Have you not often heard people say, “My greatest need is more patience?” Possibly you feel just that way yourself. There is probably no lack that so quickly and persistently manifests itself as this lack, which cannot exist without revealing itself, for in order to possess patience one must employ it in his everyday life. Many people who do not understand its real nature, nor how to come into possession of it, realize their need of it.
Much of the teaching on the subject of patience proves to be ineffectual because the teacher himself does not understand his subject. Sometimes it is taught that all impatience comes from sin in the heart and that if one manifests a lack of patience he is not sanctified. Such teaching can come only from a misapprehension of the facts. Sanctification is a wonderful thing, and it does wonderful things for us. It softens and refines our whole nature, but it does not perfect our natural faculties, and patience is one of these natural faculties or qualities. There is an impatience, however, that has its root in sin and which is itself sinful. The blood-cure reaches and eradicates this type. There is also a natural impatience. How much we have of this depends largely upon our general make-up. A lack of discrimination between these two kinds of impatience often causes souls great distress. Before we teach on the subject, we ought to be sure we have the distinction clearly drawn in our own minds. Patience is a matter of temperament, of grace and of cultivation. Some people are patient by nature. They can take almost anything patiently. Sometimes this is from natural calmness of disposition; sometimes it is the result of lack of spirit. But in any case, such a person will be more naturally patient when saved than will others who are of a different temperament. Salvation does not destroy our natural temperaments.
Grace goes far toward supplying us with patience, but grace alone will not always be sufficient, therefore patience must also be a thing of cultivation.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
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Idealism has its place in life, but it must not close our eyes to the practical side of life. Enjoy what of the mountaintop God may give to you, but do not count this the ordinary, usual thing of Christian life. Learn to enjoy the toil. Learn to find the sweetness that is in it. Learn to find the beauty in the common things of life, for some of the most common things are among the most beautiful when our eyes are taught to see their beauty. The Christian life is preeminently a life of service. That is its highest and broadest purpose. To try to be a Christian merely for the joy that is to be found in it is often to render ourselves miserable. To seek happiness for ourselves as the chief end of life is a very unworthy purpose and is one that can but end in disappointment.
See that you do your part in life in the everyday things, and God will permit you to live on the mountain as He sees best. Appreciate the mountain experiences when they come, but do not let them make you despise the common things.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
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You will never become a practical Christian till you learn that the Christian life, like the natural life, is largely made up of a monotonous round of duties.
There is little of glamour or brilliancy in labor or ordinary things. That is reserved for the special things in life. It is true that there is joy in the toil and in the hardness, yea, even in the bitterness, if there is a consciousness of duty well done. It is the daily grind that tests the faithfulness. God wants people who will be true in the daily toil of life, who will do well the little, uninteresting things. He wants practical Christians, people who are willing to do the work even if it means weariness, even if it means little of emotion, even if it means sacrifice.
If you lived on the mountaintop always, the scene would soon lose its beauty, and you would soon forget its loveliness. When, after the days of toil, after the months of prosaic, you lay aside your tools and turn from your labors, it is then that you can go out and enjoy the beauties of nature. It is then that you can enter into her moods and be her comrade. You can enjoy her then and be refreshed by her, as you could not be without those weary days of toil. Many people are willing to enjoy, but they shun the work. In natural things we call such persons lazy.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
https://www.churchofgodeveninglight.com/.../Heart-Talks.pdf
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In this the natural and the spiritual are alike. What would you think of the man who would build a store upon the mountaintop, apart from the throng of purchasers whose business he desired? Would you think that wisdom was displayed? Do businessmen do this way? No, they seek the busy street that is trodden by a multitude, where flows the constant stream of traffic, and there amid the noise and dust and hurry they ply their trade with little thought of the mountaintop.
The mountaintop is a very good place to which to make an excursion now and then. It is the place to spend our holidays, but it is not the place for the real accomplishments of life. When we wish to make a living we must leave the mountaintop with its far-flung panorama of beauty. We must roll up our sleeves and take up the rugged toil and, mid sweat and grime and noise and discord, produce the real results that feed and clothe and shelter us. The real accomplishments of life are not on the mountaintop but in the monotonous, soul-trying daily grind of business. If you imagine that you are to live in the idealism of a mountaintop experience, you will find yourself coming short of it most of the time. You will be continually lamenting over your failure to make your experience measure to your ideal. So long as you are reaching toward this ideal and are conscious of your failure to reach it, your attention will be absorbed thus, and you will be of little use to God. The sooner you come down to the place where you stop condemning yourself because your emotions are not always joyous or because you cannot always pray with that full outpouring of the soul, the better it will be for you.
Heart Talks by C.W. Naylor
Link to book in bio.
