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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#thesecretofthesingingheart
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
Link for book in bio.
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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.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
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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
Link for book in bio.
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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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There is no murmuring in trust. When all is trusted into God’s hands, it brings to us a feeling of satisfaction concerning God’s dealings with us. We can sing from our hearts, “God’s way is best; I will not murmur.” When we trust, it is easy to praise. When we trust, the heart is full of thankful appreciation. If you are inclined to murmur it is because you do not trust.
There is no feeling of bitterness, when things do not go as we think they should, if we are trusting. Bitterness comes from rebellion and there is no rebellion in trust. Trust can always say, “Not my will, but thine, be done.”
In trust there is peace—the peace of God which passeth understanding. There is calm in the soul of him who trusts. There is no doubt in trust, for doubt is swallowed up in assurance, and assurance brings calmness and peace.
Trusting brings confidence. It permits us to see God in His true character. It causes us to realize the greatness and tenderness of His love. It gives us a consciousness of His might, and through it we are sheltered under His wings. By it our enemies lose their power; our dangers, their terrors. We have a consciousness of safety, and that brings rest. He has said, “Ye shall find rest unto your souls.” He who trusts finds this soul-rest. God has not given us tur- moil and trouble. He has said, “In me ye shall have peace,” and again, “My peace I give unto you.” Are not these precious promises? Are they true in your life? God means that they shall be. Trust will make them real to you. They never can be real until you learn to trust.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
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