The Sayings of Samuel Godfrey George - September 2012

Don't be in a hurry to express your heart. Wait a bit and then offer what is still left in you.

Even if your own father and mother do not believe in you, you must still believe in yourself.

Every time I doubt the existence of God, I should think of how I was led to meet my father just before his death. A most disturbing dream impelled me to meet my father and do something uncharacteristic. I, who was at loggerheads with my father nearly all my life, was finally moved to apologize to him for my many faults. This humbling must have given him some relief. It surely gave me relief from my guilt, which had I not apologized would have been unbearable. He gave me his blessing before the end. So every time I wonder whether God is real, I should ask myself, "How did I meet my father just before his death? What made me say the words that freed both of us from the yoke of discord? This cannot be just a fortuitous event."

The best time to pray for someone is right now. Praying for others is the hardest kind of prayer. A human being is naturally self-conscious and self-centred. He promises to pray for others, but his prayers are usually focused on his own needs. He must overcome this tendency in the strength of God and become the lover that he is divinely designed to be. As a lover he will discover that his prayers are most rewarding when they focus on others, even those whom he has never met and from whom he has little hope of ever receiving thanks.

Every time I want to say something, I can say it immediately or say it later. If I say it soon it may turn out to be not properly considered. If I say it later it may not be in my memory clearly enough to be expressed in the way that it existed originally. This is the difficulty in the making of statements.

To recognize the limits of human understanding is more important in the exercise of human wisdom than the persistent and well-intentioned striving to understand what clearly lies beyond human knowledge. The human mind is amazingly capable of grasping certain truths and still incapable of grasping certain other truths that lie beyond what can be humanly reached.

Gratitude will be my only response to everything that life throws at me. I have tried many other responses and none satisfy me as much as gratitude.

We will only learn the hard way. That is the cost of knowledge.

From a bitter disappointment precious learning proceeds. So swallow your bitter pill with an attitude of hope.

Everything teaches me. Even nothing teaches me.

I cannot express every talent of mine. Not every talent can produce the benefit that I intend.

You cannot let external factors dictate your work. You have to do what is required. You work for One Who cannot be seen and at times cannot be felt in the deepest sense. All that you have and will ever have is the inner conviction that you are working for His Kingdom. This you should not doubt. And He Whom you work for will provide for all your needs.

When a door closes another one will open. This is a divine principle. He who closes doors can also open them. Those who trust in God should believe in this.

Many are my foes. But great is my force. For within me is God who is greater than the sum of all my foes and fears.

There is a real and unpleasant reason behind every fabricated and consoling reason.

God has given us minds and mouths to express ourselves responsibly. What we say has potential to construct or destruct others. So when we express ourselves let us do unto others what we would have them do unto us.

Go to places where few will see you. And give to those who will not thank you and give to them when there is no one to see you.

I wrestled with God. The worst of me met the best of him. And that is the greatest thing that happened in my life.

Everything needs to be looked at from time to time, even things that seem to run well. Even in the well-run machine there may be the rudiments of a most disruptive clog.

There is a beast within me. And he is growing increasingly tame in the presence of a greater One.

May God's will be done. And that's enough. 

One should notice that in life what happens is usually not what one wants to happen but something else than that. It is rare to find a case of a human being who willed something to happen unless he does so by force encroaching on and maybe even disrupting other people’s lives. Life is usually what happens rather than what is made to happen. A greater will than that of Man appears imposed on life events. In spiritual terms this will is imposed from above. It could be either God or the devil who imposes this will on the world. Those who are inclined to God want God’s will to be done on earth and the others desire the devil’s will consciously or not. Those who are not spiritual have no clue as to what moves this world. They should at least know that it is not they who move it.

One should not go out to influence people. One should go out only to express one’s point of view. That is all one can be reasonably expected to do.

A person should exercise patience. Often in life one does not get one's way. A great deal of hopeful waiting is thus required for a person to accomplish anything. The one who is willing to give something valuable to the world should wait until his offering is accepted and should even tolerate the possible rejection of what he offers.

Sometimes crazily things work and sometimes crazily things don't work. It is crazy to try to understand why things work. There is such a thing as timing, and those who believe in God call it God's timing, to explain inadequately the seemingly nonsensical way in which favourable tides enter one's life. For the deeper patterns few will ever know if they could know.

I should not want to write a book. I should want to inform the world.

You can only be what you are made to be.

There is nothing that a godly man can do apart from God.

When you can smile with joy at a friend's success, you have indeed come a long way.

Sometimes we try and do not get. Sometimes we do not try and get. That is the nature of the game.

