Remaining Grateful ...

It is folly to trust in dead images, but it is wisdom to trust in the living God, for he is a help and a shield to those that trust in him. Wherever there is right fear of God, there may be cheerful faith in him; those who reverence his word, may rely upon it. He is ever found faithful. The greatest need his blessing, and it shall not be denied to the meanest that fear him. God's blessing gives an increase, especially in spiritual blessings. And the Lord is to be praised: his goodness is large, for he has given the earth to the children of men for their use. 

 [Matthew Henry]

Psalm 115:15 ... Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth.

Psalm 28:7 ... The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. ❤

Enlightened!!

Into what a new world of wonders are we introduced, when the Holy Spirit visits us with enlightening grace! We are then indeed translated from darkness to light; and pass from death unto life. We enter upon a new being. Previously sin had fast closed our eyes, so that we saw nothing in the spiritual kingdom of grace. But when He, who said "Let there be light," (Genesis 1:3) and there was light in the chaos of nature, says "Let there be light" in the dark chambers of the soul, instantly the scales fall off, and we see ourselves vile and loathsome in the pollution of our sins, and we see that there is One mighty to save us, even Jesus we see Him in all the beauty of His person and work, chief among ten thousand and altogether lovely; washing out our every transgression in His own most precious blood, and covering our every deformity in the spotless robe of His divine righteousness. Blessed are the eyes which see this enrapturing sight!

[Matthew Henry]

Ephesians 1:18 ...  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, ❤

A New Year's Resolution

Firmly believing that my times are in God's hand, I here submit myself and all my affairs for the ensuing year, to the wise and gracious disposal of God's divine providence. Whether God appoints for me health or sickness, peace or trouble, comforts or crosses, life or death may His holy will be done! 

All my time, strength, and service, I devote to the honor of the Lord Jesus and even my common actions. It is my earnest expectation, hope, and desire, my constant aim and endeavor that Jesus Christ may be magnified in me. In everything I have to do my entire dependence is upon Jesus Christ for strength. And whatever I do in word or deed, I desire to do all in His name, to make Him my Alpha and Omega. I have all from Him and I would use all for Him. 

If this should prove a year of affliction, a sorrowful year to me I will fetch all my supports and comforts from the Lord Jesus and stay myself upon Him, His everlasting consolations, and the good hope I have in Him through grace. And if it should be my dying year then my times are in the hand of the Lord Jesus. And with a humble reliance upon His mediation, I would venture into the eternal world looking for the blessed hope. Dying as well as living, Jesus Christ will, I trust, be gain and be advantage to me. 

Oh, that the grace of God may be sufficient for me, to keep me always a humble sense of my own unworthiness, weakness, folly, and infirmity together with a humble dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ for both righteousness and strength. 

[Matthew Henry] 