The mountaintop is a delightful place. There the soul reaches heights and depths such as it reaches at no other time. Preachers love to preach, and poets love to sing of the mountain-tops of life. How delightful are these times in our spiritual life, and how naturally we long for these seasons! How often they are pictured up, till one would suppose that they are the principal things in the Christian life! Some people have fancied that when they became Christians, the mountaintop experience would be their constant portion. They may have been led to expect this from hearing preaching that exalted the emotional side of religion. It may be that when they were converted, their newborn joys seemed to be unending. They thought that this exaltation of spirit was the normal state of a Christian. They gloried in it as the days passed by. The time came, however, when this emotional glow subsided. As the barometer of their feelings fell, they began to question themselves thus: “What is the matter with me? Have I done something wrong? Am I mistaken in thinking that I was saved?” Thus their faith fell with their emotions. After awhile, their emotions rose again and their faith rose with their emotions. Now they knew that they were all right.
There are times when we seem to draw near to God in prayer, when the sight and sound of the world is shut out. An inexpressible sweetness and joy and satisfaction comes into the heart. How near God seems! How calm and precious is the hour! How our spirits drink in of the water of life! How we seem to talk face to face with our Lord, and how the curtain seems drawn back till our eyes behold the secrets of the Eternal! We give ourselves over to the supreme enjoyment of the hour. But alas! in a short time we find ourselves no longer on the mountain but out in the broad plain of life, and how tame and monotonous is that plain when we think of the mountain!
Heart Talks by C.W. Naylor
Link to book in bio.
Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Romans 12:9
When we reach a place where we do not hate sin, where we can see it and hear and know of it and find no vexation in our souls— it causes us no uneasiness, we have no particular repugnance for it—it is time that we are becoming awakened. We are commanded to abhor that which is evil, and it is only by so doing and by keeping ourselves clean from it that we can be safe in Christ Jesus and dwell in this world. There was a bit of heaven in every Christian heart in Ephesus. That bit of heaven was just as pure as the celestial realms above. We, too, have that heavenly element in our hearts, and in that transplanted bit of God’s holiness will flourish all the plants of righteousness that bloom in the courts eternal. But we must guard these plants by keeping the gates of our hearts closed night and day against evil. Only thus can we keep pure and acceptable to God. This we can do, and be holy and faithful in the worst “Ephesus” that exists today, if it be our lot to abide there.
Heart Talks by C.W. Naylort
https://www.churchofgodeveninglight.com/wp-content/uploads/Heart-Talks.pdf
Now we are, as it were, in Ephesus. There is sin abounding all about us. God wants us to so abhor the sins of others that we shall not follow them nor find pleasure in those who do sinful things. There are two ways in which we can partake of other people’s sins. One way is to approve of their evil works. It may be that we ourselves would not do those things, but if we approve of someone else’s doing them it is just about as bad.
Never allow yourself to approve of another’s sins. You cannot keep clean and do it. Again, we may be partakers of other men’s sins by partaking of the results of them. If a man cheats another in business, and then I share in his ill-gotten gain, I am partaking of his sin. It may be that I would not steal my neighbor’s melons, but if another steals them and I, knowing his theft, eat of them with him, do I not partake of his sins? And so it is with all the affairs of life.
We must keep ourselves separate from sin. We cannot help being in Ephesus. We must live in this corrupt and sinful world. So the important thing is that we attend to keeping ourselves in Christ—unspotted from the world. If the Ephesians could do this, so can we. But to do it we must walk uprightly. We must not stoop down into the mire of sin but keep ourselves erect and keep our spiritual nostrils above the poisonous gases of sin.
Lot was a man of God. He dwelt in Sodom, and we are told that his righteous soul was vexed from day to day because of the wicked conduct of the Sodomites. But he kept himself clear; he had no part with them; he hated their sins.
Heart Talks by C.W. Naylor
Link to book in bio.
It is not so much a change of environment that people need as a change of heart and of character. Diamonds are often found embedded in volcanic mud; mud surrounds them on every side, and yet they have lain there for centuries and are still diamonds. What is the secret of it? Why have they not become contaminated? It is because the mud never entered the diamond, and that was the reason that the Ephesian saints could be faithful and still live in Ephesus. They were left amidst the foul mud of corruption, but the mud was taken out of them, and the grace of Christ kept it from getting back in again.
We cannot get away from the mud and defilement of sin in this world. Sin will ever be all about us. Its stench will be in our nostrils from day to day. Our eyes will be offended by it, and our ears will be shocked. But so long as we keep it all on the outside, we can be saints and faithful in Christ Jesus. We are told that the chief thing for us to do is to keep ourselves “unspotted from the world.” Philippians 2:15 says, “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” Again Paul says, “...Neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.” I Timothy 5:22. We are not only to keep free from committing any sins of our own but also to avoid partaking of the sins of others. That is very important.
Heart Talks by: C.W. Naylor
Link for book in bio.
