Maurice: God's will in our times

Saturday, April 1, 2017
    Commemoration of Frederick Denison Maurice, Priest, teacher, 1872
Meditation:
    Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
    —Hebrews 10:32-35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    God has brought us into this time; He, and not ourselves or some dark demon. If we are not fit to cope with that which He has prepared for us, we should have been utterly unfit for any condition that we imagine for ourselves. In this time we are to live and wrestle, and in no other. Let us, humbly, tremblingly, manfully look at it, and we shall not wish that the sun could go back its ten degrees, or that we could go back with it. If easy times are departed, it is that the difficult times may make us more in earnest; that they may teach us not to depend upon ourselves. If easy belief is impossible, it is that we may learn what belief is, and in whom it is to be placed.
    ... Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872), The Prayer-Book and the Lord’s Prayer, London: Macmillan, 1880, p. 374 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 10:32-33; Ps. 9:10; 2 Cor. 4:6; Phil. 3:8-10; 2 Tim. 1:12; Heb. 3:6,14; 4:14; 1 Pet. 4:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, open my eyes, that I may see Your hand in all my circumstances. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Donne: separation from God

Friday, March 31, 2017
    Commemoration of John Donne, Priest, Poet, 1631
Meditation:
    It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
    —Hebrews 10:31 (ESV)
Quotation:
    When all is done, the hell of hells, the torment of torments, is the everlasting absence of God, and the everlasting impossibility of returning to his presence; says the Apostle, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Yet there was a case, in which David found an ease, to fall into the hands of God, to escape the hands of men: When God’s hand is bent to strike, It is a fearefull thing, to fall into the hands of the living God; but to fall out of the hands of the living God, is a horror beyond our expression, beyond our imagination.
    ... John Donne (1573-1631), Works of John Donne, vol. III, London: John W. Parker, 1839, Sermon LXXVI, p. 385-386 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 10:31; Isa. 30:33; Mark 16:16; 2 Thess. 1:7-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I know that You will never leave me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Dorotheus: God's help in prayer

Thursday, March 30, 2017
Meditation:
O Lord, open my lips,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.
    —Psalm 51:15 (ESV)
Quotation:
    A man who prays without ceasing, if he achieves something, knows why he achieved it, and can take no pride in it; for he cannot attribute it to his own powers, but attributes all his achievements to God, always renders thanks to him and constantly calls upon him, trembling lest he be deprived of help.
    ... Dorotheus of Gaza (505-565), quoted in Early Fathers from the Philokalia, Saint Makarios (Metropolitan of Corinth), comp. & E. Kadloubovsky, Gerald Eustace Howell Palmer, trs., Faber and Faber, 1959, p. 157 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 51:15; Luke 18:1; Rom. 12:12; Eph. 6:18; 1 Thess. 5:17; Jude 1:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in prayer, You increase and I decrease. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: instant recourse to God

Wednesday, March 29, 2017
    Commemoration of Jack Winslow, Missionary, Evangelist, 1974
Meditation:
I love the LORD, because he has heard
    my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
    therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
    —Psalm 116:1-2 (ESV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    It must be our anxious care, whenever we are ourselves pressed, or see others pressed by any trial, instantly to have recourse to God. And again, in any prosperity of ourselves or others, we must not omit to testify our recognition of God’s hand by praise and thanksgiving. Lastly, we must in all our prayers carefully avoid wishing to confine God to certain circumstances, or prescribe to him the time, place, or mode of action. In like manner, we are taught by [the Lord’s] prayer not to fix any law or impose any condition upon him, but leave it entirely to him to adopt whatever course of procedure seems to him best, in respect of method, time, and place. For, before we offer up any petition for ourselves, we ask that his will may be done, and by so doing place our will in subordination to his, just as if we had laid a curb upon it, that, instead of presuming to give law to God, it may regard him as the ruler and disposer of all its wishes.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. II, tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, III.xx.50, p. 138 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 116:1-2; Matt. 6:9-13; 26:42; Rom. 12:2; 1 Thess. 5:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are always within reach of my prayers. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Calvin: countering our weakness in prayer

Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Meditation:
    Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
    —Hebrews 13:15 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Although we ought always to raise our minds upwards towards God, and pray without ceasing, yet such is our weakness, which requires to be supported, such our torpor, which requires to be stimulated, that it is requisite for us to appoint special hours for this exercise, hours which are not to pass away without prayer, and during which the whole affections of our minds are to be completely occupied; namely, when we rise in the morning, before we commence our daily work, when we sit down to food, when by the blessing of God we have taken it, and when we retire to rest. This, however, must not be a superstitious observance of hours, by which, as it were, performing a task to God, we think we are discharged as to other hours; it should rather be considered as a discipline by which our weakness is exercised and stimulated. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. II, tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, III.xx.50, p. 137-138 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 13:15; Luke 18:1; Rom. 12:12; Eph. 6:18; 1 Thess. 5:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, how easily I am distracted from prayer! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Warrack: the elements of prayer

Monday, March 27, 2017
Meditation:
    Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
    —Romans 8:26 (ESV)
Quotation:
    THE ELEMENTS OF PRAYER
    Its ground: God, by whose goodness it springeth in us.
    Its use: to turn our will to His will.
    Its end: to be made one with Him and like to Him in all things.
    ... Grace Harriet Warrack, in the introduction to Revelations of Divine Love, Juliana of Norwich, Methuen, 1901, p. lii (see the book)
    See also Rom. 8:26; Ps. 10:17-18; 130:1-6; John 17:20-21; Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make Your will known to me in prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: being honest with God

Sunday, March 26, 2017
    Feast of Harriet Monsell of Clewer, Religious, 1883
Meditation:
    Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
    —Luke 12:2 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Jeremy Taylor (q.v.) gives us some fundamental rules for prayer. And the chief of them is this: “Do not lie to God.” And that curt piece of advice, so bluntly thrown down for us, is indeed all-important. Do not burn false fire upon God’s altar; do not pose and pretend, either to Him or to yourself, in your religious exercises; do not say more than you mean, or use exaggerated language that goes beyond the facts, when speaking to Him whose word is truth.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), In the Secret Place of the Most High, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1947, p. 26-27 (see the book)
    See also Luke 12:2; Ps. 40:10; Matt. 10:26; Mark 4:22; Luke 18:10-14; John 17:17; Rom. 1:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, silence my poses, my excuses, my posturing, and my rationalizations. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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