Oh my friend, if you have been defeated in your Christian life, if you have lost the sacred treasure of salvation from your heart, I adjure you today that you do not throw away everything, but value at their true worth the things that remain to you and hold them fast. In your righteous life, you formed many good habits; do not turn away from them; hold fast to them. You had a thankful and appreciative heart toward God; do not become hard and thankless. You had a reverence for holy things; do not let it go. You had a desire to please God; keep that desire still warm in your bosom. Keep your face turned Godward, not worldward, and make your way back to Him at once.
Sometimes people sin against God then immediately cease their profession and just drift along day after day making no effort to obtain forgiveness. If satan gets advantage of you, or your foot slips in your upward climb, do not let go of all holds and go clear to the bottom, into the pit of sin, there to lie carelessly; do not lose an inch more than you can help losing. If you have sinned, resolutely determine that you will not add to it another sin. Repent of the one committed and press your way right back to God; do not wait for some preacher; do not wait for anything; return to God. To drift along and wait is folly. It is giving satan all the chance he needs.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio
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Refuse to to Accept Defeat
Oh my friend, if you have been defeated in your Christian life, if you have lost the sacred treasure of salvation from your heart, I adjure you today that you do not throw away everything, but value at their true worth the things that remain to you and hold them fast. In your righteous life, you formed many good habits; do not turn away from them; hold fast to them. You had a thankful and appreciative heart toward God; do not become hard and thankless. You had a reverence for holy things; do not let it go. You had a desire to please God; keep that desire still warm in your bosom. Keep your face turned Godward, not worldward, and make your way back to Him at once.
Sometimes people sin against God then immediately cease their profession and just drift along day after day making no effort to obtain forgiveness. If satan gets advantage of you, or your foot slips in your upward climb, do not let go of all holds and go clear to the bottom, into the pit of sin, there to lie carelessly; do not lose an inch more than you can help losing. If you have sinned, resolutely determine that you will not add to it another sin. Repent of the one committed and press your way right back to God; do not wait for some preacher; do not wait for anything; return to God. To drift along and wait is folly. It is giving satan all the chance he needs.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio
#devotionals #devotional #dailydevotional #dailydevotions #scriptureoftheday #christiandevotional #morningdevotional #inspiration #bible #freebooks #christian #motivationalquote #inspirationalquote #churchofgod #devo
The Backslider
In one of the Southern states lived a lady who had at different times professed to be saved but as often backslid. Her daughter, while conversing with me one day, said, “When Mother goes back, she goes full length to the world.” She went on to tell me that when her mother gave up her profession, she at once laid aside her plain attire and decked herself in jewelry and gay clothing and began attending worldly places of amusement. She seemed to think that when she no longer claimed to be saved, she could cast off all restraint and ignore God’s claims upon her entirely and that it did not matter what she did now. Her excuse was, “Oh, I am not saved now.” Just as though that changed, in any degree, her solemn responsibility to obey God!
Some people seem to think that backsliding gives them some sort of indulgence or license to act as they please. Such a view is equally dishonoring to God and to themselves. Sin makes a stain that never can be eradicated. Do not forget this. I make the statement advisedly. I am aware that many persons do not view it thus, but it is only because they do not consider the question as it should be considered. Even the blood of Christ, all-powerful as it is, is not sufficient. This is not heresy; it is solemn truth, and, reader, the sooner you find it out the better. It may make the matter of sin appear more serious to you. The blood of Christ will wash away the guilt of our sins, if we truly repent and believe, and our hearts may be made as pure as though we had never sinned, but the stain of it lies ever upon our memory, and its somber shadow lies upon our life, whenever memory calls it to view. No doubt that shadow will be as eternal as our souls.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio
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Consideration serves as a balance for Aspiration and Inspiration. Its absence has caused disaster many times. Many people grow very enthusiastic and aspire to great things, but because they lack consideration, they run into wild fanaticism and go to great extremes. As a result both they and their religion lose the respect and confidence of the people. How especially true this is in some of the modern holiness movements! Their adherents give themselves over to unseemly demonstrations, ignore good judgment and teach and do things they would not, if they stopped to carefully consider them.
Salvation and all that pertains to it stands on the foundation of wisdom and good sense. Anything that is not according to these is out of harmony with the true principles of religion. So we should weigh our every act and all our teachings in the balance of good judgment. What in our lives or teaching does not appeal to the sound judgment and good sense of others had better be rejected. Genuine holiness, because of its reasonableness, appeals to the intellect and heart of every man. Extremism and fanaticism are not part of true religion. Throw plenty of enthusiasm into your work, but see to it that that enthusiasm is held in proper channels by consideration. Do not let it overflow without bounds. It is sure to run in the wrong direction if you do.
God has given us the power of consideration and understanding to control and guide our energies. By means of these faculties we get the highest and best use of our powers. To act without consideration is very often to act wrongly. God’s acts are always wise, and to be godlike means for us to use what wisdom He gives to us.
Aspire to be and do your best. Throw your soul into whatever you undertake. Be careful and considerate in all your ways so that you “shall neither be barren nor unfruitful,” but that you “shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.”