There is a harvest of righteousness that no man of God can be denied.

Those who come to you so that you may go to them are not the ones to be entertained.

This is all a bit backbreaking, this thing called doing good.

Do not expose too much value at one time. The human mind is not equipped to deal with more than a certain value.

Even the best of us fail. Even the strongest weaken. Even the brightest fade. This is the frailty of human beings.

Even if you think you know something you know little. Humility is the only attitude appropriate to knowledge.

What will I choose to celebrate, the lie or the truth? This is the question that I need to answer every day.

God is the truth. And he is an unpalatable truth to some.

Praise could be the worst enemy to the growth of a man's soul.

When the world celebrates you, can you emerge from its adoring gaze in one piece?

What is not noticed now will not stay unnoticed forever.

We don’t know when and how the work of God will impact a human being. But we do know that the work that God does through his people will impact others at a certain time, even if that work seems quite unprofitable today. For his work is a product of his word, and his word shall not return to him without achieving its goal.

The need for God in my life is very high. That is my blessing.

There is a moment of despair even in faith. After a miracle doubt may still linger. This is what happens when the visible interacts with the invisible, when Man set in his ways reacts to God whose ways diverge so greatly, when the fickle human contemplates the eternally constant divine.

The beginning is never a good sight to human eyes. Yet to God's eyes it is the sign of wonderful things to come.

You can give love and still be rejected. You can speak the truth and still not be heard.

To do good one should not be ashamed.

Knowing the difference between reality and fantasy is important. Choosing reality over fantasy is even more important.

The adverse reaction of people will not impact the man of God who is speaking for his Maker. People may respond favourably. Most often they may respond unfavourably. And at other times there may be no response at all. But the work of God must be done and will be done regardless of people's response.

Whatever you say about it and however you say it and in whatever manner you present it, the world will never satisfy the heart that hungers for God.

If you can mix freedom and caution in the right proportion you have learned a great lesson indeed. Such a mixture is arrived at after a great deal of experimentation, after much failure and many undesirable accidents.

It is tough. But you must go on. Let your mind not waver or be crippled by doubt. Believe in what you have to do. See what you are planning to do even before you do it. See in your mind the end of your journey long before you actually reach it. Walk on when you really want to give up. Walk on especially when you want to give up.

We are performance-oriented people with a fixation on visible performance. If the numbers are not there then the performance has failed. We have no cognizance of invisible and intangible things that happen as a result of what we do. So we go by what we see, which may be less significant than what we do not see and thus we completely ignore the invisible and utterly miss the point.

In my room there is little space and I am grateful for it.

The right response to repentance is forgiveness.

When an audience applauds together, it is impossible to savour an individual response.

"Thank you Lord" is the simplest and the sweetest thing to say to God now and for evermore.

When miracles happen, smile and receive them. Don't analyse and doubt them.

How you behave when things don't go your way determines who you really are more than anything that you ever accomplish.

The life of faith must be lived on God's terms. Much as we like to know, God does not reveal everything and generally seems to withhold information. This may be so to encourage trust, for it is only through obedience and trust that a man achieves his salvation.

I'd like to remind myself that I am not working for human appreciation. If I am, I am quite lost and certainly unworthy of my calling. I believe that I have been called by God to speak for Him, to serve as His voice. As such my focus should be entirely on connecting with God and expressing the thoughts that He places in me. I work for God and for His pleasure only. This I must not only remember every waking and sleeping moment, but also implement in practice all the time.

Terrible thoughts have terrible consequences. Do not forget that you have to pay a price for what you put in your mind. Mere thoughts can have great effects.

It may not be easy to throw things away. But they can be thrown away. But it is extremely difficult to throw people away. That could be hazardous to both the thrower and the thrown.

One thing at a time, and then you will not do many things wrong.

A life that is out of joint with God will be under stress. And where stress is disease breeds. A life that is in sync with God will be happy. And where happiness is health will also increase.

Don’t look at your disease or disease-like symptom. Look at God who can heal any disease in your body and in your mind. Focus only on the Healer and go to Him in confidence and do not focus on your distressing disease.

Where God is disease cannot reign.

I cannot let sin reign in my mortal body and then wonder why I cannot spiritually ascend.

The knowledge of truth is not enough. The practice of truth is what ultimately matters. This King Solomon lamentably demonstrated.

I have learned the hardest lessons, yet sometimes I barely remember them.

My love for God is obvious. But there is another love in my heart, which is hidden deeply in my soul. It is my love for godlessness. Every day I struggle to express one and restrain the other. Some days the battle is intense and hopeless. On other days like this one hope shines out as my love for God appears to be the inevitable winner.

