Paul was once very well satisfied with his place in the Jewish religion; he was not looking for anything better. His dissatisfaction arose from the fact that some other people were not satisfied thus but were finding and advocating something different. This aroused his severest condemnation. What he had was good enough for him and ought to be good enough for them.
There are many today who are just like Paul was. They are fully content in their present situation, and should anyone try to show them its insufficiency and the need of higher attainment it would only arouse their opposition and indignation. That is why so many people oppose holiness. Just as soon as Paul saw Christ and the higher and better things for which Christ stood, he suddenly lost his satisfaction and became an earnest seeker for those better things. Sometimes it takes a rude shock to break through our self-satisfaction and to show us our true needs, but when it comes and arouses a dissatisfaction it is truly a blessing.
Suppose Luther had been satisfied to continue in the Romish church, approving and submitting to her teachings and practices. Where might the world have been today? He became dissatisfied and gave voice to that dissatisfaction. Others heard and became dissatisfied. This dissatisfaction made their hearts hungry for God, and out of that heart-hunger came the Reformation.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
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Dissatisfaction is the mother of progress. The Chinese, for centuries, have been taught to be satisfied with having things like their fathers had. As a consequence they have almost entirely lost the inventive faculty. Long ago, they were an inventive nation but now an invention among them is a rarity. As long as people are satisfied, they are content to remain as they are. Satisfaction is the foe to progress. As long as you are fully satisfied, you are like a sailing vessel in a dead calm. The sea about you may be very smooth. Everything may be very peaceful and serene. But all the time this calm prevails you are getting nowhere; you are at a standstill. It is only when the wind rises, the swells begin to move the vessel up and down, and the sails begin to strain that good progress begins. You may feel very comfortable in your satisfaction. It may be very delightful and dreamy, but it may be dangerous also. Those who are fully satisfied for very long may be sure that there is need for an investigation. It is only when we become dissatisfied with present conditions and attainments that we are spurred to effectual effort to make progress.
Suppose God had been satisfied with world conditions before Christ came. We should now have no Savior and no salvation. He was dissatisfied, thoroughly dissatisfied, and so He made the greatest sacrifice that He could make to change existing conditions.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
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A young sister sat in a room one beautiful summer afternoon…There was a look of melancholy upon her face, and her gaze rested steadily upon the floor. It was clear that she was troubled about something. Just then a minister entered the room. Noticing her forlorn appearance, he said cheerily, “What is the matter, sister?”
She looked up at him and answered wearily, “Oh Brother A, I am so dissatisfied.”
“Well,” he replied, “I am glad of it.”
She almost gasped with astonishment and exclaimed, “Why, Brother A! What do you mean?”
We have all thought how good it is to be satisfied. How many times we have heard people testify and rejoice that they had reached this experience! I would not depreciate this sense of satisfaction, for out of it come many enjoyable things. It is a very pleasurable feeling and one that most people very earnestly desire. There are times, however, when such a feeling would be anything but a blessing. Perhaps this surprises you, as it did the sister. God has made provision to satisfy us. Christ said that he who would drink of the water of life should thirst no more, for it should be in him a well of water, and thus his thirst should be continually quenched; so there is a continual satisfaction in God. It is a good thing to be thus satisfied with God and His plans and ways and with our salvation. Dissatisfaction with any of these, if we are saved, is an evil to which we should not give place. But hardly any greater evil could come upon us than a complete and constant sense of satisfaction relating to our attainments in grace, the development of our spiritual powers, or the measures of our service to God. To be continued…
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
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Trusting the Lord for healing means more than refusing to employ a physician and to take drugs. People who do not trust God at all often refuse to use drugs. They may. at no time during their sickness, really exercise an act of faith for healing. They simply surrender to existing conditions and hope that it will come out all right. In many such cases nature will overcome the disease, and the person will recover. The “prayer of faith,” however, is positive; it saves the sick; it brings healing. Sometimes the sick person, because of the mental effects of his sickness, is not able to exercise faith, but when he is able faith will be an active, positive thing with him, if the desired results are to follow.
