Acquire a government over your ideas, that they may come down when they are called, and depart when they are bidden.
Isaac WattsRead
Order my footsteps by Thy Word and make my heart sincere; let sin have no dominion, Lord, but keep my conscience clear.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of guidance from a higher power to live a sincere and moral life.
Isaac Watts expresses a heartfelt plea for divine guidance in one's actions and thoughts. He recognizes the struggle against sin and the desire for a clear conscience, highlighting the need for a higher moral compass to navigate life's challenges with sincerity and integrity. The quote reflects a deep understanding of human frailty and the necessity of seeking spiritual help to maintain righteousness.
In practice
In a sermon about seeking divine guidance in our lives.
Acquire a government over your ideas, that they may come down when they are called, and depart when they are bidden.
Instructors should not only be skilful in those sciences which they teach, but have skill in the method of teaching, and patience in the practice.
Acquaint yourself with your own ignorance.
To prevent and suppress rising resentment is wise and glorious, is manly and divine.
Kind words toward those you daily meet, Kind words and actions right, Will make this life of ours most sweet, Turn darkness into night.
Though reading and conversation may furnish us with many ideas of men and things, yet it is our own meditation must form our judgment.
I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.
Hear this or not, as you will. Learn it now, or later -- the world has time. Routine, repetition, tedium, monotony, ephemeracy, inconsequence, abstraction, disorder, boredom, angst, ennui -- these are the true hero's enemies, and make no mistake, they are fearsome indeed. For they are real.
Prefer punishment to disgraceful gain; for the one is painful but once, but the other for one's whole life.
Self-acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship to myself.
I once heard a theologian remark that in the Gospels people approached Jesus with a question 183 times whereas he replied with a direct answer only three times. Instead, he responded with a different question, a story, or some other indirection. Evidently Jesus wants us to work out answers on our own, using the principles that he taught and lived.
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