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio
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There is so much halfhearted work, so much done mechanically, so much form in worship and service. What we need is enthusiasm. We hear much about artistic inspiration and poetic inspiration, but what we really need most of all is spiritual inspiration. Religious forms are cold and dead, until there is put into them the warmth of enthusiasm. Get your soul filled with this glowing warmth. It will lighten your tasks. It will bring success instead of failure. It will be a wellspring of joy. It will make an optimist of you. It will help you break down barriers. It will enable you to surmount obstacles. It will put the shout of victory in your soul in the very face of your foes. An enthusiastic man is a victorious man. An enthusiastic church is a victorious church. Enthusiastic work and worship are filled with a vitality that makes them worthwhile.
Do not be content to be a formalist. Throw yourself into your work. Go at things as though you meant business. Do not be a lazy Christian. An indolent way of doing things can be neither joyful nor successful. The more of your heart you put into your work, the more it will mean to you, and the more it means to you, the more you can accomplish. Have confidence that you will succeed, for confidence will help you attain to your desires. Your energy wisely directed has in it the very element of success. Look at what others are accomplishing by hard work and perseverance. The same qualities in you will win. But keep this one thing in view, that without inspiration or enthusiasm you lack much of the winning quality. Cultivate enthusiasm. Do with your might what your hands find to do.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio
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Each of us ought to desire to be our best for God. Do not be content to be one of the “weak ones” or even an average Christian. Those souls who rise above the average, those who are bright lights in their communities, are not the ones who are easily satisfied with their attainments, nor are they the ones who are willing to be this year as they were last year or the year before. You, as well as anyone else, can be a bright light, if you will. You can be spiritual, if you will. It is not a question of God’s blessing some more than others; it is a question of desire that spurs to active effort to become spiritual.
There is much work to be done, and you have a part in that work. How great that part may be depends more upon your desire to work than upon anything else. Are you, like many professed Christians, willing enough for others to work and willing to be idle yourself? If you really want to do something for the kingdom, there is something that you can do. If you are willing to do anything, no matter what, God will see that you have something to do. No matter how small your task is, it is worth doing well. Look upon the fields, not those afar off but those about you. All around you are souls going to destruction. Forget your own concern. Look at the needs about you till your heart is filled with desire for these souls, till you covet them for the Master as a miser covets gold. Then you will find work enough to do and strength to do it.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
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Aspiration, or ardent desire…is one of the greatest incentives of life. To be contented as we are is one of the most fatal hindrances to progress and activity. There is nothing to stir us to action when desire is satisfied. The trouble with a great multitude of people is that they are satisfied, when conditions do not warrant it. If we are to make progress in the Christian life we must have strong aspirations. These are as a spur to our energies. Aspiration is the cure for being “at ease in Zion.” Aspirations are good or bad according to the motive that prompts them. Some are essentially selfish, and such are necessarily evil. If we desire to be or do for selfish advantage, for glory and praise; if we aspire to be leaders—as so many religious people do, only that they may have authority or honor—our aspirations are evil. But each one of us owes it to himself and to God to desire strongly to be and to do his best for God.
What is the temperature of your spiritual aspirations today? Are you so well satisfied that desire is cold and almost lifeless? Or are you reaching out to the things that are before with an eager yearning? No matter how good or how holy you may be, if you look Christward until you see the depths of His submission to the Father, the length of His love for souls, the heights of His lofty purity and unworldliness, the tenderness of His sympathy, the richness of His communion with the Father, His self-abnegation, His humility, and His unswerving faithfulness, your soul will feel itself so immeasurably beneath Christ that you cannot help longing to be more like Him. It will create in your soul an inexpressible aspiration to draw further away from this old world, with its trifles and its follies, and to draw nearer to Christ, to be more like Him in your inner life, and to act more like Him in your outward life. If you look only at self and self-interest, your spiritual aspirations will fade away, but as you look away from self and behold Him who is altogether lovely, the more you look upon Him the greater will be your desire to be conformed to His likeness and submitted to His will.
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio
Again, we are exhorted to “wait on the Lord, and keep his way....” Psalm 37:34 Let us serve the Lord just as truly as though conditions were ideal and all our desires satisfied. Let us show our fidelity to God by being true, whether circumstances are favorable or unfavorable. God promised Abraham the land of Canaan, but he went up and down in it for many years as a stranger. His posterity went into Egypt and there, under the lash of the taskmaster, they waited, waited, waited. Did not they have God’s promise? Why did God wait so long; was there any adequate reason? Yes, when God waits, there is always a good reason for the waiting. His acts are not arbitrary; He does not act according to caprice; He acts wisely and when it is best. He tells us why He delayed in this case; it was because the sins of the Canaanites had not yet come to the full. When they reached that point, the Lord fulfilled His promise and led the children of Israel out of their bondage into that goodly land.
Have you learned this lesson of waiting upon the Lord? Can you commit your ways to Him and feel that —if desire is still unsatisfied, if obstacles are not yet removed, if trials yet bear upon you—the Father-love is not growing cold, nor His hearing dull, nor has He forgotten? In the proper time and way the answer will be sure, and because of the delay the answer will be fuller and will enrich you more than if it had come when first you asked. Wait patiently on the Lord, trust also in Him, be not weary in well doing, and out of your waiting will come strength, out of your sorrow will come rejoicing, out of the bitterness will come sweetness, and at the end of the way you will find a crown and life everlasting
Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor
Link for book in bio
#devotionals #devotional #dailydevotional #dailydevotions #scriptureoftheday #christiandevotional #morningdevotional #inspiration #bible #freebooks #christian #motivationalquote #inspirationalquote #churchofgod #devo
