Your decisions will be carried out, and light will shine on your ways. Sermons
I. PRAYER IS AN ELEMENT OF PROSPERITY. It is not only a condition on which prosperity is given; it is a part of the prosperity itself. Trouble drives us go prayer; but happiness cannot let us dispense with it. It is possible for one go be too miserable, too depressed, too hopeless, go pray. The best praying seems to need an element of joyous confidence. When it springs from this happy condition it enhances the joy of it. It is a very low and selfish notion that leads people to economize their prayers, and reserve them for times of dire necessity. Surely it should be a happy thing for the child go talk with his Father! II. PRAYER EXPECTS AN ANSWER. We may pray without looking for any reply - pray because we cannot contain ourselves in silence, because the strong feelings of the soul will burst out into utterance. Then there may be a certain relief in the mere opening of the floodgates of emotion. But this is not the chief end of prayer. Further, we may just confide our case to God, consoled by the thought that he hears, even though we do not believe that any help is possible. Thus comfort is sought in the silent sympathy of a friend to whom the burdened soul can pour out its griefs. Still, the chief end of prayer is not reached in this way. It is difficult to carry on a one-sided conversation with an auditor who makes no reply, who does not even give us a sign that he hears or is at all interested in what one says. Prayer would languish and perish if God did not answer it. This he will not now do in an audible voice, nor always by such evident tokens that we can have no doubt that what he has done is in response to the cry of his children. Yet all who are in the habit of praying can bear witness to the fact that God hears prayer, and replies often in the most surprising and unmistakable way. III. THE PRAYER THAT IS TO BE ANSWERED MUST BE SINCERE. Cain's sacrifice was rejected. The Pharisee's prayer could not reach heaven. We cannot pray to God effectively until we renounce sin and return to him. Then the prayer must be a real, inward, spiritual act. Such prayer is not valued by the correctness of its phraseology; much less is it estimated quantitatively by the time it occupies and the number of its words. The one essential quality is reality. The simple reason why many so-called prayers are not answered is that they are not really prayers at all. They do not come out of a worshipper's heart. Therefore they cannot reach the ears of God, and incline him to respond to them. If all such pretended prayers were left out of account there would be leas scepticism and more glad confidence that God does hear prayer. - W.F.A.
For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty. These words can be raised to a higher level than that on which Eliphaz placed them, and regarded as describing the sweet and wonderful prerogatives of the devout life. So understood they may rebuke, and stimulate, and encourage us to make our lives conform to the ideal here.I. LIFE MAY BE FULL OF DELIGHT AND CONFIDENCE IN GOD. When we "delight" in a thing or person, we recognise that thing or person as fitting into a cleft of our hearts, and corresponding to some need of our natures. Without delight in God there is no real religion. The bulk of men are so sunken and embruted in animal tastes, and sensuous desires, and fleeting delights, that they have no care for the pure and calm joys which come to those who live near God. Above these stand the men whose religion is a matter of fear or of duty or of effort. And above them stand the men who serve because they trust God, but whose religion is seeking rather than finding, it is overshadowed by an unnatural and unwholesome gloom. He is the truly devout man who not only knows God to be great and holy, but feels Him to be sweet and sufficient; who not only fears, but loves. True religion is delighting in God. The next words, "Thou shalt lift up thy face unto God," express frank confidence of approach to Him. The head hangs down in the consciousness of demerit and sin. But it is possible for men to go into God's presence with a sense of peace, and to hold up their heads before their judge. There is no confidence possible for us unless we apprehend by faith, and thereon make our own the great work of Jesus Christ our Lord. II. SUCH A LIFE OF DELIGHTING IN GOD WILL BE BLESSED BY THE FRANKEST INTERCOURSE WITH HIM. Three stages of this blessed communion are possible. First a prayer, then the answer; and then the rendered thank offering. And so, in swift alternation and reciprocity, is carried on the commerce between heaven and earth, between man and God. The desires rise to heaven, but heaven comes down to earth first. Prayer is not the initial stage, but the second, in the process. God first gives His promise, and the best prayer is the catching up of God's promise, and tossing it back again whence it came. III. SUCH A LIFE WILL NEITHER KNOW FAILURE NOR DARKNESS. To serve God and to fall into the line of His purpose, and to determine nothing, nor absolutely want anything until we are sure that it is His will, — that is the secret of never failing in what we undertake. IV. SUCH A LIFE WILL BE ALWAYS HOPEFUL AND FINALLY CROWNED WITH DELIVERANCE. Even in so blessed a life as has been described, times will come when the path plunges downward into some valley of the shadow of death. But even then the traveller will bate no jot of hope. The devout life is largely independent of circumstances, and is upheld and calmed by quiet certainty, that the general trend of its path is upward, which enables it to trudge hopefully down an occasional dip in the road. And the end will vindicate such confidence. Continuous partial deliverances lead on to, and bring about, final full salvation. