Sayings of Samuel Godfrey George - April 2015

Have the humility to correct yourself. You'll need to do it many times in life.

This is humility. To know that one can do nothing apart from Jesus Christ, to know that nothing good can ever happen to a person apart from God willing it, in short to know nothing is essentially a personal achievement for everything is a work of God, is humility.

I'm waiting for God, not for any human. I wait for God to come down and marry his bride, and I hope to be united with him in an unending relationship. I hold flowers only for him.

Reading the word of God is not the same as knowing the word of God. Knowing the word of God is not the same as agreeing with the word of God. In short you can read the Bible well and not be a friend of God. There's one more thing. Knowing the word of God is not knowing God as someone you want to follow. To know him like that you must know the indispensability of his love. For without it none of us will escape from the uncompromising fire of his judgement. If we have received such love, then the least that we can do is to share it with other humans.

Today you may listen to one voice or the other. One is the voice of God. The other is the voice of the devil. To listen to God you must hear what he has to say. And what he has to say will not be pleasant to the ears. But if you would suffer for him, and will suffer with him, he will lead you to a place of quiet even as terrible noises are heard all around you. But if you choose to listen to the devil, he will have something pleasant for your ears. He will encourage you to be selfish and do your thing, even if it is something you can barely whisper to another person. He will lead you to joys that are as temporary as your life, and in them you will forget yourself and everyone around you.

When doubts arise in your mind and fears regarding the faithfulness of God engulf you, think of your starting point. It is God who brought you from a state of being nothing to a state of being something. You who were nothing, an absolute zero, became something in a human womb, when God made you. If he can take you from zero to one, he can take you to 100 or 200 or wherever you have to go.

Jesus said, "The enemies of a man will be the members of his own household." At an external level, this statement seems very improbable. But I have tasted the bitter truth of this in my own life. I now say openly that I am living with enemies. No one has troubled me as much as the people in my own home. Is this a cross I need to bear? I suppose so. May God help me carry this cross.

If Jesus Christ carries the weight of the world upon his shoulders, I know that he will carry each and every one of us, if we would only go to him.

My desire to glorify God persistently is my great blessing.

Despite the troubles in my life, I'm still happy to do the work of God. This is the joy of the Lord.

Even if you let go, God will not. Remember that you are in his grasp, and not the other way round. And no one can pluck you out of his hand.

When things fall apart, try to do one thing right. Treat those around you well. Speak kindly, If you can't, speak nothing. At least smile. Do that one thing well.

Just don't feed a person. Know that person.

Belief in God is a risk. You could end up looking like a total fool, as you lay down your life for him. Still take the risk. The joy of heaven is worth that risk.

Let the tares be removed by angelic professionals. Just let them tangle around your wheat for a while.

Don't shear off the black hair. There's pure woolly white growing underneath.

Every fall has a purpose and a lesson to teach.

If you've fallen today remember that God is there to help you rise.

Don't look for an excuse to sin. Don't look for a justification to surrender to a weakness. Believe that you are strong in God. Declare it again and again, even if it makes no sense. And believe that this tempting thing shall pass.

What we do with God is far more important than what we do for God.

Do I feel like a new creation in Christ? It doesn't matter how I feel. What Christ has done and is doing will be continued until completion.And as long as I live, whatever battles I fight, I will not lose confidence in the newness of what Christ created in me.

To love someone is to bless someone, and when we love someone we give the greatest blessing.

God does not force us to accept his love. Nor does he force us to express our love for him. There should be nothing forced about love, either God's love or our love.

The thing that keeps me going in this life of suffering, in a seemingly indifferent world, is the knowledge that God in some great unknowable way cares about me, and everything that happens to me. He cares about all that troubles me, more than anybody else, even more than what I can guess. This hope alone steadies my walk even as the hostile gales of life blow hard against me.

If we let lose our natural instincts, they will lead us to insanity, not to mention horrendous crime.

Hoping in God seems to be a most treacherous road. Still strangely it keeps me going,

He who hopes in God must be ready to see many doors slammed shut in his face. For hope is what remains even after many disappointments. Such hope can only come from God, and is inspired by uncompromising belief.