It is safe to trust in the Lord. Isaiah says, “...I will trust, and not be afraid.” Isaiah 12:2. That is the way God wants us to trust. He would have us be confident in Him. But sometimes we get to looking at circumstances, and they loom up so threateningly before us that, in spite of ourselves, we tremble and shrink before them. We believe that God will take care of us and help us, but we cannot quiet our fears. Our feelings are very much as they are when we stand just outside the bars of the cage of a ferocious wild beast. We know it cannot reach us; we know we are safe from those powerful teeth and claws, but still we cannot help having a feeling that we should not have were we somewhere else. When he comes to our side of the cage, we shrink involuntarily, but still we trust the iron bars and do not run away.
The Psalmist tells us what to do when we have such fears. “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” Psalm 56:3. Still keep trusting. God will not chide you for the fears you cannot help but only for those that come from unbelief. Trust in God. It is the safest thing you have ever done, and He will never fail you.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
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When Luther was summoned to meet the diet for trial on a charge of heresy, his friends, fearing for his life, tried to persuade him not to go. But he declared that he would go even if there were as many devils there as there were tiles on the housetops. He trusted God and that trust gave him an unwavering courage. Three Hebrews trusted God, and the fiery furnace could not even singe their garments. Daniel trusted God, and the hungry lions could not touch him. Many thousands of others have trusted God with similar results. But trusting God is an active, positive thing. A passive submission or surrender to circumstances is not trust. Trusting the Lord to save us means to definitely rely on Him to do it; to confidently expect that He will do it. This leads directly to the confident trust that He does do it. It brings the conscious assurance that it is an accomplished fact. We are not left to doubt, to hope or to guess, but we have a positive trust that brings a positive result.
The same is true of sanctification. A positive faith brings a positive experience, and so long as our faith remains positive the experience remains positive. It is only when faith begins to waver and doubts appear that the experience becomes uncertain. If you will maintain a positive faith, God will take care of your experience. Here lies the secret of continuous victory. There may be conflicts, but faith is the foundation of sure victory.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
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Trust implies patience. Even God cannot work everything out immediately. We are told that “ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” Hebrews 10:36. So many times we want the answers to our prayers right away. If they do not come thus, we grow impatient and think God is not going to answer. There is no use trying to hurry the Lord; we shall only hinder Him if we do. He will not work according to our plans but according to His own. Time does not matter so much to the eternal One as it does to us.
A brother once came to the altar in a meeting I helped to hold. In telling his trouble he said, “When I want anything done, it has to be done in a hurry.” Many other people cannot be patient and wait. They want it now. This is a great hindrance to their faith. The Psalmist says, “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.” Psalm 37:7. We are not only to wait patiently for Him to work out His purpose, but we are at the same time to rest in Him. Some people can wait, but they cannot rest at the same time. They are uneasy and impatient; they want to hurry the Lord all the time. The result usually is that their faith does not last very long. You must add patience to your faith to make it effective. If you really trust, you can be patient. It may not always be easy, but the more perfect your trust the easier it will be to be patient.
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Trust also implies obedience. It means working with God to produce the results. We cannot sit down and fold our hands in idleness and expect things to work themselves out. We must be workers, not shirkers. The man who prays for a bountiful harvest but prepares no ground and plants no seed will pray in vain. Faith and works must go together. We must permit God to direct our efforts and command our efforts. We must be willing to work when He wants us to work and in the way He wants us to work. Our attempts to trust will amount to nothing if we are not willing to obey. Right here is the secret of many people’s trouble; they are willing to obey so long as the thing commanded is what they themselves would choose, but when it is otherwise they are not so ready. Our obedience must be full and willing, or we cannot trust.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
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Trust implies submission. Very often God fails to do things for us because we do not permit Him to. We want to plan for ourselves. We want things to be done in the way that seems best to our finite wisdom. Too many of us are like a woman, whose husband recently said that they had often gone driving together and that their horse would sometimes become frightened, and when it did his wife would also become frightened and would almost invariably seize the lines.
Thus he would have to manage both his wife and the horse, making his task doubly difficult.
How many of us are just like that woman! When anything threatens, we become alarmed and try to help God. We feel that it is not safe to leave all in His hands and let Him manage the circumstances. Our failure to submit to Him often complicates matters, and it is harder for Him to manage us than it is to manage the difficulties. To trust God means to keep our hands off the lines. It means to let Him have His way and do things as He thinks best. It may be a hard lesson to learn, but you will hinder God until you learn it.
You must first learn to take your hands off yourself and off circumstances, then trust will be natural and easy. How can you trust Him if you are not willing for Him to do just as it pleases Him? When you have submitted all and He has His way fully with you, then the blessed fruitfulness of trust will come into your life.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
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