them until they become real to you. Whenever you catch yourself worrying or fearing, get those promises and read them.
Do not use up your energy resisting things. Displace the undesirable thing by something else if that is possible. If not, adjust yourself to it, make the best of it. Let us use in these things as great intelligence as we do in other things. When I am cold, I do not resist the cold; I seek warmth. When I am hungry, I do not resist hunger; I seek food. When I am weary, I rest. When I am anxious or worried, I turn to faith and trust. The Psalmist said, “What time I am afraid I will trust in thee.”
When we trust in and obey God, whatever comes to us must come in His will. It must come by His permission. It cannot come without His knowledge. His watchful care is ever over us. He will always keep us no matter how many troubles come. Therefore if we abide in Him and His Word abide in us, we shall never have cause to worry. We are safe and secure no matter how threatening future or present troubles may be. So cut down your worry tree with the ax of faith, and rest in full assurance of faith in the righteousness and love of God.
The Secret of the Singing Heart by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
#thesecretofthesingingheart
Some people are not satisfied to have a worry tree and to permit it to grow as it will. They fertilize it and water it. But how do we fertilize the worry tree?
First, we increase our worries by failure to face the facts calmly. We are like some horses. We become frightened at some things which have in them nothing that ought to frighten us. When there is a threatening or unpleasant prospect before us, and we are tempted to worry over it, we should not allow ourselves to become excited or agitated.
Failure to give weight to the facts we know will fertilize the worry tree. We forget the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God.
Another mistake we make is giving way to our feelings rather than controlling them.
We fertilize the worry tree by exaggerating the possibilities of evil and by not considering the probabilities of good.
A fertile source of trouble is self-pity. I know of nothing that can torture a soul more than self-pity, and this self-pity has in it an element of cowardice. Get rid of self-pity if you want to be happy, for you never will be happy while you have it except with that poor sort of satisfaction which comes through self-pity.
A twin sister to self-pity is a disposition to seek the sympathy of others and to enjoy telling our troubles, magnifying them in a way to excite sympathy.
A further source of trouble is questioning the loyalty of others to us or their interest in us and sympathy for us. Do not expect other people to worry because you worry, or to fear because you fear. Friends are usually as loyal as we deserve them to be.
And finally, we fertilize the worry tree by questioning God’s faithfulness and love and mercy and His every act of care.
Have you been fertilizing your worry tree?
The Secret of the Singing Heart by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
#devotionals #devotional #daily devotional #dailydevotions #scriptureoftheday #christiandevotional #morningdevotional #inspiration #bible #freebooks #christian #motivationalquote #inspirationalquote #churchofgod
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