Display your best behaviour to your family before you display it to others.

It is in carelessness that selflessness is born. Carefulness is the inalienable quality of the self-conscious.

Can I separate the black from my white? Can my white be ever without its dark impurities?

True love emerges from many heartbreaking failures.

If you think that you have time to spare, then make your bed, clean your room, do something profitable, just don't entertain harmful, evil thoughts.

Discard or at least postpone indefinitely every desire that attempts to unseat God from the throne of your heart.

It takes much confusion to arrive at clarity.

Love will be our home. Love should be our home. More important than anything else is that we should love one another as we have been loved by God. We should love without expectation and with the intent not to take but to give only what is good and beneficial to another.

If you can truly enjoy another person's work, when your own work goes unnoticed you have come a long way.

Until you try you will never find out.

Before Jesus died he said to his disciples, "Love one another as I have loved you." Love is the main theme of Jesus' teachings. Without love nothing is possible. Without love nothing is worthwhile even if possible. Love is greater than faith and hope. Those who love will always be first, will always enter God's rest before those who have faith in God and yet are without love. So loving one another without discrimination of any kind and expectation of any kind is the best way to live.

The greatest challenge every day is to be good to all people, especially to those at home. Showing politeness to others, caring for others and gently tolerating the shortcomings of others may pose a far greater challenge than any problem that one is battling against.

Even if I say, "I am tired and sleepy", I immediately feel tired and sleepy. Such is the power of words over the mind. Let us then be careful about we say to ourselves. Ultimately the mind accepts and acts on everything that is spoken to it.

We are eager to believe in the lies of the world and reluctant to believe in the truths of God.

Fear is the last reason why you should go to God.

You triumph over problems in the presence of those problems, not in their absence. So do not today seek to remove your problems by force or try to run away from them in fear. Neither way will you gain victory. You gain victory only when you live with your problems and overcome them by knowing and studying them well enough for them to lose their hold over you. When you know a problem and recognize why it is a problem, you gain a degree of mastery over it.

“O Lord save me! Have mercy upon me. I am a sinner struggling with my sin, I have no power over it except what you have given me. Continue to empower me, O Lord. Help me obey you, O Lord. Let me love what you love and hate what you hate. Apart from you I can do nothing. Problems have come to strangle the joy out of my life. But I will not lose hope. For my hope is in you. And nothing is difficult for you. Today I lay down all my burdens at your feet, O Lord. Please do not despise my broken and contrite heart.” This is the prayer that I say today.

Abstinence makes the addiction grow stronger and not weaker as you may think. When you abstain from something its power grows over you and you are consumed by a raging desire to get back to what you ran away from. When you surrender to this impulse eventually you realize that abstinence is not the solution but the complication of a problem. There is no solution until you surrender to the problem and see why it is a problem. Admit your vulnerability to the problem and analyse it. Why should you be vulnerable to this weakness? What exactly do you seek in it? Do you find what you seek? And if you do not and if you are still unsatisfied after you fulfil your desire should you not seek fulfilment elsewhere? The knowledge you gain by this will not free you from the addiction but it is the first step to loosening its grip over you.

You can't lose hope soon. You can't lose hope late. You can't lose hope ever.

Praise God all the time they say, for that is the way to overcome the devil. But what sort of praise is a formulaic and forced praise that is strategically aimed at getting the best out of God? I know that it is right to give God praise. But one must not praise God for the sake of getting something out of Him. That is what flatterers do in the world to receive favour.

Why is one trying to predict the exact time when Jesus Christ will return to earth? He will certainly not return when he is expected to return. He will come like a thief. There is no use in predicting the day of His return. It is better to assume that He could return today, and be ready to receive Him this very day.

The truth has many facets, sometimes opposing ones. The hope that one finds in faith must be counterbalanced with the hopelessness that is also felt in faith. Both hope and hopelessness find expression in the Bible and mostly hope triumphs, but not without a fierce struggle and such hope rarely emerges unscathed.

"Hope cannot hurt. A person can do no damage to himself by hoping", it is said. But hope can hurt when it is placed in what is not true. A person who harbours hope of this kind does more damage to himself than a person without hope. Therefore, let it not be said that all hope is good. Sometimes being without hope is more helpful than being with hope.

More than actions we need to examine our intentions and thought processes. Why are we doing what we are doing? What are our goals really? Are they the goals that we want to pursue? If not what should our goals be? This is the way to go.

Some truths that I have accepted to be true may well be untrue. It is therefore important to examine every truth, especially the most accepted. One must be willing to admit the possibility that one could be wrong.

