Confidence must be the finishing chord of every contact between you and Me. Joyful confidence. You must end upon the Joy-note.
The union between a soul and Me is attained in its beauty and complete satisfaction only when in every incident that soul achieves praise.
Love and laugh and thank Me all the time.
Our Lord, we love and praise Thee. Thou art our Joy and our exceeding great reward.
Remember that Love is the power which transforms the world. Love not only of Me, Love not only of the few dear to you, but Love of all – of the publicans, the sinners, the harlots – Love.
It is the only weapon with which sin can be driven out. Drive sin out with Love.
Drive fear and depression and despair and a sense of failure out with Praise.
Praise is the acknowledgement of that which I have sent you. Few men would send a further gift of payment until they had received the acknowledgement of the previous one. So praise, acknowledging, as it does, that My gift and blessing leaves the way open for Me to shower yet more on the thankful heart.
Learn as a child learns to say “Thank you” as a courtesy, with perhaps no real sense of gratitude at all. Do this until at last a thrill of joy, of thankful awe, will accompany the spoken word.
Do not expect for yourselves feeling that you know others have or have had. Just go on along the arid way of obedience, and persistence will be rewarded as you come to the Spring, the glad Spring of Water.
Oh, joy in Me, and, as far as in you lies, shed Joy on all around.
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another;
for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. Romans 12:8
Come unto Me . . . and I will give you rest.
Rest in the midst of work. Heart-rest in the knowledge of My keeping Power.
Feel that rest stealing into your being. Incline your ear and come unto Me, hear and your soul shall live. Grow in strength, not overgrown by cares.
Let not the difficulties of life, like weeds, choke the rest of your soul, choke and tether the soaring freedom of your spirit.
Rise above these earth-bonds into newness of life, abundant and victorious. Rise.
My Lord and my God, we praise Thee, we bless Thee, we worship Thee. Make us like Thee.
You are willing to drink of the cup that I drink of – the wine of sorrow and disappointment.
You are Mine and will grow both of you more and more like Me, your Master.
True it is today as it was in the days of Moses that no man can see My face and live.
The self, the original Man, shrivels up and dies, and upon the soul becomes stamped My image.
For whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestine to be conformed
to the image of his Son. Romans 8:29
Character-change comes by doing My Will in days when you see no Vision and hear no Voice.
Never leave the path of strict observance of all you were told to do when you saw Me and spoke to Me on the Mount. If you do you walk into serious danger.
These dull days are your practice days. Difficulties appear, failure seems inevitable. But all is necessary, so that you may learn to adapt your life to the teaching I have given you, may realize your own weakness, develop obedience and perseverance, without waiting for further instruction and inspiration.
Persevere with patience. I guide you still, for I am with you when you do not realize My Presence.
More faith will come through the confidence arising from experience.
The way of the soul’s transformation is the Way of Divine Companionship.
Not so much the asking Me to make you this or that but the living with Me, thinking of Me, talking to Me – thus you grow like Me.
Love Me. Rest in Me.
Joy in Me.
I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine. Song of Solomon 6:3
“Changed . . . from Glory to Glory.” Changed from one character to another. Each change marking as it were a milestone on the Spiritual Highway.
The Beauty of the view you see in the distance is the realization of My character, My Glory, towards which with varying pace you are hourly progressing.
The way to secure better progress is to keep your gaze on your goal. Not on the road you traverse, assuredly not on the way by which you have come. Your goal is that Glory or Character that you see more and more clearly in Me, your Lord and Master.
“It doth not yet appear what you shall be, but know that when I shall appear (that is to you, to your sight, when you see Me), you shall be like Me, for you shall see Me as I am.”
Lord, hear us, we pray.
Hear and I answer. Spend much time in prayer. Prayer is of many kinds, but of whatever kind, prayer is the linking up of the soul and mind and heart to God.
So that if it is only a glance of faith, a look or word of Love, or confidence, and no supplication is expressed, it yet follows that supply and all necessary are secured.
Because the soul, being linked to God, united to Him, receives in and through Him all things. And the soul, when in human form, needs too the things belonging to its habitation.
Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5:17
Your power to help your brother does not depend upon him. It is in your own hands. It is conditional upon your casting out the beam out of your own eye.
Attack not your brother’s faults but your own.
As you eradicate those you discover where your brother needs help, and you acquire the power to give him that help to conquer and to eradicate his faults.
Our Lord, we praise Thee.
Praise is the devil’s death knell. Resignation, acceptance of My Will, obedience to it, have not the power to vanquish evil that praise has.
The joyful heart is my best weapon against all evil. Oh! pray and praise.
You are learning your lesson. You are being led out into a large place. Go with songs of rejoicing. Rejoice evermore. Happy indeed if each day has its thrill of joy.
Talk to Me more during the day. Look up into My Face – a look of Love, a feeling of security, a thrill of Joy at the sense of the nearness of My Presence – these are your best prayers.
Let these smooth the day’s work, then fear will vanish, and fear is the grim figure that turns aside success.
Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me. Psalm 50:23