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) 1. The man who experiences this delight is glad that there is a God. We delight to see God in the shadow of every passing cloud, in the colouring of every opening flower, in the glitter of every dewdrop, in the twinkling of every star. 2. To go a step further, the delight of the believer in his God is a delight in God as He really is; for there are in the world many false gods of men's own manufacture. Remember that your own thoughts of what God is are far from being correct unless they are drawn from His own revelation. We would not tone down a single attribute, we would not disturb the equilibrium of the Divine perfections; but we delight in God in all those aspects of His character which are mentioned in His Holy Word. 3. Further, he that delights in God delights not only in God as He is, but in all that God does, and this is a higher attainment than some have reached. "It is the Lord," said one of old, "let Him do what seemeth Him good." 4. Practically put, this delight in the Almighty shows itself in the Christian when nothing else remains to him. If he be stripped of everything, he cries, "The Lord is my portion." You will see this delight in God exhibiting itself in frequent meditations upon God "Delight thyself in the Lord." This will give you pleasure in the midst of pain. This will show itself in your life, for it will be a pleasure to do anything to exalt the name of God. I call your attention to the special name by which Eliphaz describes the ever-blessed God: he says, "Delight thyself in the Almighty." Is it not singular that he should choose a term descriptive of omnipotence as the paramount cause of the believer's delight? God is love, and I can readily understand how one might delight himself in God under that aspect; but the believer is taught to delight himself in God as strong and mighty. What a mercy it is that there is a power that makes for righteousness! Surely, when you see omnipotence linked with righteousness and mercy, you will delight yourself in the Almighty. Think also of the Lord's almightiness in the matter of the keeping, preserving, defending, and perfecting of all His people. Now, let us turn with intense satisfaction to the other expression used by Eliphaz: "Thou shalt lift up thy face unto God." What does it mean? Does it not mean, first, joy in God? When a man hangs his head down he is unhappy. Does it not signify, also, that this man is reconciled to God, and clear before Him? How can he look up who is guilty? Does not our text indicate fearlessness? Fear covers her face, and would fain hide herself altogether, even though to accomplish concealment the rocks must fall upon her. May it not also signify expectation? "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." Strive after this sacred peace: delight in the Almighty, and lift up your faces unto God. II. WHEN CAN WE REALISE THIS? 1. First, a man can realise all this when he knows that he is reconciled to God. 2. Yet even this could not effect our delight in God unless there was something else; so there must be, in the next place, a renewed nature. Our old nature will never delight in God. 3. In addition to this, you will delight in God much more fully when the Spirit beareth witness with your spirit that you are born of God. The spirit of sonship is the spirit of delight in God.We shall delight ourselves in God, and lift up our face when we do as Eliphaz here tells us. 1. First, when we live in communion with Him. 2. Then, further, we must, if we are to know this delight, lay up God's words in our hearts (ver. 22). 3. There must be added to this delight in the Word a constant cleansing of the way." If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles." There must be purification of life, or there cannot be fellowship with the Lord. 4. In addition to this, there must be a constant trust. "Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver" (ver. 25). He who does not trust God cannot delight in Him. You cannot lift up your face to Him while you think Him untrue. A childlike confidence is essential to a holy joy. 5. Let us abide in continual prayer (ver. 27). ( C. H. Spurgeon.) People Eliphaz, Job, OphirPlaces Ophir, UzTopics Decide, Decree, Decreest, Established, Matter, Purposes, Saying, Shine, Shining, ShoneOutline 1. Eliphaz shows that man's goodness profits not God5. He accuses Job of various sins 21. He exhorts him to repentance, with promises of mercy Dictionary of Bible Themes Job 22:27-28Library December 29 MorningUnderstanding what the will of the Lord is.--EPH. 5:17. This is the will of God, even your sanctification.--Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.--This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.--We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal … Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path Knowledge and Peace What Life May be Made Whether all Things are under Divine Providence Whether God is Everywhere by Essence, Presence and Power? Whether Everything is Subject to the Providence of God? The Doctrine of God The Case of the Christian under the Hiding of God's Face. Bands of Love; Or, Union to Christ. "I Drew them with Cords of a Man, with Bands of Love: and I was to them as they that Take Off the Yoke on their Jaws, and I Laid Meat unto Them. " --Hosea xi. 4. A Holy Life the Beauty of Christianity: Or, an Exhortation to Christians to be Holy. By John Bunyan. Covenanting Enforced by the Grant of Covenant Signs and Seals. Epistle xxxix. To Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria. Covenanting According to the Purposes of God. 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