It will not qualify as a miracle until you let it happen. Just don't make it happen.

After I satisfy my flesh I can ponder the deep questions of the spirit. The flesh complements the spirit. There can be no awareness of the spirit without the flesh. And there can be no incentive in exploring the spirit if not for the impulse to break free from the tyranny of the flesh.

There is a natural end to every strong desire and that is the only way to end it.

It doesn't matter how big your muscles are. If you feel like a loser, even a less muscular person can beat you up.

It is okay to be a sinner. But be an honest sinner.

I don't want to please my friends. I want to try them to the utmost.

When you fail repeatedly, you are not afraid of failure any more.

Where there is guilt, there is condemnation. Where there is condemnation, there is worry. Where there is worry, there is despair. Happy is the man who can lay aside his guilt. And there is no way to lay aside the guilt except by giving it to him who is willing to take it upon himself. And he is Christ.

There are two sides to me. One is the spiritual side that I reveal to the spiritually minded. The other is the fleshly side that agrees with the world. As long as one is in the world one should agree in certain vital respects with the world. One cannot stick out like a sore thumb at least not to a degree that repels people away from what one has to say. Even the spiritual man who communicates with the world has to convey his truth in a manner that is palatable to the world.

An obedient heart is not a man-made thing. Obedience to God is the hardest thing, as God monitors not only the outward man but also the inward. I have tried to obey God but I have never succeeded beyond a few hours or days. Have I then tried in my own strength? It should be so, for I cannot imagine God working in me so inefficiently. Thus I conclude that the power to obey actually comes from God and only He can impart it to Man.

No matter how evil your heart is and how sinful you still remain, as long as there is desire in your heart for God you have much to hope for.

Salvation is a work of God done in the timing of God. And when He saves you you are indeed saved no matter how unsaved you still feel. Let not feelings dictate your faith today.

Before I get angry today may I know that God is my defender and that I do not have to express my anger but only calmly convey my displeasure.

Working for God seems utterly depressing at times, considering the absolute indifference of the world to the message and also sometimes the indifference of God to the entreaties of his messenger. This is not a rewarding job in the sense of the world. And this is not a job for those who have no stomach for disappointment and disgrace.

If God works the way I want him to work, then trusting him is no problem at all.

Have in excess what you wish to avoid. Then you will certainly be able to throw it away like rubbish.

I have two major addictions in life. One is my addiction to God. I seem to have thrown everything away to pursue my life for God and be a voice for Him. I have thrown away job opportunities and incurred much debt in living this life dedicated to Him. But along with this addiction is an older and deeper addiction to the flesh. This addiction still remains awake in me despite many prayers, much Bible reading and Christian service. God has not delivered me from this. There could be a reason for this. One addiction has led to the other. Without the hunger of the flesh there will be no hunger of the spirit.

Don't overdo anything, even that which is good.

If I did it once, I can do it again no matter how many times I fail in the middle.

Be thankful today even for the beggarly gift.

I have failed many more times than I have succeeded. Should I then expect to fail more than I succeed in the days to come? That is not an unfounded expectation. However have I judged success and failure correctly? Some failures may indeed be successes, and some successes may not be such great things after all.

Those who fight the devil are wasting their time by focusing on him. The only way to defeat the devil is to love God and seek His presence always. When we are with God we are where the devil cannot harm us.

After slow and painful progress supreme joy is felt.

You should know when to stop something good before it becomes bad.

Just as I acquired my knowledge outside the school and the college I acquired my faith outside the church.

At least I am excited about my work. This will keep me going.

When we are not satisfied with who we are let us think about who we used to be.

It is important to connect with everyone, appreciate the good in everyone and in everything.

Celebrate the goodness of your thought and pay little attention to its reception.

Whatever our reasons if we give them to God He will refine them.

When people try to upset you don't give them what they are looking for. Give them the opposite of what they expect from you. Bless them with a smile and give them a few kind words. That will show them who they are.

Is the devil nervous when people carry or read a Bible? Carrying a Bible or even opening it should not make the devil nervous. Even the devil may carry a Bible and open it to read it. He has in fact read it better than any other human being. What truly scares the devil is the power of faith, by which a limited, weak human being begins to believe in an unlimited and almighty God as revealed in the Bible.

The mind makes a big deal of what it doesn't have and what it cannot contemplate. That is why abstinence can backfire and lead to greater addiction.

Until you've seen it you think it's a big deal. But when you've seen it you know it isn't a big deal. When you've seen it repeatedly it stops being such a big deal.

We should be more concerned with our own faults than with the faults of others. For every fault we may find in another there may be two in us, which we must attend to.

