Sayings of Samuel Godfrey George - February 2016, Part 2

Let us not turn our worship of God into wheedling and coaxing techniques. Let us not approach him with insincere praise just to get him to listen to our requests. Let us not think that God will respond to such flattery, and grant us our needs, just because we have made the right noises. If we approach God like this, we cannot call it worship. It is an insult to God who prizes true and genuine prayer. Let us speak to God as we would expect someone to speak to us. Let us be truthful and say what is exactly on our minds, even if it does not seem like praise or worship. God will be more pleased by our painful honesty than by our pleasing dishonesty.

Let us not try to manipulate God with praying techniques. Let us not think that God is moved by a false spiritual attitude that tries to coax him into giving. No one likes a flatterer, least of all God. Let us go to God with a genuine heart. Let us speak to him what is innermost in our minds. Let us spare our false hallelujahs and talk plainly to him. Let us confess our many sins, and our constant need of his grace. And then let us ask for his help without flattery and insincere sentiment.

If God made Man crooked and then demanded that he be straight, then it is not fair. But if God made Man right but Man destroyed himself through disobedience, and lost his connection with God, then it is fair on God's part to try to restore a disfigured creation. It is right on his part to look for the lost, which is what he does. God is good. He is a responsible creator. He wants to save a lost humanity and restore it to its original glory.

Please be neat in the way you work. Don't take care of one thing and leave out the other. Make it right also. Will you not eventually make everything right? Let me have some evidence of your work. Let me know that you will do what I have asked you to do. Let me not doubt that you are doing something, for you appear absent and even unconcerned many times. Is it because you are tired or have too much to do for so many people that you give me so little attention? Then again I wonder: are these impressions true? Are you really pressed for time? Are you really not methodical in your work? Am I right in thinking that you will disappoint more than please? Why do I not rejoice when I hear your promises? Why do I wish to avoid thinking about them? O please let me believe in you. It is so hard right now.

Be happy where you are. That's the secret of happiness.

God's people are those who find happiness in the most unhappy situations. They are the ones who smile when there is no reason to smile. They are the ones who offer hope to others when their own hearts are breaking.

Be strong and face the trouble in your life. Don't be a coward and try to run away. No one conquers anything by running away.

I didn't say tolerate people who do wrong. I said let God handle them. Let us not try to do what only God can and should do.

Other people may fight with us. But we don't have to fight with them. Let us not give them the pleasure of a satisfying fight.

Help those who have hurt you by saying nothing negative to them. Encourage them to do the good that they can, and if you cannot do so at least remain silent, so that you may not incite them to do wrong.

Bring out the best in others, even those whom you don't like and who have hurt you. Don't stand in their way of doing something good.

Don't let your mind be upset. And don't let your heart be troubled. Life is difficult. You don't have to make it more difficult by being upset and troubled. Don't give in to the urge to feel sorry for yourself. But be strong in the Lord, and accept trouble as his gift to you. God never sends anything without the intention to help you become a stronger and better person. Trust in him today and try to smile.

Leave it to God. Don't try to do what God alone can do. If some trouble has come into your life, it has not come without God allowing it. So God is aware of what is going on in your life. Turn to him in your suffering. Tell him about it. And wait for him to respond and give you the strength to continue in this situation. But please do not act on your own, and do something without the approval of God.

We only reap what we sow. And if we have reaped what we do not like, let us examine what we sow. And let us not deny that we have not received according to what we gave. We can begin to sow carefully even now.

Don't try to save your little things. Hold on to what is important. And what is important is God, and you can never lose him. Set your mind on heavenly things, and you will not worry when you lose your earthly belongings.

Don't feel sad about your disability. Thank God for what you are still able to do. Recognize your strengths, and exercise them as well as you can. Give joy to others, even as you struggle with your pain. Let the pain not take over the joy you can still have and share with others.

There is no point in talking about what cannot be repaired. Let it alone. Focus on the good in your life, and be happy about it. That is the way we give thanks to God for life.

Find joy from within your heart. Don't expect it from other people. They may not rise to your expectations.

God is here and alive. He is waiting for us to acknowledge him. Yet many of us are too busy for him. And even when we notice him, he does not impress us. He seems far too limited and restricted in his functions. He will not work until we go to him. He will not transform us until we submit to him. He will not usually effect an instant makeover, for his divine hands make all things beautiful in his time, and this means that it will take a very long time, a period much longer than many humans are willing to endure. Frustration is inherent in such a set up. Failure is more likely than success, given divine restraint and human impatience. This is the sad way the life of faith appears to me. This is probably why faith has limited appeal to the world. Faith of this kind has little appeal for those who are keen on guaranteed remedies and instant miracles. They are simply not ready for the disappointment and the heartbreak that faith often includes.

