The Sayings of Samuel Godfrey George - Self-Assessment and Resolutions

To like a person for his or her looks, what a deceptive thing that is! I have fallen for looks many times and I am far from being victorious in this area. Thankfully God is with me to guide me away from such superficial attractions. With God I have learned to look into the hearts and minds of people. I do not have the prowess of God in such a task. But I certainly have his Spirit in me, and He gives me insight into human nature.

Doing what I think is good is not good enough anymore. Doing what is truly good in the eyes of God is what I need to do. My life should be determined by God’s will for me. May I seek God’s will as those who thirst in a dry land seek water.  

I don’t want to meet anyone randomly. Let every human contact be God-ordained and purpose-driven. Let every person I meet be the one God wants me to meet for a certain reason.

It is time for me not to say that I love God. That time is over. It is time for me to prove that I love God. And the only way I can do that is by following God and living according to His teachings.

To experience the good things of life as I see them or to experience them as God promises to reveal them, that is the question.

To destroy a person is absolutely easy. I have the linguistic and cerebral skills to dismantle many and even any. But the fact that I refuse to wield the sword as the world wields it, is a testimony of my exceptional restraint, a gift from God. To construct a person is particularly difficult and sometimes immensely annoying. But that is another story.

All this silence is good. I have stayed much in places that are not silent. Now I can hear the sound of my own thoughts and discern the truth of what I am not hearing. This is the blessing that may appear distressing.

I shall let you remain only to remind me of how unsatisfactory you are, of how futile the pursuit of the unsatisfactory is.

It is always, "Why have people not noticed? Why have people not commented? Why have people not agreed with me?" When will it be, "Why have I not noticed God? Why have I not sought God's opinion? What does God think about what I just did?" This is the mental graduation that has till now eluded me.

So what if the world finds my faith laughable? I shall not laugh along with the world.

This is where I often get derailed. It is not what I do. It is what God does in me and through me. What I can do is solely determined by what God can do through me.

My mind is my worst enemy. No human being, not even the devil can exert an influence so destructive as that of my own mind. Therefore it is most important that I befriend my own mind, that I find a way to coexist with my established thought patterns and to conform them slowly and gradually to the life that I am to live.

I may not have certain things. But what I do have is precious, and probably more precious than what I do not have. Let me not forget to give thanks to God for what I have today.

I need a place and a time for making mistakes. I must make mistakes in order to learn. I need to learn because I want to know. I want to know so that I may ascertain my doubts.

Would not the direct approach have been better? Was it not best to hit the bull's-eye? At the least I would have failed trying to do what I wanted to do. At the most I would have accomplished my goal sooner.

How dare I feel this joy of life! Where is all this warmth coming from? There is a fountain within me unseen. Suddenly it flows out as I reflect on Christ and His power, His liberating power. Yes, Christ liberates. Christ releases the one with the convict mentality.

God rewarded me well when I was at my worst. Can it therefore be said that he shall reward me more when I improve my behaviour? And if he rewarded me more when I behaved better, then he surely rewarded me for my improved behaviour. I know that God is gracious, and if he rewarded a man for his behaviour then that reward cannot be gracious as it is merited. Thus I conclude that a perfectly gracious God cannot and should not base his reward on behaviour. Needless to say my conclusion is based on human wisdom, which is not as wise as God's foolishness.

I'm so happy Lord. I'm so happy that I can love others. It was you who put that love in me. It was you who gave me the power to convey it.

What startles me from my complacency? This is the only thing worth looking forward to.

I have nothing. I own nothing. I come to you as nothing. This life is yours. This voice is yours. This body is yours. I have treated your salvation with little respect. I have treated you with little respect. Forgive me today. I count on your mercy. I deserve no mercy. But I count on your grace. Have mercy on this nothing. Listen to the cry of this nothing. And put an end to my folly. Amen.

It's not what I do. It's what I am led to do.

The first Christian service I should do is to be courteous and kind to all people. I should smile and speak encouraging words to everyone, even to those who are difficult to deal with. I ask everyone at my home to practise this. It is not easy for people to show love and gentleness. This I have painfully discovered. However we should never stop trying. The first thing Christ-like to me is a spirit of kindness that endures all challenges.

Till now I have wanted my life to go a certain way, my way. I imagined my life taking a certain turn. I saw myself achieving certain goals and living a certain kind of life. Now I am going to lay this down to rest. I have been struggling with God too long. Now I shall let Him lead me. I shall let Him have His way. I shall ask Him to do His will, whatever that may be. I shall take what He has to offer and live with it.

It is God who empowers and guides me. What I do is a result of his empowerment and guidance. What results from what I do is the fulfilment of God's purpose for me, and though I may have carried out a certain sequence of actions in the world, the origin of those actions is in God who alone determines their nature and purpose.

I have been subtle. Do you recognize my subtlety? The word "subtlety" may suggest one or the other. But this is what I mean. By a mere rearrangement of my name, I suggested a growth, an evolution from voicelessness to voice, from heartlessness to heart, from Godlessness to God.