December 1 – Responsibility
I am beside you. A very human Jesus, who understands all your weaknesses, and sees too your struggles and conquests.
Remember, I was the Companion of the Weak. Ready to supply their hunger. Teaching My followers their responsibility towards all, not only those near and dear to them, but to the multitude.
“Lord, send them away that they may go into the villages and buy themselves victuals,” said My disciples, with no sympathy for the fainting, exhausted men, women, and children.
But I taught that Divine Sympathy includes responsibility. “Give ye them to eat,” was My reply. I taught that pity, without a remedy for the evil, or the need, is worthless.
“Give ye them to eat.” Wherever your sympathy goes, you must go too, if possible. Remember that in thinking of your own needs. Claim from Me the same attitude now.
The servant is not above his Master, certainly not in Spiritual attainments, and what I taught My disciples, I do.
So fainting and needy, by the lakeside of life, know that I will supply your need, not grudgingly, but in full measure.
“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due
season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Galatians 6:9
December 2 – The Ideal Man
Draw nigh, shoes off thy feet, in silent awe and adoration. Draw nigh, as Moses drew nigh to the burning bush.
I give you the loving intimacy of a friend, but I am God too, and the wonder of our intercourse, the miracle of your intimacy with Me, will mean the more to you, if sometimes you see the Majestic Figure of the Son of God.
Draw nigh in the utter confidence that is the sublimest prayer. Draw nigh. No far-off pleading, even to a God clothed with majesty of fire. Draw nigh. Draw nigh, not as a suppliant, but as a listener. I am this Suppliant, as I make known to you My wishes. For this Majestic God is Brother too, longing so intensely that you should serve your brother-man, and longing, even more intensely, that you should be true to that Vision He has of you.
You speak of your fellow man as disappointing you, as falling short of the ideal you had of him. But what of Me? For every man there is the ideal man I see in him. The man he could be, the man I would have him be.
Judge of My Heart when he fails to fulfill that promise. The disappointments of man may be great and many, but they are nothing as compared with My disappointments. Remember this, and strive to be the friend I see in my vision of you.
“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” James 4:8
December 3 – A Journey With Me
Fret not your souls with puzzles that you cannot solve. The solution may never be shown you until you have left this flesh-life.
Remember what I have so often told you, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” Only step by step, and stage by stage, can you proceed, in your journey upward.
The one thing to be sure of is that it is a journey with Me. There does come a Joy known to those who suffer with Me. But that is not the result of the suffering, but the result of the close intimacy with Me, to which suffering drove you.
“But the path of the just is as the shining light, that
shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Proverbs 4:18
December 4 – Man of Sorrows
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted
with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised,
and we esteemed him not. Isaiah 53:3
That these words strike a note of Beauty in the hearts of those attuned to hear the Beautiful, shows truly that the heart recognizes the need for the Man of Sorrows. That it sees nothing contemptible in One despised by the world. That it recognizes the vast difference between the values of Heaven, and those of the world. Fame and acclamations are accorded to earth’s great, contempt and rejection to the Son of God.
One of the things My disciples must ever seek to do is to set aside the valuation of the world, and judge only according to the values of Heaven. These are not for you. Do not seek the praise and the notice of men. You follow a despised Christ. See the mob is hooting, throwing stones, jeering, and yet in that quiet little throng there is a happiness and Joy the reviling crowds could never know.
Follow that little throng with stones and gibes, and it appears to be of men, mean, ludicrous, contemptible. Be one of the throng, and you feel the Majesty of God in the presence of Him, Who was despised and rejected of men. Wreaths around His Brow, and shouts of applause, would belittle that Majesty.
In your dark hours, when human help fails, keep very close to the Man of Sorrows. Feel My Hand of Love press yours in silent but complete understanding. I, too, was acquainted with grief. No heart can ache without My heart aching too. “He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.”
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world….For all that
is in the world,…is not of the Father, but is of the world.” 1 John 2:15-16
December 5 – Law of Supply
The first law of giving is of the spirit world. Give to all you meet, or whose lives touch yours, of your prayers, your time, yourselves, your love, your thought. You must practice this giving first.