We shouldn't stop doing good because someone is not grateful to us. We should always be willing to do good for God's sake. God gave everything to us when we were utterly ungrateful and unaware. Then how can we withhold our God-inspired actions in the world because people are not grateful to us?

Don't let the evil thought reign in your head. Cast it away in the name of Jesus Christ. Be prepared for a long battle. Even if you lose many times, do not ever give up your resolve to cast out the evil thought.

Let God always be in my head. Let every thought proceed through him and be blessed by him. Let God always be in my heart. Let every feeling be channelled through him and meet with his approval. Let God always be with me until the very end of my life. This should be our prayer as children of God.

If Jesus Christ has set you free, then you are free indeed, no matter how you feel.

It is not by gritting one's teeth and clenching one's fists that the great victories in faith are won. It is by trusting in the promise of God, who will never leave us or forsake us. This we must remember even as the ground beneath us is shaking and our world is appearing to collapse.

"I will think the thoughts of God. I will speak the words of God. I will do the deeds of God." This should be the resolve of every child of God.

The body of Christ should be a place where the most unwelcome people find welcome. The church should be a place where the most broken and twisted people find refuge. The people of Christ must be grace-givers like Christ. A policy of not associating with such people and keeping them out actively only shows the separatist, exclusivist tendency of the church, and this is not only un-Christlike but also treacherous on the part of those who were once broken and twisted themselves. We who were lost in our sins have been saved so that we may welcome others who need to be saved. If we fail to do this we fail utterly to show gratitude for our salvation. Any excuse for our alienation of such people, including a biblical justification for separating ourselves goes against the very concept of love, which was lavished on us even while we were out-and-out rebels.

Don't wait for me to say sorry. Embrace me before that. That's how the God you love is.

This is my wish for you. May God fill the vacant places in your mind and your heart. And may nothing be lacking in your life.

I'd like to visit a church, where practising prostitutes and active criminals frequent. I wonder whether such a place exists.

You were right. And I was wrong. So what? Let's be friends. Let's show some sweetness while we still can.

Nothing makes a person so unappealing as a hard heart does.

Let us not forgive people by casting them out.

When I go to church it is to see people worship. When I see them worship I know that I am in the presence of God.

If churches are places for respectable people, it is best to avoid them.

When someone knocks on your door please open it. Don't pretend that no one knocked. If you must send him away do so. But let your rejection be plain.

Why this hardness? Be soft. Be forgiving. Be like the God that you say you love. Show me some love today. I may not always be here. You may not always be here. Let's show some love while we can.

My work for God is not dependent on who walks in and walks out. People are always invited. In fact there is no justification for work without people to serve. But the reaction of people will not adversely affect the course of my work.

It takes a lot of inner strength to be cheerful around a complaining person.

An inflexible doctrine may be the worst thing in faith. Our knowledge of God is always growing and changing. Some things will never change. God will always remain great even though our perception of him changes.

Intolerance is the ugliness of life. It is the ugly thing that disfigures the Christ doctrine of unconditional love in Christian circles.

If you are still struggling with sin after inviting Jesus Christ in you, remember this: you are already more than a conqueror in Christ. You have already attained the status of an overcomer. And though you're still struggling, and still feeling the pain and disappointment of the struggle, remember that this is the sign of God living in you. Unless God is in you, you will not experience the struggle that you are now going through.

I minister to myself. Thus I minister to others. God made me a chief carrier of disease, so that I can learn all about it, and then apply to myself the self-help tools that such knowledge brings, and then apply to others the same tools. With grace these should work.

I would like my life to be trouble-free. But the closer I get to God I realize more that my life will not be trouble-free. But if I am a man of God, I must believe in the promise of God who said that he will deliver me from all my troubles.

I don't know whether Jesus is coming soon. I guess that many of us are going to die soon. It is wise to make the best of life today. We must enjoy the gift of life before it is too late. And we must give as freely as we have received to know the ultimate joy in life. And we must seek God tirelessly even as we contend with innumerable distractions in this world.

