“In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” (Isaiah 30:15)

It is always weakness to be fretting and worrying, questioning and mis-trusting. What can we do if we wear ourselves to skin and bone? Can we gain anything by fearing and fuming? Do we not unfit ourselves for action and unhinge our minds for wise decision? We are sinking by our struggles when we might float by faith.

Oh, for grace to be quiet! Why run from house to house to repeat the weary story which makes us more and more heart-sick as we tell it? Why even stay at home to cry out in agony because of wretched forebodings which may never be fulfilled? It would be well to keep a quiet tongue, but it would be far better if we had a quiet heart. Oh, to be still and know that Jehovah is God!

Oh, for grace to be confident in God! The holy One of Israel must defend and deliver His own. He cannot run back from His solemn declarations. We may make sure that every word of His will stand though the mountains should depart. He deserves to be confided in; and if we would display confidence and consequent quietness, we might be as happy as the spirits before the throne.

Come, my soul, return unto thy rest, and lean thy head upon the bosom of the Lord Jesus.– Charles Spurgeon

“…lovest thou me?… Feed my sheep.”— John 21:16

“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.“–2 Cor. 12:9

“….I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. “– Matthew 28:20

The path in front of me may be full of flowers — or full of thorns.
Or, as is more probable, flower and thorn may be mingled together.
The sky may be light — or dark.
The weather may be glorious summer — or bleakest winter.
But I go safely and happily, if the Lord Jesus, who can and will supply my every need, is with me all the days.

Some of the days will be days of discipline — of the pruning knife and the cleansing fire. But when He is with me, the discipline is a blessing, and not a curse. It teaches me . . .
to grasp His strong right hand with a tighter hold,
to pray more earnestly,
to find heights and depths of meaning in the promises of God,
to feel for others who are in tribulation.
Mind and heart and character are bettered by the endurance of affliction.

Many of the days, too, will be days of monotony. They must be spent in little things — household labors, common concerns, unnoticed toil. I may long for a more striking and romantic experience. But when He is with me, I know that He makes my life like His own — the blessed life He lived among carpenters’ tools, and village streets, and peasant people. The drudgery is a love-message — it is Jesus Christ in disguise!

Every day will be a day of temptation. In the home, in the business, in company, in loneliness — I shall encounter the devil’s subtle snares. But let my Lord be with me, and temptation will but reveal the closeness and blessedness of the tie. It will be an instrument which He uses to impart more maturity to my graces — more courage, more patience, more trust.

Perhaps one of the days will be the day of death. But if He does not leave or forsake me, then death will be an ingredient in the training that fits me for the glorious inheritance! As John Bunyan pictures it — I must cross the ‘River of Death’ to reach the ‘Celestial City’. Jesus did it Himself, and the disciple is not above the Master. His Everlasting Arms will sustain me in the flood; and, on the other side, I shall enter the ‘Beautiful Gate’ and see His face!

ALL the days He is with me — to the end, and through the end, and beyond the end forever and ever! Whether I live, therefore, or whether I die — I am His and He is mine!–(Alexander Smellie, “On the Secret Place” 1907)