The Sayings of Samuel Godfrey George - August 2012

Enjoy something because God created it. Don't enjoy it because of what you can get out of it. There are limits to what you can get out of something God created.

What a little thing pleases you! Look closely. Your passion is spent on a little thing that is as common as dirt.

Smile through the pain. Hope through the disappointment. This is the way to honour your God.

God understands better than any man will ever understand. God forgives more than any man will ever forgive. I prefer God to Man any day.

God wants us to enjoy life and not to run away from it. There is no danger in pleasure as long as it does not injure another, and is experienced in order to glorify a Glorious Maker.

To achieve something you must be calm and untroubled. You cannot work out anything with a burdened and hindered mind.

To say "It's not all about me" is an achievement. To say "It's never about me" is a crowning glory.

Maybe it is the man who appears to fail in the world who achieves success with God.

Don't hurry out of anything. Walk out slowly and deliberately. Know well that you are leaving something you cannot be in any longer. Know that you have no ties with it any more. And walk into that which you cannot deny any more. Know that this is where your entire well-being lies.

You try so hard to impress people. What makes you think that they even care? And if they do care why should you even bother?

"It is good to be positive", they say. For good things happen to positive people. Does that mean good things will not happen to negative people? Some negative people outlive the positive. Some negative people enjoy far more than positive people do. Some negative people have created philosophies from their negativity. Some negative people have made a ton of money with their negative prognostications. Is the negative then really undesirable?

Wait, wait! Don't run away now. You will be tired of your little game soon.

This is a time of abundance. There was a time when I couldn't write anything. I was so uninspired. Now I want to write even when I am off my computer. I want to scribble something down even in the lavatory.

Those who give praise without the intent of receiving anything in return, let them alone praise me.

Say it especially when nobody appears to be listening.

To work for the pleasure of working, to think for the pleasure of thinking, to help for the pleasure of helping - to do all these without the desire for personal gain, that is my greatest hope.

Just don't do the first thing that comes to your mind. Then you may not do the second or the third thing. What comes later may be a more profitable use of your time and energy.

We should question and test everything. No knowledge is as satisfactory as that which is proven in experience.

If you stumble today move the stumbling thing from your path and walk on. If you should stumble again steady yourself and if you should fall rise. Then walk on.

A burdened mind is a hindered mind. A hindered mind cannot find the expression that it desires. The person who is hindered cannot believe that he can complete his task to his satisfaction or achieve anything that he sets his mind on.

Saying it is one thing. Doing it is another. Believing is one thing. Being what one believes is another. Describing it is one thing. Experiencing it is another. This is the gap between me and what I want to be.

The time has indeed come when I need to fix my eyes on God alone. All the false saviours have left the stage. Now I must recognise that there is only one who is able to save.

I have struggled much in my life. That is my blessing. Today I smile because I still struggle. I know what struggle is. I have also tasted success in certain areas of my life. But none of these successes came easy. Everything came after prolonged work and much struggle. Even now as I write about the value of struggle, I realize that whatever knowledge I convey today cannot be conveyed without a prior struggle for understanding in the years of confusion and distress. I still struggle and that is good. Further knowledge will result from this struggle.

It's God who keeps me going. Let me not take any credit for it.

When Saint Paul told us to flee evil, he did not tell us to run away from evil in fear. We should not run away from evil. We should confront it in the strength of Jesus Christ and defeat it. When we run away from evil, we acknowledge that evil is more powerful than we are. The truth is that we, who are in Christ, are more powerful than the forces of evil. Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. We are more than conquerors in Christ. So let us act as conquerors and confront evil and defy it in the power of God. When Saint Paul told us to flee from evil, he told us to walk away from evil deeds in the power of Christ.

The prayer of a sinner is sweet to God's ears. But the prayer of the self-righteous he abhors.

The devil takes something beautiful and turns it into something ugly. God takes that ugly thing and reveals its true beauty.

When you see the disease in your imagination you are on your way back to health.

There is a lesson that you can learn from your greatest pain. There is a glory that you can receive from your greatest shame. Just be aware of the potential in the terrible experience.

There is a path that seems right but it leads to destruction. There is a joy that seems right but it leads to disaster. Happy is the man who heeds the warning and walks away from danger.

When God opens your eyes you will see the horror of what you considered beautiful before. And it is when you see that horror that you will be released from the need to revisit what has become horrible.

If you could feel my flood today you could feel the One who floods in me.