Psalm 31:15 ... My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. ❤

~~~~ Happy New Year 2025 ~~~~

"Providential Care"

In every trial and tribulation, let us find comfort in the knowledge that God, in His infinite wisdom, orchestrates all for the good of His chosen people. God's hand is behind every event, crafting our lives for His glory. 

[John Owen] 

The providence of God is a tapestry of grace, where every thread, even the darkest, contributes to the glorious picture of our salvation. His providence is a rich treasure; He knows how to turn our trials into triumphs, our sorrows into songs. [Thomas Watson] 

The heart that loves God finds peace in knowing that even the most confusing paths are ordered by Him for our benefit. [Richard Sibbes] 

To love God is to rest in His sovereign will, trusting that even the most perplexing circumstances are shaped for our ultimate good. In every situation, whether in joy or sorrow, we are called to trust that God is orchestrating the events of our lives for His glory. 

[Jonathan Edwards] 

Though the winds may howl and the storms rage, we are assured that God's hand is upon us, guiding every event to our benefit and His glory. 

[Richard Baxter] 

God's providence is a divine compass, guiding our lives through every storm, always pointing us toward our true good and His eternal glory. In the tapestry of life, every thread of sorrow is skillfully woven by God, contributing to the beauty of our salvation. 

[Matthew Henry] 

God's providence is like a skilled artisan who, though unseen, is weaving our lives into a masterpiece, with every thread serving His holy purpose! 

[John Bunyan] 

All that befalls us, whether sweet or bitter, is ordained by God, who works all things in concert for the good of those who are called according to His purpose. 

[William Perkins]

Trust in the Lord, for He has a wise design in every affliction, transforming our pain into a pathway of grace. Trust the divine Designer; He weaves even our pain into His purpose. 

[Samuel Rutherford] 

We may often walk through the valley of shadows, but remember, dear believer, that God is sovereignly guiding our steps toward a glorious end! We may rest assured that even the harshest providences are part of God's plan, working towards a good that we may not yet see. 

[John Flavel]

Romans 8:28 ... And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

✫❤•°*”˜˜”*°•❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫

New Year Resolution

Firmly believing that my times are in God's hand, I here submit myself and all my affairs for the ensuing year, to the wise and gracious disposal of God's divine providence. Whether God appoints for me health or sickness, peace or trouble, comforts or crosses, life or death may His holy will be done! 

All my time, strength, and service, I devote to the honor of the Lord Jesus and even my common actions. It is my earnest expectation, hope, and desire, my constant aim and endeavor that Jesus Christ may be magnified in me. In everything I have to do my entire dependence is upon Jesus Christ for strength. 

And whatever I do in word or deed, I desire to do all in His name, to make Him my Alpha and Omega. I have all from Him and I would use all for Him. If this should prove a year of affliction, a sorrowful year to me I will fetch all my supports and comforts from the Lord Jesus and stay myself upon Him, His everlasting consolations, and the good hope I have in Him through grace. 

And if it should be my dying year then my times are in the hand of the Lord Jesus. And with a humble reliance upon His mediation, I would venture into the eternal world looking for the blessed hope. Dying as well as living Jesus Christ will, I trust, be a gain, advantage to me. 

Oh, that the grace of God may be sufficient for me, to keep me always a humble sense of my own unworthiness, weakness, folly, and infirmity together with a humble dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ for both righteousness and strength. 

[Matthew Henry]

Psalm 31:15 ... My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. ❤

The Present Time

The sufferings of the saints strike no deeper than the things of time, last no longer than the present time, are light afflictions, and but for a moment. How vastly different are the sentence of the word and the sentiment of the world, concerning the sufferings of this present time! 

Indeed, the whole creation seems to wait with earnest expectation for the period when the children of God shall be manifested in the glory prepared for them. There is an impurity, deformity, and infirmity, which has come upon the creature by the fall of man. There is an enmity of one creature to another. And they are used, or abused rather, by men as instruments of sin. Yet this deplorable state of the creation is in hope. God will deliver it from thus being held in bondage to man's depravity. 

The miseries of the human race, through their own and each other's wickedness, declare that the world is not always to continue as it is. Our having received the first fruits of the Spirit, quickens our desires, encourages our hopes, and raises our expectations. 

[Matthew Henry]

Romans 8:23 ... And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

1 Corinthians 15:22-23 ... For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. ❤

Never Not Remember

There is no peace without grace. Inward peace springs from a sense of Divine favor. And there is no grace and peace but from God our Father, the fountain and origin of all blessings. At Philippi the apostle was evil entreated and saw little fruit of his labor; yet he remembers Philippi with joy. 

We must thank our God for the graces and comforts, gifts and usefulness of others, as we receive the benefit, and God receives the glory. The work of grace will never be perfected till the day of Jesus Christ, the day of his appearance. But we may always be confident God will perform his good work, in every soul wherein he has really begun it by regeneration; though we must not trust in outward appearances, nor in anything but a new creation to holiness. 

People are dear to their ministers, when they receive benefit by their ministry. Fellow-sufferers in the cause of God should be dear one to another. 

[Matthew Henry]

 Philippians 1:3 ...  I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, ❤

Weak but Strong!!

Many a time He gives power to the faint, to those that are ready to faint away; and to those that have no might He not only gives, but increases strength, as there is more and more occasion for it.

To those who are sensible of their weakness, and ready to acknowledge they have no might, God does in a special manner increase strength; for when we are weak in ourselves, then we are strong in the Lord.

[Matthew Henry]

 ✞  ✞  ✞

Joel 3:10 ... Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:10 ... Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

1 Corinthians 1:25 ... Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.❤

Calm and Quiet