Will some people ever change? I have prayed for them. Will prayers be answered the way we expect them to be? Sometimes prayers are heartbreaking experiences. Hopes are dashed to pieces, and the worst answer is received. How can one pray on, especially for those who seem incorrigible? They seem so hardened in their behaviour that they don't even care about what is wrong with them. They seem impervious to polite correction. Their behaviour appears to get worse. And those who promised to change are still unchanged. The leopard surely cannot change its spots. And God appears impotent in the task of changing certain people. Still it is not right to throw in the towel. The testimonies of others, and the stories of their miraculous transformations keep one going and praying. These relatively rare occurrences keep one hoping for a repeat. But it is a process fraught with failure and frustration. It is simply not easy to pray for change, when such change is rarely forthcoming.

"You are God and you know best. So I go through the seemingly endless troubles in my life knowing that you are working out something that I cannot see. I put my trust in your peerless workmanship. Still there are times like now when I feel hope draining away. Lord, are you really in charge? Are you really doing something here? Nothing seems to change. Everything appears to get worse. Is this the worst of your test? Or does it get even worse?" The questions go on for a while. And then I say to myself. "Don't lose hope. God is in control." But it is a very strange kind of control. It is not control as humans exercise it. It is a totally different kind. And it is frightening to go through. For God appears absent. Or even impotent. Yes these are the unmistakeable impressions. Nevertheless I shut out the doubts and throw out the fears. This is the way God usually leads his people. And I am one of them. And I need to walk on without turning back.

Love the people God has sent to you. Love the life he has called you to live. Love what you are and what you have been given. Turn away from your own unfulfilled desires, and stop looking for what will never come.

Welcome the one who knocks on your door, even if he seems inappropriate or undesirable. Don't turn away from him to wait for the one who may never come. Accept the people who come to you and do your best for them, as though these are the very ones you were waiting for.

From great carnality great spirituality may arise. Both are often found together. The deeply spiritual may also be greatly carnal. And the flames of their spirituality are fuelled by the unlimited fuel of their carnality. After satiating the fleshly lusts, there arises a great hunger for spiritual food.

A great love for light may emerge only from a long stay in the darkness. A great love for God may emerge only from a life of deep sinfulness. It is the one who is forgiven more who loves more. It is the one who has sinned more who seeks righteousness more.

I've put my heart and soul into this. The rest is up to you O Lord.

Jesus said, "Don't be afraid. Just believe." We need to believe this every day.

In this life let us not aim at giving as much as we have received. We can never give as much as we have received, for we have received from God, and he cannot be outdone in giving.

We cannot outdo God in giving. What we give to God is a mere fraction of what we have received from him.

The lack of money is a big motivation for seeking God in this world. Everywhere I look I see promises of the monetary and material gifts that God is ready to bestow on those who show the tiniest faith. I myself sought God for material comforts and earthly well-being. But after a few years of losing steadily all that I valued and possessed, I have come to the realization that what God wants to give to me is not identical to what I want from God. I am now experiencing the unseemly aspects of the faithful life, and my situation is declining steadily. Still I hope that I will not hit rock bottom before I learn a thing or two about the dark and moist places that I sought in fleshly lust. Yes my spiritual madness blossomed in the midst of a fleshly madness. A spirit seeking life emerged from a flesh-desiring mire of filth. And after I learn that, I hope that there is another place to go to.

"Be prosperous. God wants you to be prosperous. Seek the abundant and over-flowing life. Declare and it will happen." This sounds wonderful to every desperate, impoverished creature in this world. And when we see those who say it, and notice their bright smiles and even brighter clothes, and when we take in their exaggeratedly opulent settings, we believe in their message, and seek the lush life. Still what resemblance does such a life bear to the one that Jesus Christ lived? Did he not carry a cross and ask us to carry one? Did he not tell us to sell all our belongings and give the money to the poor and follow him? What does the prosperous life have to do with Christ? Little.

My present precarious condition may have been brought about by unwise, ungodly choices in life. Yet in this darkness, I am not totally groping. There is a strand of light, and I am still holding on to it. Even in this darkness, I speak of glowing light and I am given the privilege of speaking it out loud to the passers-by.

It is better to be poor and needy in this world. It is better to live a life of difficulty and strife. It is better to taste large amounts of pain. For in such unpleasant and hostile circumstances human beings emerge from darkness to light, from unbelievers to God-seekers, and from worldly despair to unworldly hope.

It is not a good thing to be an employer or a master. It is better to be an employee and a servant. And God kindly makes us both.

Acknowledge God and you are well, though you may be poor and needy. Deny God and you are dead, though you may be alive and physically well and financially stable.

All human effort is God-enabled, for humans are the works of God. All energy within a human comes from God. Yet when humans exert energy without acknowledging God as the source of their energy, their energy is reduced in worth. But there is a greater energy and a greater capability that exists outside humans inside God, who is the giver of all ability. Such energy adds to the human, and makes him superhuman, and God-enabled.

The fruit of your trying is more satisfying but less wonderful than the fruit that came free.

All help is inconvenient. When help is convenient, it cannot be help.

Stop trying and you'll do well.

It is dishonest people who have a problem with being frank. Honesty always seeks openness.