In whatever you do, give thanks to God, the giver of the ability to do anything. Ask God to guide you to the truth regarding all things, and he will show you what is good for you.

Let fear be the least of your motivating forces.

I am here to let my light shine and not to seek applause for it.

I do not have a healthy opinion of what I am, for there is little health in me. But I do have a very healthy opinion of who I am in Christ. In Christ I am more than a conqueror. I am the voice.

Let the giver be ready for rejection. Let the speaker of wisdom be ready for a non-existent audience.

The purpose of knowledge is to share it with others and not to show it off.

It is love that compels best. Fear is the worst motivation for change.

There is always an English teacher in me even if I have walked many a mile away from teaching English.

If there is function in my dysfunction and clarity in my confusion. I attribute these entirely to another living in me.

It is not good to have an angry, unforgiving nature. Having said that it is God alone who can make us less angry and less unforgiving. For it is human nature to take offence and hold grudges against the offender till kingdom come.

In considering what may happen tomorrow, let me not forget what happens today. Let me be thankful for today even if it is the most ordinary day.

Faces are unimportant. What lies behind the face, what is deep beneath the skin, that might well be of some importance.

Respect the will of God even if it seems to be against you. Respect God's choices for you, which may go against your desires. Respect and then accept the will of God.

Christ is the Truth. And He is an unpalatable truth to many.

Having hope when it seems hopeless is good. Giving hope to another when it seems hopeless is better. Clinging to hope and offering hope to others even after many disappointments is best.

In life you must be able to take the rough with the smooth. Especially when it is all rough and not smooth you must accept life and use the many opportunities for learning and development that difficulties and disappointments present. To have hope in such circumstances is not only the kindest act you can do for yourself but also the most beneficial one in the long run.

Forgiving may be difficult, but those who forgive can live without the burden of an unforgiving heart.

May we be blessedly unhurried.

Let us hope in what is good. Let us hope that good may follow from our actions. Let us delight in every act in the hope that it will produce the best results.

To take joy in small things, that is an art and an absolute requirement to experience everyday happiness. Happiness itself is the sum total of a grateful and joyful heart that delights in every little gesture of love. To take joy in small things is the first step forward.

There is only one reason to live. There is only reason to do anything in life. It is to acknowledge the source of life. It is to please the Giver of all gifts. It is to glorify God. It is to proclaim that we belong to Him.

Don't run away from what scares you. Don't turn away from what tempts you. Face your fear and go through your temptation, knowing that God is at your side, and even inside you. His strength shall see you through.

Sometimes it pours. Sometimes it drizzles. Sometimes nothing arrives from the sky. Be thankful for everything from the pouring rain to the dry season. Be firm in faith that everything will turn out for your good. For God is good and He wants to do something good for you.

I'm glad to be alive. I'm glad to be able to do something. I'm glad to be able to give thanks to God. I'm glad to be of help to anyone. I'm just glad to be around. Just glad. That's me today.

What you want may not be what you really want. What you turn away from may be what you really want. Know this today before you know anything else.

Be blessed with rest. It is a great blessing.

I can't run away from God because I don't want to run away from God.

Respect the truth of the Bible. There is no greater truth.

It is not possible to escape from a place of total dependency on God. This I am slowly learning.

Today Lord I submit all. All my longings and all my frustrations I submit to you. I give all you my thoughts, both good and evil. What is good make it better. What is evil make it good. I submit my life. I submit both my walking and my staggering. Strengthen my walk and steady me when I stagger. Oh Lord, you are my only hope.

Today above all let me be sincere with God. Let untruth and exaggeration depart from me.

Truths are hard to manage. They are not easily told. And they may be badly received.

A good attempt is all that is required of you.

When God says, "No" it is irrevocably "no". There is nothing that one can do about it. One must accept this response with grace and move on.

Why would one want to play in darkness when there is light to be enjoyed? This is the truth that overwhelms the folly.

Trusting in God's timing is a difficult kind of trust.

Hatred is the first response. Love is the last response.

We submit to temptation not because we cannot avoid it but because we want to submit to it.

What you have is a blessing even if does not feel like one. What you do not have you do not have to be bothered about.

We say that we cannot control our base impulses when we really don't want to control them. We'd rather release them for this is what we want.

Can I cut off my hand because it doesn't serve me as well as it did before? Even an impaired hand is better than no hand. Even a dysfunctional life is better than being dead.

Unless you risk you shall never find out.

My greatest problem in faith is that from time to time I don't trust God to solve my problems.