What an encouraging thought that Jesus - our beloved Husband - can find comfort in our lowly feeble gifts! Can this be, for it seems far too good to be true? May we then be willing to endure trials or even death itself if through these hardships we are assisted in bringing gladness to Immanuel's heart.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the idea that even our humble offerings can bring joy to Jesus, encouraging us to endure hardships for a higher purpose.
In this quote, Charles Spurgeon highlights the comforting notion that our small and seemingly insignificant efforts can bring happiness to Jesus, often referred to as Immanuel. It suggests that despite our weaknesses and limitations, there is profound value in our willingness to persevere through challenges, as these struggles may contribute to a greater purpose of spreading joy and love, ultimately seeking to please God.
In practice
This quote can be used during a church service to inspire the congregation about the value of their contributions.
Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.
After faith comes repentance, or, rather, repentance is faith's twin brother and is born at the same time.
["All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant."] The original Hebrew word that has been translated "paths" means "well-worn roads' or "wheel tracks," such ruts as wagons make when they go down our green roads in wet weather and sink in up to the axles. God's ways are at times like heavy wagon tracks that cut deep into our souls, yet all of them are merciful.
Saving faith is the faith of God's elect; the special gift of God to them, wrought in them by his Spirit.
Faithful servants have a way of knowing answered prayer when they see it, and a way of not giving up when they don't.
The Spirit of God leads the people of God to submit to the Word of God.
God is God. Because he is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what he is up to.
God will not turn away from doing you good. He will keep on doing good. He doesn't do good to His children sometimes and bad to them other times. He keeps on doing good and He never will stop doing good for ten thousand ages of ages. When things are going bad that does not mean God has stopped doing good. It means He is shifting things around to get them in place for more good, if you will go on loving Him.
God involves us in his missions not because He needs us, but because He loves us. And in His mercy He has invited us to be involved in His sovereign design for the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.