Sayings of Samuel Godfrey George - September 2015, Part 2

The fire must not only be in your voice. It must first be in your heart, and it must also be in your mind. Just loud words with no heart and mind will only be empty.

Two things are possible today. You can focus on what has gone wrong in your life and feel sorry for yourself. Or you can focus on what God is doing in your life and believe that he will not let your life slip beyond his control. What will you choose to do today?

Don't be sad today no matter how tough life is. Remember this. God loves you. And he is good. And he wants to do something good in your life today. So wipe away your tears and wear a smile on your face. God is near and he will not let you down.

Our present troubles are nothing compared to the everlasting joy that we are going to experience in the life with God. Yes, we will live eternally with God after we go through this life of troubles. So let us patiently endure our sufferings and give thanks to God for his kindness to us, for he made it possible for us to live with him eternally, by the death of his Son on the cross. And let us not fail to rejoice in his goodness today.

If you are going to feel sorry for yourself today there will be no time for rejoicing in what God has done in your life.

Don't waste your time feeling sad for yourself. All of us are going through some trouble or the other. Even those of us who are smiling forever are going through some hidden trouble. Life is not without troubles. In fact Jesus Christ said that in this life we will have many troubles. Let us be grateful for what we have, for the good things that God has kindly given us. We may not have much, but as long as we have God, we have everything we need. Shall we rejoice in this today?

It is good to meet people who want to meet you. It is good to meet such people even if you don't want to meet them.

Learn to appreciate God's pace even when it seems terribly slow.

Believing in people may not be a very sensible thing to do. People may lie and cheat and deceive and make themselves look good when they are deeply flawed within. Yet we must love people, trusting and believing in them even when such an attitude can be self-defeating. Love always trusts. Love always believes in the best in people knowing well that people are essentially unreliable and unpredictable. This is a terrible way to live yet this is the only way God wants us to live.

Moving forward may actually be sitting down and enjoying what you have, instead of running after something you will never have.

I don't want everything. But I want something. And I want to enjoy it when I get it. I don't want to constantly desire something else, that I don't sit down and enjoy what I have with me right now. Yes, I want to sit down and enjoy what I have. Walking always, seeking always is not going to bring me the joy that I need today.

You need to like what you do. That is all this required. The appreciation of others is desirable, but not mandatory. You can go on in life without the appreciation of people, as long as you can appreciate yourself and do what brings you satisfaction.

Respond to those who knock on your door. Friendship is not easy. It takes courage to make friends in the world. It takes courage to open your door to someone despite your innermost fears. The one who keeps his door locked may think he is protecting himself from intruders. But God didn't create us to lock ourselves in our secure homes. We need to go out and meet people, even those and especially those whom we find uncomfortable, undesirable and dangerous. If we won't respond to the knock on our door we will not know how much we can give or receive. If we play safe we will lose more than we will ever know. Trust in God and open your door to the one who seeks your love today. If you won't you are surely withdrawing your love from someone, to say the very least. And you will not receive all the love that you can possibly receive.

Do you want to love? Love yourself first. Love what you are, and who you are. Love God who created you for a certain purpose. And the purpose is to know the love of God who loved you enough to put you on this planet. He loved you enough to let you see the wonder of life. Now see that wonder, and appreciate your life. Do what you are able to do, and do it well, and do it happily. Be grateful for everything, even when you feel you don't have much. Be grateful for anything, even if it seems like a trifle. Don't compare yourself with others. Just look at yourself today, and count your blessings, even the ones that seem to have gone away. Hold on to the blessings that are still with you, and appreciate what you have. This will be a step forward in your life.

What can you do? You can keep trying. Try to smile. Try to be happy about something that you can still do. Do it. And enjoy doing it. Help yourself before you help any other person. You just can't do good to others if you can't do good to yourself. Like yourself. Be yourself. Do what only you can do. Love yourself so much that you don't hurt yourself. And when you're done doing that you can go out and help others.

What should I be happy about? Be happy about everything. Why should I be happy about things that are not so great when compared with what someone else has? Don't compare yourself with others. Just look at what you had once and what you have now. Be happy with progress if there is progress. If there is no progress, be happy that you still have something left.

If we want to love God with all our heart and mind and might, that is a good thing, even if we can't achieve it in our own strength. Let not our failure to love God in this way be a stumbling block to our spiritual growth. This thing we must do cannot be done in our strength. Our love for God is something that we cannot produce on our own. We need to pray for it day and night, and wait as long as it takes to receive that love. So be grateful now for this desire you feel in your heart. Feeling this surely indicates that you belong to God.

God is for you. Don't be ashamed of what you've done. None of us have measured up to God's standard of good. None of us ever will. The only way we find acceptability before God is when we stand in Christ. And that is what we must do today.

Rejoicing in God means rejoicing in life, and all the good that we find in life.

Live with the desire to give to someone even if that takes something away from you.

Be willing to give even when you are not acknowledged as the giver.

When something goes wrong, remember the time when everything went right, and give thanks to God.

People come and go, but God goes on with me forever.

God knows your needs. And he will supply. Trust in that promise and rest.

I am a servant of God. I try to speak about him as well as I know him. I want the world to know God, as I know him.

Anyone can make a promise. But it takes a special person to live up to his or her word.

Problems began when the first human being chose to disobey God and obey the devil. God warned Adam about the dire consequences of disobedience. God warned him that he would die both spiritually and physically. But Adam still disobeyed. And God's warning came true. Adam and the generations of his children suffer the consequences of that disobedience. We are the children of Adam, and as long as we are in the flesh we are under a curse pronounced by God at the very beginning of history. Nevertheless we are not doomed. Jesus Christ came into the world to release us from the curse. But for us to experience the release we must endure the cross set before us, and live with our problems. God will not let us suffer beyond what we can bear.

Friend, I am sorry about the problems in your life. But you have a God who loves you very much. And he will not forsake you in a time of trouble. Know that and rest in that promise.

God won't fail you, whatever you are going through. Just turn to him and lay down your burdens at his feet. You should rest in the assurance that he will surely take care of what you handed over to him.

There are problems in every life. But that does not diminish the truth of a loving God. We go through problems in the knowledge that God is always present with us and ready to help us if we would turn to him. Maybe we go through problems in life to arrive at the feet of God who alone can give us relief. We find him out eventually, after much worrying and questioning. And when we go to him he will not fail us.

Pay attention to what is commonly believed and accepted. There may be quite a lot to treasure in that. The uncommon may be sensational but it may not be true. There is much to speak for a way of life that has been preserved for many centuries.

People are often drawn to the uncommon. They will gravitate to the uncommon even if it not true. They work under the assumption that something of interest and value is usually found in what is not commonly known. This may be true in some cases. But in the process of being always attracted to the uncommon, there is a danger of not paying attention to what is common, for there is much to value in what is common.

If you can't accept yourself the way you are, it will be a tragedy. When God accepts you just as you are, you should attempt to do the same.

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 unchanging nature 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.

Lord, may your great wisdom penetrate my head and lord over my heart. Let your eternally valid truth guide my wayward feet till the day I die. May my dissolute heart find permanent health in your glorious light that dispels the hellish darkness I find inside.

You should welcome the people who walk into your door and not look for others who will not come in.