All to Him I Owe

One man said, “I’m always in one of three stages of life. I’m either going through trouble, exiting out of trouble, or preparing for trouble to come.” Trouble is a constant in this sin-cursed world, and it can create a sense of instability and uncertainty. It rattles us and leaves us shaken. So, how should we respond to the trouble that shakes our lives?

Isaiah 33:5-6 contain two beautiful truths of God that serve as a beacon of hope in a time of trouble–His position and His possessions. Note the position of God in verse 5: “The Lord is exalted; for he dwelleth on high.” The word dwelleth implies that God consistently lives in this sovereign position of authority. There are no term limits and no potential that He may be demoted. In all of our life and at all times, God rules on high!

The following paragraphs are written by George Mueller in his book, “The Life of Trust.” His testimony is a wonderful challenge to each of us concerning the proper way to look at the connection between the Word of God and our prayer life.

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It has recently pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, irrespective of human instrumentality, as far as I know, the benefit of which I have not lost, though now, while preparing the fifth edition for the press, more than fourteen years have since passed away.

The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished.

For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; prayer and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.

Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as a habitual thing to give myself to prayer, after having dressed myself in the morning. Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the word of God, whilst meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord.

I began therefore to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon his precious word, was, to begin to meditate on the word of God, searching as it were into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the word, not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.

The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that, though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer.

When thus I have been for a while making confession, or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the word may lead to it, but still continually keeping before me that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my 220px-George_Mullerinner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened, and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart.

Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, either very soon after or at a later time, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.

I used to consider the time spent in walking a loss, but now I find it very profitable, not only to my body, but also to my soul.

With this mode I have likewise combined the being out in the open air for an hour, an hour and a half, or two hours, before breakfast, walking about in the fields, and in the summer sitting for a little on the stiles, if I find it too much to walk all the time. I find it very beneficial to my health to walk thus for meditation before breakfast, and am now so in the habit of using the time for that purpose, that when I get into the open air I generally take out a New Testament of good-sized type, which I carry with me for that purpose, besides my Bible; and I find that I can profitably spend my time in the open air, which formerly watchwas not the case, for want of habit. I used to consider the time spent in walking a loss, but now I find it very profitable, not only to my body, but also to my soul. The walking out before breakfast is of course not necessarily connected with this matter, and every one has to judge according to his strength and other circumstances.

The difference, then, between my former practice and my present one is this: Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events I almost invariably began with prayer, except when I felt my soul to be more than usually barren, in which case I read the word of God for food, or for refreshment, or for a revival and renewal of my inner man, before I gave myself to prayer. But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour, on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often, after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then began really to pray. I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it) about the[209] things that he has brought before me in his precious word. It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this point.

In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is, to obtain food for his inner man.

As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow. Now what is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the word of God; and here again, not the simple reading of the word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts. When we pray, we speak to God.

Now, prayer, in order to be continued for any length of time in any other than a formal manner, requires, generally speaking, a measure of strength or godly desire, and the season, therefore, when this exercise of the soul can be most effectually performed is after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the word of God, where we find our Father speaking to us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to instruct us, to humble us, to reprove us.

We may therefore profitably meditate, with God’s blessing, though we are ever so weak spiritually; nay, the weaker we are, the more we need meditation for the strengthening of our inner man. There is thus far less to be feared from wandering of mind than if we give ourselves to prayer without having had previously time for meditation. I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself, and I affection[210]ately and solemnly beseech all my fellow-believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials, in various ways, than I had ever had before; and after having now above fourteen years tried this way, I can most fully, in the fear of God, commend it. In addition to this I generally read, after family prayer, larger portions of the word of God, when I still pursue my practice of reading regularly onward in the Holy Scriptures, sometimes in the New Testament and sometimes in the Old, and for more than twenty-six years I have proved the blessedness of it. I take, also, either then or at other parts of the day, time more especially for prayer.

How different, when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one!

I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer.

A lack of hydration and increased exposure to the elements can leave a person in a dangerous physical condition. As we noted in previous artcles, heat exhaustion carries many parallels to spiritual exhaustion. A lack of spiritual hydration (the Word) and increased exposure to the elements (our worldly culture) can leave a person in a dangerous spiritual condition. We have also noted that there is a connection between our external circumstances and the internal condition of our souls. With that connection in mind, I warned us of preoccupying ourselves with trying to remove adverse circumstances from our lives, at the expense of nourishing our soul with the Word.

As a final thought to this topic let’s look again at Psalm 143 this week for a quick thought. Note verses 5-6: “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.”

Do you see one of the Psalmist’s antidotes to his thirsty soul? It is found in the words remember and meditate. Parched souls must redirect their thoughts from their present circumstances to the past works of God. Our ability to meditate is key to watering the parched soul. Let me give you two principles and four tools for meditation.