Then give of this world’s goods and money, as you have them given to you. To give money and material things, without having first made the habit daily, hourly, ever increasingly, of giving on the highest plane, is wrong.
Give, give, give all your best to all who need it.
Be great givers–great givers. Give as I said My Father in Heaven gives. He who makes His sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Remember, as I have told you before, give according to need, never according to desert. In giving, with the thought of supplying a real need you must closely resemble that Father in Heaven, the Great Giver.
As you receive, you must supply the needs of those I bring to you. Not questioning, not limiting. Their nearness to you, their relationship, must never count. Only their need is to guide you. Pray to become great givers.
“Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that
would borrow of thee turn not thou away.”
Matthew 5:43
December 6 – Expect Temptation
Lord, give us Power to conquer temptation as Thou didst in the wilderness.
The very first step towards conquering temptation is to see it as temptation. To dissociate yourself from it.
Not to think of it as something resulting from your tiredness, or illness, or poverty, or nerve-strain, when you feel you might well excuse yourself for yielding, but first to realize very fully that when you have heard My voice (“the Heavens opened,” as it were) and are going to fulfill your mission to work for me and to draw souls to me, you must expect a mighty onslaught from the evil one, who will endeavor with all his might to frustrate you, and to prevent your good work. Expect that.
Then when these little temptations, or big ones come, you will recognize them as planned by evil to thwart Me. Then for very love of Me you will conquer.
“And lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil: For
thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.” Matthew 6:13
December 7 – Food of Life
I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
Those were My words to My Disciples in the early days of My Ministry. Later I was to lead them on to a fuller understanding of that Majestic Union of a soul with God in which strength, life, and food pass from One to the other.
Meat is to sustain the body. To do the Will of God is the very strength and support of Life. Feed on that Food.
Soul-starvation comes from the failing to do, and to delight in doing, My Will. How busy the world is in talking of bodies that are undernourished! What of the souls that are undernourished?
Make it indeed your meat to do My Will. Strength and Power will indeed come to you from that.
“Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will
of him who sent me, and to finish his work.” John 4:34
December 8 – My Kingdom
And greater works than these shall ye do, because I go unto My Father.
While I was on earth, to the great number of those with whom I came in contact, Mine was a lost cause. Even My disciples only believed, half-doubting, half-wondering. When they all forsook Me and fled it was not so much fear of My enemies as the certainty that My Mission, however beautiful they thought it, had failed.
In spite of all I had taught them, in spite of the revelation of the Last Supper, they had secretly felt sure that when the final moment came, and the hatred of the Pharisees was declared against Me I should sound some call to action, and that I should lead My many followers, and found My earthly kingdom. Even the disciples who had eyes to see My Spiritual Kingdom had thought material forces had proved too strong for Me.
But with My Resurrection came hope. Faith revived. They would remind each other of all I had said. They would have the assurance of My Divinity, Messiahship, the lack of which had hindered My work on earth, and they would have all My Power in the unseen – the Holy Spirit – to help them.
Remember, I came to found a Kingdom – the Kingdom. Those who lived in the Kingdom were to do the work — greater works than I was able to do. Not a greater Power shown, not a greater Life lived, but, as men recognized My Godhead, opportunities for works in My Name would increase. My work on earth was to gather around Me the nucleus of My Kingdom, and to teach the Truths of My Kingdom to them. In those Truths they were to live and work.
“But now it is Christ risen from the dead, and become
the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came
death, by man came also the Resurrection of the dead.”
1 Corinthians 15:20-21
December 9 – Your Search Rewarded
Lord, all men seek for the Thee.
All men seek for Me, but all men do not know what they want. They are seeking because they are dissatisfied without realizing that I am the object of their quest.
Count it your greatest joy to be the means, by your lives, sufferings, words, and love, to prove to the questing ones you know that their search would end when they saw Me.
Profit by My Example. I left My work — seemingly the greatest work — that of saving souls, to seek communion with My Father. Did I know perhaps that with many it was idle curiosity? Did I know that there must be no rush into the Kingdom, that the still small voice, not the shoutings of a mob, would alone persuade men I was the Son of God?
Why be surrounded by multitudes if the multitudes were not really desiring to learn from, and to follow, Me? Follow the Christ into the quiet places of prayer.
“Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he.” John 18:7, 8
December 10 – The Quiet Time
There may be many times when I reveal nothing, command nothing, give no guidance. But your path is clear, and your task, to grow daily more and more into the knowledge of Me. That this quiet time with Me will enable you to do.
I may ask you to sit silent before Me, and I may speak no word that you could write. All the same that waiting with Me will bring comfort and Peace. Only friends who understand and love each other can wait silent in each other’s presence.
And it may be that I shall prove our friendship by asking you to wait in silence while I rest with you, assured of your Love and understanding. So wait, so love, so joy.
“My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up,
my love, my fair one, and come away.” Song of Solomon 2:10
December 11 – A Sunrise Gift
To those whose lives have been full of struggle and care, who have felt as you both have, the tragedy of living, the pity of an agonized heart for My poor world — to those of My followers I give that Peace and Joy that brings to age its second Spring, the youth they sacrificed for Me, and for My world. . . .
Take each day now as a joyous sunrise gift from Me. Your simple daily tasks done in My strength and Love will bring the consciousness of all your highest hopes. Expect great things. Expect great things.
“This is the day which the Lord hath made;
and we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24
December 12 – Care-free
Perfect love casteth out fear.
Love and fear cannot dwell together. By their very natures they cannot exist side by side. Evil is powerful, and fear is one of evil’s most potent forces.
Therefore a weak vacillating love can be soon routed by fear, whereas a perfect Love, a trusting Love, is immediately the Conqueror, and fear, vanquished, flees in confusion.
But I am Love because God is Love, and I and the Father are one. So the only way to obtain this perfect Love, that dispels fear, is to have Me more and more in your lives. You can only banish fear by My Presence and My Name.
Fear of the future — Jesus will be with us.
Fear of poverty — Jesus will provide. (And so to all the temptations of fear.)
You must not allow fear to enter. Talk to Me. Think of Me. Talk of Me. Love Me. And that sense of My Power will so possess you that no fear can possess your mind. Be strong in this My Love.
“And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall
give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy
fear, and from the hard bondage wherein
thou wast made to serve.” Isaiah 14:3
December 13 – Perpetual Guidance
Fullness of Joy. The Joy of Perpetual Guidance. The Joy of knowing that every detail of your lives is planned by Me, but planned with a wealth of tenderness and Love.
Wait for Guidance in every step. Wait to be shown My way. The thought of this loving leading should give you great Joy. All the responsibility of Life taken off your shoulders. All its business worry taken off your shoulders. It is indeed a Joy for you to feel so free and yet so planned for.
Oh! the wonder of this a God-guided life. To think anything impossible in such circumstances is to say it cannot be done by Me. To say that is surely a denial of Me.
“That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye
also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship
is with the Father, and with his Son.” 1 John 1:3
December 14 – Storms
Our loving Lord, we thank Thee for Thy marvelous keeping power.
There is no miracle so wonderful as the miracle of a soul being kept by My Power. Forces of evil batter and storm, but are powerless. Tempests rage unavailingly.
It is like a cool garden with sweet flowers and bees and butterflies and trees and playing fountains set in the midst of a mighty roaring city. Try to see your lives as that.
Not only as calm and unmoved, but as breathing fragrance, expressing beauty. Expect storms. Know this — you cannot be united in your great friendship and bond to do My work, and in your great Love for Me, and not excite the envy, hatred, and malice of all whom you meet who are not on My side.
Where does the enemy attack? The fortress, the stronghold, not the desert waste.
“Except the Lord to build the house, they labour in vain that build it:
except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”
Psalm 127:1
December 15 – My Shadow
Learn that each day must be lived in My Power, and in the consciousness of My Presence, even if the thrill of Joy seems to be absent. Remember that if sometimes there seems a shadow on your lives is not the withdrawal of My Presence. It is My shadow as I stand between you and your foes.
Even with your nearest and dearest there are the quiet days. You do not doubt their Love because you do not hear their laughter, and feel a thrill the Joy at their nearness.
The quiet grey days are the days for duty. Work in the calm certainty that I am with you
“That they should seek to the Lord….For in him we live,
and move, and have our being.” Acts 17:27, 28