“Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee:…..”– Ps. 55:22

There are some mistaken notions current concerning the ways in which God would help us. People think that whenever they have a little trouble, a bit of hard path to go over, a load to carry, a sorrow to endure—all they have to do is to call upon God, and He will at once take away their sorrow, or free them from the trouble. But this is not the way God helps us! His purpose of love concerning us is—not to make all things easy for us—but to make something of us!

 When we ask God to save us from our trouble, to take the struggles out of our life, to make the paths mossy, to lift off every heavy load—He will not do it! It would be most unloving in Him to accommodate us. We must carry the burden ourselves! All God promises is, to sustain us—as we carry it! He wants us to learn life’s lessons, and to do this—we must be left to work out the problems for ourselves.

 There are rich blessings which can be gotten, only in sorrow. It would be short-sighted love indeed—which would heed our cries, and spare us from sorrow—and thus deprive us of the wonderful blessings which can be gotten only in sorrow! God is too good to us to answer our prayers—which would save us from pain, cost, and sacrifice today—at the price of holier, better, truer life in the end. He would not rob us of the blessing that is in the burden—which we can get only by carrying it! ( J. R. Miller)
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346

O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.– Psalm 63:1

Any spiritual exercise that stops short of God Himself stops far too short. We can become taken up with the means and forget the end. Our Bible reading may bring us profit and we may lay down the Book with a comfortable sense of duty well performed, but does the heart say, “Beyond the sacred page, I seek Thee, Lord”? Prayer is but a means to an end: we may get a secret satisfaction out of praying that makes prayer only an end in itself. “Early will I seek thee” – that is true prayer. “Now thee alone I seek, give what is best.” Faith has no value save as it links us with God. Yet we often become taken up with our faith and miss God entirely.

Feelings, experiences, meditation, reading, church attendance, with all these we may stop short of God, finding some satisfaction but letting the good rob us of the best – Himself. The Psalmist said, “My soul thirsteth…my flesh longeth for thee.” Only God can meet the need of the whole man. (Vance Havner)

David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346

“There is a may which seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death. ” Proverb 14:12

   Twice in the book of Proverbs (14:12 and 16:25) we learn that man’s judgment as to the right way is not reliable. What seems right to him ends in disaster and death. The late William MacDonald illustrated this truth with the following story:

During World War II the Navy gave a vivid illustration of this to its flight personnel. It was tying to impress on them that when they were flying at high altitudes and did not use their oxygen, they could not trust their senses. A pilot was instructed to enter a decompression chamber and sit down at a table on which was a sheet of mathematical problems. Oxygen was withdrawn from the chamber to simulate high altitudes. When the air became less dense, the pilot was told to solve the problems. He was also told that no one had done so correctly so far.

   The pilot would breeze through the problems with utmost confidence that he had beaten the system. The problems seemed easy, and he had every assurance that he would receive a perfect score. There was no doubt in his mind about it.

   But when oxygen was fed back into the chamber, and he emerged to have his paper corrected, he learned that his ability to solve problems had been seriously impaired by the lack of oxygen getting to his brain. The lesson was, of course, that if he flew at high altitudes without using his oxygen, he wouldn’t be able to trust his own judgment, and he would be inviting a crash.

   Man’s judgment has been seriously impaired by sin. He feels absolutely sure that the way to heaven is by doing the best he can. If you tell him that no one has ever been saved by good works, he still has every confidence that he will be the first to beat the system. He is certain that God would never turn him away from the gates of heaven.

   But he is wrong, and if he persists in his lack of “spiritual oxygen”, he will perish. His safety lies in trusting the Word of God rather than his own judgment. If he does so, he will repent of his sins and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Because God’s Word is truth, those who believe it can be confident that they are following the right route.

David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346

“But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.”- Matt. 14:30
Sinking times are praying times with the Lord’s servants. Peter neglected prayer at starting upon his venturous journey but when he began to sink—his danger made him a suppliant, and his cry though late—was not too late.In our hours of bodily pain and mental anguish—we find ourselves as naturally driven to prayer, as the wreck is driven upon the shore by the waves. The fox flees to its hole for protection; the bird flies to the woods for shelter; and even so the tried believer hastens to the mercy seat for safety. Heaven’s great harbor of refuge is All-prayer; thousands of weather beaten vessels have found a haven there, and the moment a storm comes on, it is wise for us to make for it with all sail.
Short prayers are long enough. There were but three words in the petition which Peter gasped out but they were sufficient for his purpose. Not length but strength is desirable. A sense of need is a mighty teacher of brevity. If our prayers had less of the tail feathers of pride and more wing—they would be all the better. Verbiage is to devotion, as chaff to the wheat. Precious things lie in small compass, and all that is real prayer in many a long address might have been uttered in a petition as short as that of Peter.
Our extremities are the Lord’s opportunities. Immediately a keen sense of danger forces an anxious cry from us—the ear of Jesus hears and with Him ear and heart go together and the hand does not long linger. At the last moment we appeal to our Master but His swift hand makes up for our delays by instant and effectual action. Are we nearly engulfed by the boisterous waters of affliction? Let us then lift up our souls unto our Savior, and we may rest assured that He will not allow us to perish. When we can do nothing—Jesus can do all things; let us enlist His powerful aid upon our side, and all will be well. (Charles Spurgeon)

David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346