Principle 1: Meditation is not the emptying of the mind; it is the focusing of the mind. New age thought teaches that meditation is the fine art of emptying your mind of all thoughts and sitting in a state of mindless bliss. True Biblical meditation consists of focusing our thoughts on the right thing! Let the thoughts of the previous works of God consume your mind and water your soul.

Principle 2: Meditation is not the result of thinking; it is the result of the will. We must make the willful choice to think correctly about things that are Biblical and essential. For instance, Biblical thinking is choosing to dwell on Who God is rather than on why He does things. We may not know all the answers to the why question, but we can dwell on the things we do know for sure about His character. An example of essential thinking is to dwell on things God would have me do in response to these circumstances, rather than on the things that I can’t change or affect.

After you’ve made the choice to think Biblically, use the tools of concentration, memorization, isolation, and repetition to help you meditate on the right things for the sake of your parched soul. Concentrate on scripture by eliminating all other distractions when you sit down to pray and read God’s Word. Memorize key passages of scripture that deal with the promises or character of God. Hide in a closet, take a walk, or get up early in attempts to find an isolated place to meditate on God’s Word. Do these things once, and then do it again. Meditation needs to be done in repetition. Our parched souls came through the repetition of exposure to the elements with the absence of the Word. Repetitious exposure to the Word of God is a necessary ingredient to restoring your soul.

My prayer is that God will guard our souls against exhaustion and keep us well-nourished!

A lack of hydration and increased exposure to the elements can leave a person in a dangerous physical condition. As we noted in the previous article, heat exhaustion carries many parallels to spiritual exhaustion. A lack of spiritual hydration (the Word) and increased exposure to the elements (our worldly culture) can leave a person in a dangerous spiritual condition.

Let’s look again at Psalm 143 this week for a quick thought. Note verses 3-4: “For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead. Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.”

The word therefore in verse four signals a connection between the external pressures of life that are happening in verse three and the Psalmist’s overwhelmed spirit in verse four. There is no question here that life circumstances can contribute to a parched soul. With that in mind, here are two simple things that I want to remind you of today concerning the life circumstances affecting your soul.

1. Don’t become so preoccupied with the life circumstances that you neglect your own soul. Adversity in our lives is inevitable, because we live in a fallen world. It is difficult for us to navigate through any given day without encountering some type of difficulty. It may vary from as a difficult as a car accident to as minor as a broken shoe lace. Ephesians 6:11 reminds us that Satan is a wily force who is skilled in trickery. One of his common tricks is the fine art of diversion. He attempts to divert our attention from our own souls and place them on external things. We combat spiritual exhaustion by keeping our attention on the eternal part of our being (soul) rather than keeping our attention on the temporal part of our lives (circumstances).

2. Don’t be tricked into thinking that the absence of adverse circumstances on the external will produce a nourished soul. Thinking that the absence of adversity will bring nourishment for your soul is as absurd as thinking that the absence of sun will automatically bring moisture to the soil. We cannot control the adverse circumstances in our lives. Our sovereign God is the One Who is in control of those. We can control the amount of nourishment our soul receives through properly exposing it to the Word of God. Combat spiritual exhaustion in your life through a daily exposure to the Word (your daily devotions) and a weekly exposure to the Word (your attendance in church).

Give attention to your soul today! Respond to its exhaustion with an intensive exposure to the water of the Word.

With the activities of summer come higher temperatures and the possibility of heat exhaustion. A lack of hydration and increased exposure to the elements can leave a person in a dangerous physical condition. Heat exhaustion carries many parallels to spiritual exhaustion. A lack of spiritual hydration (the Word) and increased exposure to the elements (our worldly culture) can leave a person in a dangerous spiritual condition.

Look at the words of Psalm 143:4, 6: “Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate . . . I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.”  The author of Psalm 143 is David, the man after God’s own heart, reminding us that spiritually-parched souls are common among people who are spiritually minded. Because spiritually-minded people have experienced well-watered souls, they know when their soul is parched. Our church is filled with spiritually-minded people. It is common for me to hear you request prayer for your own walk with God or to articulate a desire for a deeper relationship with God. Take heart that missionary biographies and the Psalms both describe countless people just like us who desired refreshment for their spiritually-parched souls.

But as we look for this refreshment, we must be sure we’re not turning to artificial refreshments, those things like pouring our efforts into projects, acquiring things, pursuing relationships, and enjoying leisure—all of which have an ability to distract us and provide a sense of refreshment; but in the end, they can leave us even thirstier. Solomon is a great example of a man who turned to artificial refreshments and concluded in the book of Ecclesiastes that all of those pursuits left him empty and vain.