It is the most desirable thing to have a calm and quiet temper, and to be of a peaceable and quiet behavior. This tends much to our own and others’ happiness; and Christians should study how to be quiet. We should be ambitious and industrious how to be calm and quiet in our minds, in patience to possess our own souls, and to be quiet towards others; or of a meek and mild, a gentle and peaceable disposition, not given to strife, contention, or division. 

Satan is very busy to disquiet us; and we have that in our own hearts that disposes us to be disquiet; therefore let us study to be quiet. It follows, Do your own business. When we go beyond this, we expose ourselves to a great deal of inquietude. Those who are busy-bodies, meddling in other men’s matters, generally have but little quiet in their own minds and cause great disturbances among their neighbors; at least they seldom mind the other exhortation, to be diligent in their own calling, to work with their own hands; and yet this was what the apostle commanded them, and what is required of us also. 

 [Matthew Henry]

1 Thessalonians 4:11 ...And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; ❤

Preach!!

Be not afraid of saying too much in the praises of God; all the danger is of saying too little. 

 [Matthew Henry]

2 Timothy 4:2 ... Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.❤

Treatment

Christ's followers cannot expect better treatment in the world than their Master had. 

[Matthew Henry]

John 15:18 ... If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.❤

Good Company

Good company and good converse are an excellent antidote against prevailing melancholy. 

[Matthew Henry]

 

Philippians 2:1-2 ...  If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,  Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.❤

His Goodness

The streams of God's goodness are so numerous, and run so full, so strong, to all the creatures, that we must conclude the fountain that is in Himself to be inexhaustible. We cannot conceive how much good our God does every day, much less can we conceive how good He is. 

[Matthew Henry]

Psalm 31:19 ... Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!❤

Remember Him

The way to forget our miseries, is to remember the God of our mercies.

[Matthew Henry]

Psalm 8:3-4 … When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;  What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? ❤

Crown of Glory

The Son of God assures his church of his unfailing love, and his pleading for her under all trails and difficulties. She shall be called by a new name, a pleasant name, such as she was never called by before. The state of true religion in the world, before the preaching of the gospel, no man seemed to have any real concern for. God, by his grace, has wrought that in his church, which makes her his delight. Let us thence learn motives to holiness. If the Lord rejoices over us, we should rejoice in his service.

[Matthew Henry]

Isaiah 62:2-3 ...  And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.  Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.

Revelation 2:17 ... He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

1 Peter 5:4 ... And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.❤

The Kingdom of Christ

Converting grace makes the soul that was a wilderness, to rejoice with joy and singing, and to blossom abundantly. This is the design of the gospel. He that says to us, Be strong, has laid help for us upon One who is mighty. Assurance is given of the approach of Messiah, to take vengeance on the powers of darkness, to recompense with abundant comforts those that mourn in Zion; He will come and save. He will come again at the end of time, to punish those who have troubled his people; and to give those who were troubled such rest as will be a full reward for all their troubles.

[Matthew Henry]

Isaiah 35:1 ... The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

Revelation 22:20 ... He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.❤

Fear Not

God who feeds the sparrows, will not starve His saints! God controls all the concerns of His people, even of those that are most minute, and least regarded. This is an encouragement to live in a continual dependence upon God's providential care. If God numbers our hairs, much more does He number our heads. He takes care of our lives, our needs, our concerns, and our souls. God's universal providence extends itself to all creatures, and to all their actions even the smallest and most minute.

[Matthew Henry]

Matthew 10:29-31 ... Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Luke 12:6-7 ... Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.

1 Peter 5:7 ... Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.❤

The Religion of Sinners

We must beware of deceiving ourselves in denying or excusing our sins. The more we see them, the more we shall esteem and value the remedy.

The Christian religion is the religion of sinners of such as have sinned, and in whom sin in some measure still dwells.

The Christian life is a life of  continued repentance, humiliation for and mortification of sin, continual faith in, thankfulness for, and love to the Redeemer, and  hopeful joyful expectation of a day of glorious redemption, in which the believer shall be fully and finally acquitted, and sin abolished forever!

[Matthew Henry]

1 John 1:8-9 ... If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Matthew 1:21 ... And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.

1 John 1:7 ... But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.❤

Henry Quotes

The Bible is a letter God has sent to us.  Prayer is a letter we send to Him.

We cannot expect too little from man nor too much from God!

A life spent in the service of God and communion with Him, is the most pleasant life that anyone can live in this world.

We should take heed of pride; it is the sin that turned angels into devils!

God is either your best friend or your worst enemy.

Knowledge is vain and fruitless which is not reduced to practice.

[Matthew Henry]

✫❤•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫

God's Tender Mercy

This parable is chiefly designed to set forth the grace and mercy of God to poor sinners who repent and return to Him, and His readiness to forgive them.

How lively are the images of God's tender mercy presented here!

His father saw the son there were eyes of mercy;  he was filled with compassion for him, there was a heart of mercy;  he ran to meet him, there were feet of mercy;  he threw his arms around him, there were arms of mercy;  he kissed him, there were lips of mercy!

Oh, what a God of mercy He is!  Wonders of mercy; all mercy!

[Matthew Henry]

Luke 15:20-24 ... And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.  And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.  But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:  And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:  For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

Oh, what a precious reception for one of the chief of sinners!❤