26 August 2012

Upon Me

Your weekly dose of Spurgeon
The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  The following excerpt is from The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, volume 59, sermon number 3,345, "Sunlight for Cloudy Days."
“I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me.” It is a great thing that God should think upon us. Is it certainly true that the great heart of God is thinking upon me, an inconsiderable atom of existence? What then? It is enough to make the bells of our hearts ring for joy. Let us listen again to the silver note of the text, “The Lord thinketh upon me.” The Lord thinks as much of one of his people as if there were nobody else for him to think upon. Poor needy one, the Lord thinks upon you as intensely as if you were the only being now existing. The Lord is able to concentrate his whole mind upon any one point without dividing that mind; he has such an infinite capacity that each one of us may be the centre of God’s thoughts, and yet he will not be forgetting any other beloved one. God is a being whose centre is everywhere, but his circumference is nowhere. “The Lord thinketh upon me.” Is it not beautiful to notice how God thought of the first man whom he placed on this earth? He did not make man till he had prepared everything for his happiness. The Lord would not rest until he had finished his work, until he had lighted up the heavens, and created all manner of comforts and conveniences for his child. Not till he had even prepared the birds to sing to him, and the flowers to breathe their perfume upon him, did God create man. Why did God rest on the seventh day? Because he had thought of all that man wanted, and had made all things good for him. Our Lord Jesus never rested till he had finished the work that his Father gave him to do, which work was all for us: and the great providence of God will never rest till all the chosen of God are brought safely home to heaven. Thus you see how God thinks upon us.

Remember also that God’s thoughts are not dumb thoughts, they break out into words, and this precious Bible contains the expression of those thoughts of love. This priceless Book is a love-letter from our Father who is in heaven. Read each line as if it were freshly written, and it will make you say, “I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me, and here are his thoughts.”

Nor does the Lord rest in words. I have heard of a waiter who said to a guest, “I hope you will remember me, sir.” “Yes,” replied the other, “I shall never forget your bad behaviour.” It would be well for us if our fellow-men would not think of us when we have done them wrong; but God’s thoughts of us are ever kind and forgiving. His thoughts are practical, and produce deeds of kindness; he thinks to give and forgive; to save and succour; to cheer and cherish. The Lord is thinking what he will give you, what he will make of you, and what mansion in heaven he will appoint for you. If he has thought upon you, he always will think upon you, for the Lord never changes. Our God, in whom we trust, is not fickle; he is not thoughtful of us today, and forgetful of us tomorrow. If you should live to be as old as Methuselah, the promises of God will never wear out; and if all the troubles that ever fell upon humanity should pounce upon you, God’s strength will be put forth to sustain you, and to bear you to a triumphant close.

Oh, the joy of knowing that God thinketh upon us! It is better to have God thinking upon us than to have all the kings of earth and all the angels of heaven thinking upon us.


7 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing this. It is so true! I am a wife and stay at home mom of five young children. Even though my husband is an incredibly hard working provider for our family, making ends meet is sometimes very difficult. We have some backyard chickens and there are times I serve a lot of eggs when buying other groceries is difficult. And one time I remember preparing a meal of eggs and feeling sorry for myself and my family because I knew none of us wanted eggs for supper.....again. I asked God to forgive me for being ungrateful. I felt so poor and needy. But I knew from Scripture that God was thinking upon me in my kitchen and upon my children at the dinner table hungry for something more than eggs. We might not have had what we wanted but we had what we needed. God always provides and always cares. I wanted my children to know that and to remember the Lord always does good to us so I cheerfully served the eggs no one wanted. And guess what? No one complained and we had a lovely dinner together.

Being a mom is difficult and offers very little rest. I used to think of how more sleep or more money would make motherhood easier. But by God's grace I have learned that is false thinking. When I am committed to prayer and Bible study my thoughts become more like His thoughts and my ways become more like His ways, and things become well with my soul. And when it is well with my soul, I am a better woman, wife, and mother regardless of whether I am knee deep in dirty diapers or struggling to come up with creative ways to serve eggs......again.

Linda said...

Shar Mohar--believe me when I say that your kids will be so thankful that they have a mother who loves them and stayed home with them..

when my mother passed away a few years ago,, one thing I will always cherish is that I had a mother who although she had many health problems she also stayed at home. She always had dinner on the table. I had a mother who truly loved me and my brothers and who was quite unselfish. I knew even before the Lord saved me that God was so real in my mother. She was God-sent, very gentle and quite submissive to my father even when he was clearly in the wrong.
I used to be very selfish in my younger years and even demanded my mom go to work and buy me a car.. She looked at me and said "Well at least you have a mother who loves you and is home with you while everyone else's mother is at work."

We have no idea what people mean to us until they are gone.

Now as a Christian I look back and KNOW that my mom's example was truly a woman who KNEW Christ..She was indeed a virtuous woman as in Proverbs. I had the BEST mom and I miss her


Jeremiah Greenwell said...

Awe-inspiring, since awesome is so overused.

Merrilee Stevenson said...

I tend to downplay that aspect of the Lord--I suppose it is because of its over-use in contemporary Christian music and rhetoric. But I'm in a similar boat to that of Shar--minus the chickens, and woke up today with a nasty head cold. Yet, it is a wonderful thing to remember.

"The LORD looks from heaven; he sees all the sons of men; from His dwelling place He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works. The king is not saved by a mighty army; a warrior is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory; nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His lovingkindness to deliver their souls from death and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart rejoices in Him, because we trust in His holy name. Let Your lovingkindness, O LORD, be upon us, according as we have hoped in You." --Psalm 33:13-22 (italics mine)

Linda said...

Shar Mohr, I thought of you this morning when I made my son breakfast..
Bless you sister in the Lord Jesus Christ and may you see his beauty and his goodness as HE is our SOLE Satisfaction

"Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred."-Proverbs 15:17

Unknown said...

Dear Linda,


Thank you so much for your encouragment. We are currently not a part of a local church and the isolation from a body of believers has been tremendously difficult. Our rural area is void of a solid, Bible-based church and the church we were attending jumped on the Christian Nationalism bandwagon and turned the Lord's Day into a Sunday morning tea party rally. When we spoke up about it we were asked to leave.

The beautiful thing about all of this is how Lord has been using this tough time to stengthen our family's faith and prayer lives. Being forced outside the church walls has opened up our eyes and hearts to need for the Gospel outside of the church walls, something that is totally lacking in our area. We are willing to admit that we are partly to blame for this.

So now we are praying about how we can change this. I am scared about this because I am busy at home and selfish with my time and husband does hard labor for a living and is tired when he gets home. I am ashamed to admit that I would rather not go in my community because it will require effort and sacrifice.

It is easy to invite people to church but what do you do when you don't have a church to invite them to? I guess you bring the church to them. I don't know.....

Please be praying for us....for eyes to see opportunities to do some kind of ministry, for strength and courage to do more than sit on the sidelines, for a solid church to be planted in our area, for God's will to be done here in our community.

Linda said...

Shar, it brings me such JOY in the LORD to have encouraged you. Thank you \0/All for God's glory and honor

Thanks for sharing your needs. I'll be lifting you and your family up to the Lord in prayer~


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