So, what is a right solution to spiritual dehydration? Look at the first phrase in Psalm 143:6: “I stretch forth my hands unto thee.” David sought the Lord! He didn’t turn to artificial stimulants. He devoted his efforts to getting help from God. This also means that he didn’t just turn to things that told him to turn to God. He went directly to God! I point this out, because I have found myself sometimes using Christian books, sermons, even church attendance to quench my spiritual thirst; but in the end, those things kept telling me the same thing: God is the solution! Those spiritual things are not wrong pursuits in and of themselves; we just need to remember that even spiritual things can’t quench what God says that only He can do.

David’s phrase “I stretch forth my hands” is a physical act that illustrates his spiritual cry to the Lord. David spoke directly to God, through prayer, about his condition and asked God to water his soul. The Psalmist models that an appropriate solution for a dry soul is to spend long periods of time with God in prayer.

If your spiritual life is feeling dry and parched, then carve out a significant period of time this week and just pray! A long season of prayer may feel like a much needed rain storm for your soul.

Beneth and I were both educated in traditional classrooms of education. Upon entering the ministry, we both found ourselves teaching and administrating in a Christian school. When we moved to Folsom five years ago, we chose to break from our experiences of education and chose to educate our girls at home. The choice to homeschool has been far more difficult than we anticipated but also far more profitable than we imagined. Because neither of us was experienced in homeschooling, we sought the advice of others and have given careful observation to families who have seemed to succeed at homeschooling their children. Through that observation, I have noted five things that successful homeschooling families all seem to have in common. In light of the many families within our church that are starting a new year of homeschooling with their children, I pass this on to you today with the hope that it is a help.

1. Successful homeschoolers are motivated by conviction, not convenience. The conveniences of homeschooling range all the way from determining your own schedule and pace of a school year to choosing your own dress code for the day. But as a school year progresses and as our children enter higher grades with tougher subjects, the conveniences of homeschooling begin to fade away. The family that has chosen to homeschool out of a conviction that this is God’s will for them will find a stronger ability to stick with it when the conveniences are not so evident.

2. Successful homeschoolers choose a Bible-based curriculum and stick with it. The market is filled with all kinds of educational curriculum. Those curriculums contain a wide variety of price, difficulty, emphasis, and philosophy. Successful homeschoolers put a high premium on the selection of curriculum. When given the choice between saving a few dollars or obtaining a Bible-based curriculum, the successful homeschooling families choose a Bible-based one. In addition to choosing a good curriculum, they also choose to stick with it and see the scope and sequence of that curriculum all the way through. Try to avoid getting caught up in the marketing ploys of publishers. Find a good curriculum and stick with it.

3. Successful homeschoolers guard against social exclusivity. Exclusivity is sometimes born out of fear – a fear of the sinful world around us and its potential influence. Sometimes it is born out of pride that believes one can ignore Biblical institutions (like the local church) and raise children alone. There are select fringes of the homeschooling movement that foster a mentality of exclusivism that pulls families away from social interaction with the world and committed participation in a local church. The successful homeschooling families that I have observed work hard at not being exclusive. They strive to instill in their children a burden for the lost world and an evangelistic unction to reach that world with the Gospel. They joyfully participate and commit to a local church and teach their children to be discerning about peer dependence, while also emphasizing peer interaction. Most homeschooling families I know have chosen a community to interact with as a family. That community ranges from sports leagues, Scout troops, orchestras, theatre clubs, sometimes even just a particular fellowship of homeschooling families. The greatest community we can be a part of is our own local church. Don’t let your involvement in extracurricular communities eliminate your ability to be a part of your church community.

4. Successful homeschoolers strive for structured flexibility. The shouldering of responsibility to train our children at home is huge! The teaching, scheduling, and administrating of homeschooling can be extremely overwhelming. Add the management of a home, work responsibilities, church involvement, and extended family obligations; and you have a full schedule. The choice to homeschool includes a choice to be disciplined and regimented in getting the task done. One of the conveniences of homeschooling is the ability to be flexible, but flexibility cannot reign to the expense of finishing the required subjects and making sure education is actually happening. Children need the parents to set the structure and enforce it. Successful homeschooling families don’t allow education to slip, because they have failed to be disciplined in maintaining a structure.

5. Successful homeschoolers trust God, not their methods of education. The educational path we choose for our children will impact our children but not determine our child’s outcome. Godly children have come from more traditional school environments like public or private education. The method of education does not guarantee a particular outcome in our children’s lives. Successful homeschooling families all seek to trust God for the outcome of their children. They pray, plead, and present Biblical truth to their children while maintaining a full trust in God.

Homeschooling is hard work! Successful homeschooling doesn’t happen accidently. I’m praying today for the many families of our church that have begun a new school year. May the Lord bless your efforts and raise up a great generation of God-fearing children to be used in the harvest fields of ministry.