Every time human beings have tried to predict doomsday they have failed. And they will continue to fail. It is better to live life assuming that this could be the final day of our lives. This way we may do what we need to do before it is too late.

Love is the greatest blessing we can receive. Love is the greatest blessing we can give. Let us not fail to receive and give love today.

In anger one wants to lash out words of death. But we who follow Jesus Christ must remember his final silence in the most terrible hours of his life. We must learn to forgive like him and speak blessing instead of curse.

The followers of Jesus Christ are the followers of love. The love they follow is the love of Christ. It is a love that forgives and erases sins. It is a love that accepts the unacceptable and celebrates the return of lost sons and daughters of God. It is a love that does not judge or condemn anyone. It is a love that only Christ can teach. It is a love that must be received first. And then it must be given away to those who need to receive it.

People who invite Jesus Christ into their lives will fail to live their lives. For Christ will live for them and in them, and they shall die forever, so that they may live forever in him. This life that Jesus lives in them is not always obvious or overpowering. Yet Jesus is in there, in them, guiding them, keeping them, and he will not let them go, no matter how slippery the places where they walk may be. For Christ never loses the ones who are given to him. His Father's hand will not yield those who are firmly in its grasp. So let those who are in Christ abandon the fear, and welcome the faith. Nurture it. Speak it. Shout it from the rooftop: "I live in God. He lives in me. And nothing can separate the two of us."

How foolish of me to try to complete what God started in my life! What God does, no man can do.

Just believe. Just believe in a God who is watching out for you. Just believe in a God who wants the best for you. Just believe in a God who knows what you need even before you ask for it. Just believe. Dare to believe. Don't be swayed by what you see. For what is seen is temporary, and what is not seen is permanent. There is a loving, caring God in the invisible realm, who cares more about you than anyone in the visible world.

Someone has accepted Jesus Christ. What does it mean? Is it a moment's acceptance captured by a camera? Or is it something deeper, less obvious, and more prolonged? I believe that to accept Jesus, we must also accept our own severely flawed selves and the love that God shows us despite our apparently unending sins. This love is expressed mainly as forgiveness, and this we must not just accept but also learn from. We have been exposed to so great a love, so that we may reflect it to others. So to accept Christ is no momentary event, which can be captured and displayed for public awareness. But to accept Christ is to be transformed by his love, and inspired by his forgiveness, and this takes time, very much beyond a single moment.

I say to God today. Give me the grace to forgive. For forgiveness is the outcome of divine love. If God could forgive me, and I know what I have done, I should be ready to forgive anyone and everyone any time and every time. Let me not fail to do this.

To love God is to love beyond disappointment.

If I can wish my enemy well today I am well today.

At a certain point in our lives, all of us who want to be near God must say, "This is enough. I can't go on any further like this. I must stop what I am doing. For this is not what I am. I am a child of God. I think like God. I feel like God. I want to do like God. I belong to God, so this bondage, this thing that I do repeatedly, is not what I really am. I am better. I am higher. I am nothing like what this thing is making me out to be. I'm done with this. I'm going to be what God has made me to be."

"The evil that I do not want to do, this I keep on doing." When I read this line and the passage from which it comes, I was stunned by the realization that Saint Paul had written about my life. And now it has become rather clear that he had written about all of us in this world, who want to be like God, but are struggling hopelessly against sin.

It is being sick that keeps the doctor next to you. So if you need the doctor at your side be at peace with your sickness.

Love is what happens after you do not get what you want. If you continue in your love despite the disappointment of not receiving from the one you love, then your love is surely a love from God.

If we humans do good because God programmed us to do good, then that kind of good is not really good at all. God gave us the freedom to do either good or evil, so that we may choose to do good as he does. Only when we choose to do good are we really doing good.

Our ultimate aim in life is to learn to be like God. God has given us the freedom to live any way we want, so that we may ultimately choose to do good as he does.

We were told not to grow weary of doing good because one is perfectly capable of becoming weary of doing good. There comes a time in the process of doing good, that it appears futile and thankless. And the doer of good gets deeper and deeper into trouble for his good intentions. That's when he wants to quit. So he is told by God not to quit at a time like that, for a reward is coming in due season. Yes, we humans do good for a reward, whether we like it or not. So let us wait for it and do as God says.

