Mary Wilder Tileston - Daily Strength for Daily Needs

January 13

Speak not evil one of another, brethren .—JAMES iv. 11.

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice .—EPH. iv. 31.

If aught good thou canst not say

Of thy brother, foe, or friend,

Take thou, then, the silent way,

Lest in word thou shouldst offend.

If there is any person to whom you feel dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak.

To recognize with delight all high and generous and beautiful actions; to find a joy even in seeing the good qualities of your bitterest opponents, and to admire those qualities even in those with whom you have least sympathy, this is the only spirit which can heal the love of slander and of calumny.

January 14

Thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint .—2 SAM. xv. 15.

I love to think that God appoints

My portion day by day;

Events of life are in His hand,

And I would only say,

Appoint them in Thine own good time,

And in Thine own best way.

If we are really, and always, and equally ready to do whatsoever the King appoints, all the trials and vexations arising from any change in His appointments, great or small, simply do not exist. If He appoints me to work there, shall I lament that I am not to work here? If He appoints me to wait in-doors to-day, am I to be annoyed because I am not to work out-of-doors? If I meant to write His messages this morning, shall I grumble because He sends interrupting visitors, rich or poor, to whom I am to speak them, or "show kindness" for His sake, or at least obey His command, "Be courteous?" If all my members are really at His disposal, why should I be put out if to-day's appointment is some simple work for my hands or errands for my feet, instead of some seemingly more important doing of head or tongue?

January 15

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification .—I THESS. iv. 3.

Between us and Thyself remove

Whatever hindrances may be,

That so our inmost heart may prove

A holy temple, meet for Thee.

Bear, in the presence of God, to know thyself. Then seek to know for what God sent thee into the world; how thou hast fulfilled it; art thou yet what God willed thee to be; what yet lacketh unto thee; what is God's will for thee now ; what thing thou mayest now do, by His grace, to obtain His favor, and approve thyself unto Him. Say to Him, "Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God," and He will say unto thy soul, "Fear not; I am thy salvation." He will speak peace unto thy soul; He will set thee in the way; He will bear thee above things of sense, and praise of man, and things which perish in thy grasp, and give thee, if but afar off, some glimpse of His own, unfading, unsetting, unperishing brightness and bliss and love.

January 16

Now our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work .—2 THESS. ii. 16, 17.

When sorrow all our heart would ask,

We need not shun our daily task,

And hide ourselves for calm;

The herbs we seek to heal our woe

Familiar by our pathway grow,

Our common air is balm.

Oh, when we turn away from some duty or some fellow-creature, saying that our hearts are too sick and sore with some great yearning of our own, we may often sever the line on which a divine message was coming to us. We shut out the man, and we shut out the angel who had sent him on to open the door. There is a plan working in our lives; and if we keep our hearts quiet and our eyes open, it all works together; and, if we don't, it all rights together, and goes on fighting till it comes right, somehow, somewhere.

January 17

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings .—I PETER iv. 12, 13.

We take with solemn thankfulness

Our burden up, nor ask it less,

And count it joy that even we

May suffer, serve, or wait for Thee,

Whose will be done!

Receive every inward and outward trouble, every disappointment, pain, uneasiness, temptation, darkness, and desolation, with both thy hands, as a true opportunity and blessed occasion of dying to self, and entering into a fuller fellowship with thy self-denying, suffering Saviour. Look at no inward or outward trouble in any other view; reject every other thought about it; and then every kind of trial and distress will become the blessed day of thy prosperity. That state is best, which exerciseth the highest faith in, and fullest resignation to God.

January 18

Thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee .—DEUT. XXVI. 11.

Rejoice evermore. In everything give thanks .—I THESS. v. 16, 18.

Grave on thy heart each past "red-letter day"!

Forget not all the sunshine of the way

By which the Lord hath led thee; answered prayers,

And joys unasked, strange blessings, lifted cares,

Grand promise-echoes! Thus thy life shall be

One record of His love and faithfulness to thee.

Gratitude consists in a watchful, minute attention to the particulars of our state, and to the multitude of God's gifts, taken one by one. It fills us with a consciousness that God loves and cares for us, even to the least event and smallest need of life. It is a blessed thought, that from our childhood God has been laying His fatherly hands upon us, and always in benediction; that even the strokes of His hands are blessings, and among the chiefest we have ever received. When this feeling is awakened, the heart beats with a pulse of thankfulness. Every gift has its return of praise. It awakens an unceasing daily converse with our Father—He speaking to us by the descent of blessings, we to Him by the ascent of thanksgiving. And all our whole life is thereby drawn under the light of His countenance, and is filled with a gladness, serenity, and peace which only thankful hearts can know.

January 19

Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord .—PS. cv. 3.

The joy of the Lord is your strength .—NEH. viii. 10.

Be Thou my Sun, my selfishness destroy,

Thy atmosphere of Love be all my joy;

Thy Presence be my sunshine ever bright,

My soul the little mote that lives but in Thy light.

I do not know when I have had happier times in my soul, than when I have been sitting at work, with nothing before me but a candle and a white cloth, and hearing no sound but that of my own breath, with God in my soul and heaven in my eye … I rejoice in being exactly what I am—a creature capable of loving God, and who, as long as God lives, must be happy. I get up and look for a while out of the window, and gaze at the moon and stars, the work of an Almighty hand. I think of the grandeur of the universe, and then sit down, and think myself one of the happiest beings in it.