Mary Wilder Tileston - Daily Strength for Daily Needs

March 7

There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all .—I COR. xii. 6.

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things .—ISA. xlv. 7.

"All is of God that is, and is to be;

And God is good." Let this suffice us still,

Resting in childlike trust upon His will,

Who moves to His great ends, unthwarted by the ill.

This, then, is of faith, that everything, the very least, or what seems to us great, every change of the seasons, everything which touches us in mind, body, or estate, whether brought about through this outward senseless nature, or by the will of man, good or bad, is overruled to each of us by the all-holy and all-loving will of God. Whatever befalls us, however it befalls us, we must receive as the will of God. If it befalls us through man's negligence, or ill-will, or anger, still it is, in every the least circumstance, to us the will of God. For if the least thing could happen to us without God's permission, it would be something out of God's control. God's providence or His love would not be what they are. Almighty God Himself would not be the same God; not the God whom we believe, adore, and love.

March 8

Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed .—2 TIM. ii. 15.

And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap if we faint not .—GAL. vi. 9.

The task Thy wisdom hath assigned,

Oh, let me cheerfully fulfil;

In all my works Thy presence find,

And prove Thine acceptable will.

"What is my next duty? What is the thing that lies nearest to me?" "That belongs to your every-day history. No one can answer that question but yourself. Your next duty is just to determine what your next duty is. Is there nothing you neglect? Is there nothing you know you ought not to do? You would know your duty, if you thought in earnest about it, and were not ambitious of great things." "Ah, then," responded she, "I suppose it is something very commonplace, which will make life more dreary than ever. That cannot help me." "It will, if it be as dreary as reading the newspapers to an old deaf aunt. It will soon lead you to something more. Your duty will begin to comfort you at once, but will at length open the unknown fountain of life in your heart."

March 9

Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto .—DEUT. xii. 18.

Be ye thankful .—COL. iii. 15.

Thou that hast given so much to me,

Give one thing more, a grateful heart.

Not thankful when it pleaseth me,

As if thy blessings had spare days;

But such a heart, whose pulse may be

Thy praise.

If any one would tell you the shortest, surest way to all happiness and all perfection, he must tell you to make it a rule to yourself to thank and praise God for everything that happens to you. For it is certain that whatever seeming calamity happens to you, if you thank and praise God for it, you turn it into a blessing. Could you, therefore, work miracles, you could not do more for yourself than by this thankful spirit; for it heals with a word speaking, and turns all that it touches into happiness.

March 10

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee .—ISA. xliii. 2.

I am with thee to deliver thee .—JER. i. 8.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,

The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;

For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless,

And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

Turn it as thou wilt, thou must give thyself to suffer what is appointed thee. But if we did that, God would bear us up at all times in all our sorrows and troubles, and God would lay His shoulder under our burdens, and help us to bear them. For if, with a cheerful courage, we submitted ourselves to God, no suffering would be unbearable.

Learn to be as the angel, who could descend among the miseries of Bethesda without losing his heavenly purity or his perfect happiness. Gain healing from troubled waters. Make up your mind to the prospect of sustaining a certain measure of pain and trouble in your passage through life. By the blessing of God this will prepare you for it; it will make you thoughtful and resigned without interfering with your cheerfulness.

March 11

Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved .—PS. lv. 22.

Now our wants and burdens leaving

To His care who cares for all,

Cease we fearing, cease we grieving,

At His touch our burdens fall.

The circumstances of her life she could not alter, but she took them to the Lord, and handed them over into His management; and then she believed that He took it, and she left all the responsibility and the worry and anxiety with Him. As often as the anxieties returned she took them back; and the result was that, although the circumstances remained unchanged, her soul was kept in perfect peace in the midst of them. And the secret she found so effectual in her outward affairs, she found to be still more effectual in her inward ones, which were in truth even more utterly unmanageable. She abandoned her whole self to the Lord, with all that she was and all that she had; and, believing that He took that which she had committed to Him, she ceased to fret and worry, and her life became all sunshine in the gladness of belonging to Him. H. W. SMITH.

March 12

The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace .—NUM. vi. 24–26.

O Love, how cheering is Thy ray!

All pain before Thy presence flies;

Care, anguish, sorrow, melt away,

Where'er Thy healing beams arise.

O Father, nothing may I see,

Nothing desire, or seek, but Thee.

There is a faith in God, and a clear perception of His will and designs, and providence, and glory, which gives to its possessor a confidence and patience and sweet composure, under every varied and troubling aspect of events, such as no man can realize who has not felt its influences in his own heart. There is a communion with God, in which the soul feels the presence of the unseen One, in the profound depths of its being, with a vivid distinctness and a holy reverence, such as no words can describe. There is a state of union with God, I do not say often reached, yet it has been attained in this world, in which all the past and present and future seem reconciled, and eternity is won and enjoyed; and God and man, earth and heaven, with all their mysteries, are apprehended in truth as they lie in the mind of the Infinite.

March 13

He that abideth in me, and I in him, bringeth forth much fruit .—JOHN xv. 5.

Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us .—PS. xc. 17.

As some rare perfume in a vase of clay

Pervades it with a fragrance not its own,