It is not important to know that we serve. It is important to know why we serve. Why do we help others? Why do we praise others? Is it to serve ourselves that we serve others? This question must be answered every day.

The reason for all addictions is suffering. When suffering becomes intolerable to the human soul it looks for an escape and on finding it does not abandon it easily. In this troubled life human beings look for escape routes, even if they are only transient. A degree of escape seems absolutely necessary from the harsh realities and the terrible drudgery of life.

This morning, half awake, I considered the addiction of certain Moroccan youngsters that I saw in a movie. They were homeless children sniffing glue to escape from the harsh realities of their life. That is when the realization came. All addictions arise out of the desire to escape from the terribleness of life, even my own addiction. We desperately want to escape even for a brief while and whatever helps us do that we certainly do not want to abandon. We will cling to that. It is our only hope.

It is a perilous business, this business of correcting others. We will do better correcting our own mistakes. More grace is required for that. Moreover, this is what pleases God. He wants us to inspire others simply by the way we care about ourselves.

What annoys me interests me as much as what pleases me. I am committed to knowing what threatens my peace and what weakens my resolve as much as I am committed to knowing what encourages me and keeps me going. I want to be aware of my weaknesses as much as I am aware of my strengths.

We are here to shine our light on all, not just train our light on a select group. Jesus did not come to save a select group of people. He came to save the entire world. So we must go out into the world and love the world, every bit of it without any expectation. When we love the world Jesus is alive in the world.

Let us read from various sources. Let us view a subject from various angles. Let us consider approaches that vary from ours. Whatever we think or do, let us not be slavishly loyal to our own ways without considering other ways.

Let us consider the repugnant so that we may know what is really repulsive. We should find out whether the thing that we thought to be objectionable actually jars against our sensibilities. More importantly we should find out if the things that we say we like are truly what we prefer.

More than actions we need to examine our intentions and thought processes. Why are we doing what we are doing? What are our goals really? Are we doing something that we should continue to do? If not how do we alter our intentions and thought processes? This is a profitable line of enquiry.

Let me teach myself before I teach others. Let me read to myself before I read to others. Let me attend to myself before I attend to others.

I have made many mistakes. I will study these mistakes, as God reveals them and correct them, according to the grace that he gives me. But I will not be worried about them and I will certainly not be upset that I have not reached a certain mark. The journey to God is still in progress, and the only reason for that is God himself. He keeps me going. He keeps me hoping. He keeps me fighting. I fight the impulse to slacken. I fight the impulse to turn away. It is God who makes all things beautiful, even the mess that I am.

If something seeks to master you, the solution is not to run away from it, for it will always find its way back to you. Rather you should study the impulse and through knowledge and personal discipline control its expression. This is by no means an expeditious process. Much time and patience will be involved. Many obstacles will have to be overcome. Many times one may fall but every time one falls one should rise. And this is the way to curb the instinct that seeks to possess you.

How is a son responsible for his father's sins? How is anyone responsible for any other person's sins? Why should the son pay for his father's sins? Why should anyone pay for any other person's sins? The concept is burdensome and nonsensical to the human mind, yet this is a theory in the religion that I believe in, a theory that violates the human concept of fairness.

Fear is the last thing a child of God must surrender to.

You must confront your fear before you overcome it.

If it is difficult to trust God how can you trust Man?

Happiness does not lie in achieving perfection but in accepting imperfection.

Take care that you do not read too much. Take care that you do not read too little.

You have not been given a wife so that you may beat her when you are drunk. You have not been given children so that you may be violent with them in your drunken rage. Alcohol is not for the abuser who expresses his bestial rage by having an excess of it. If you feel so angry you reveal yourself to be incapable of handling difficulties in life. Be a man and accept responsibility for your own failures. Don't hurt others for your own follies.

Some Christians have made Satan the centrepiece of Christianity and the central character in their melodrama of faith. In reality Satan is a lesser character in the Bible hardly meriting mention in most of its pages. The obsession with the devil reveals fear-mindedness and a lack of focus on God.

My addictions do not subtract from me. They add to me. They make me what I am. And I like what I am.

The undesirable will stay alongside the desirable, just to show what the desirable is.

You can read the entire Bible and still not know God.

The wheat and the tares have been allowed by God to grow together till the time of harvest. This is the state of the world, as God has allowed it. Good and evil will coexist until the time of separation. If this is the condition of the external world, why should the internal world be any different? Evil will coexist with good in the human heart until God sees it fit to be removed in its entirety. Let no human then attempt to do what only God can and will do.

I believe, yet I question.