I feel like a work frustrated and halted on many occasions. Is God really working in me? Is he such an inefficient worker that he has to take such a long time to craft me? Yes, God seems terribly slow and woefully inefficient. Yet he is God. And I must trust him, and believe that he is all powerful. Today it is difficult to believe this. Yet I will believe. For this is the essence of faith - to believe in the impossible, to expect the improbable, and to contemplate expectantly what seems hopeless.

Every experience is good, especially the bad experience. Nothing teaches and equips one as much as a bad experience, for in badness much is revealed, if only we would open our eyes and see.

There comes a time when external noise should not reach our inner places. That is the time we must fix our eyes on God, and just behold him in stillness.

Pray for the afflicted one today. Yes pray for that person who afflicts you with her affliction. Pray that God may touch that person and fill her with his love. You may be the only person who is praying that for her.

Let the insults you have received turn into opportunities to bless others. Remember what Jesus said. "Bless those who curse you." If you can bless those who have cursed you, you can certainly bless those who have insulted you. Look at it this way. An insult is a doorway to blessing. Yes, by blessing others who have insulted you, you bless yourselves.

Don't carry the insults of others on your back. Give them away to Jesus Christ, and carry his love and forgiveness in your heart and give them to those who have insulted you. Let the insults you receive turn into opportunities for you to bless those who have insulted you.

To love your neighbour as yourself you must excuse your neighbour as you excuse yourself.

The act of listening to God in my life has been the act of listening to silence.

Sometimes silence speaks louder than words. So hear what silence tells you today.

There will be change only after pain. Be ready to suffer to be able to change. Those who are happy with what they are will never change.

We cannot live for ourselves. We have been bought at a price. We have been made in a certain way. We cannot pretend forever that we have the right to live our lives any way we want. When we hear the voice of God, let us pay attention to him, and be willing to abandon our way for his.

There is something paranoid about the tendency to give God all the glory. The glory belongs to him anyway. None of it belongs to the human for the human is a work of God. Knowing this is enough. Mentioning it often does not increase its factuality or augment the speaker's veracity.

Very often in life we find things not working out as we wanted to. That's when we must learn to accept the will of God. He wants the best for us, even if we don't like what is happening in our lives. God is with you. Just entrust everything in his hands. And look away from your problems. Acknowledge these things and feel happy. Above all you have God. You can never walk away so far that God cannot reach you. Just remember that.

Be strong.There is a lot in you that is admirable. Just find it. And hold on to it. And whatever your problem, give it to God. Just speak to him as though he is sitting next to you. Tell him everything. And ask him to take care of you, as only he can. After that just turn your attention to everything that seems beautiful and hopeful in life.

As far as I know myself, I have found out that I am exactly what God is not. To know God then, I had to know myself. Still it was God who revealed to me who I am, and when I saw myself I saw what God was not. Or to put it another way, God is what I am not.

After knowing myself till now, I believe that God is everything that I am not.

The truth of God is always the same. The truth of Man changes every now and then.

Today I will say only two prayers. "Thank you" and "Your will be done."

You cannot know God without knowing yourself.

When you are with God, it is never too late or too hopeless. Just call out to him and you will know.

Knowledge by itself is not enough. Experience by itself cannot sustain a good life. What sustains a good life is God's grace, which a person must constantly need, for grace alone can remedy the many ills of life. A man who is constantly weak constantly seeks God, who constantly strengthens him. This is the only way out of the mess that life can so very easily be without God.

When I started my work for God I was alone with God. Now as I continue my work in the midst of a few people I am still alone with God.

I don't become a man of God because people call me so. I don't stop being a man of God because people fail to call me so.

The hardest thing to do is to forgive people who don't seem to be sorry for what they have done. Yet this is what Jesus did on the cross, and we, his followers must learn from this.

Rejoicing in God is not a matter of feeling, but is a matter of will. Let us decide to rejoice in God and in the great gift of life today, no matter how we feel.

It doesn't matter how far you've gone and how much you have wasted. Let the prodigal sons return to their father.