DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT THURSDAY – DEVOTION.

May not a single moment of my life be spent outside the light, love, and joy of God's presence and not a moment without the entire surrender of my self as a vessel for Him to fill full of His Spirit and His love." - Andrew Murray.

I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. – 1 Cor 7:35.

"Holiness does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervours, or uncommanded austerities; it consists in thinking as God things, and willing as God wills." - John Brown, Nineteenth-century Scottish theologian, quoted in J. Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness, p. 51.

Once, as an experiment, the great scientist Isaac Newton stared at the image of the sun reflected in a mirror. The brightness burned into his retina, and he suffered temporary blindness. Even after he hid for three days behind closed shutters, still the bright spot would not fade from his vision.

"I used all means to divert my imagination from the sun," he writes, "But if I thought upon him I presently saw his picture though I was in the dark." If he had stared a few minutes longer, Newton might have permanently lost all vision. The chemical receptors that govern eyesight cannot withstand the full force of unfiltered sunlight.

There is a parable in Isaac Newton's experiment, and it helps illustrate what the Israelites ultimately learned from the wilderness wanderings. They had attempted to live with the Lord of the Universe visibly present in their midst; but, in the end, out of all the thousands who had so gladly fled Egypt, only two survived God's Presence. If you can barely endure candlelight, how can you gaze at the sun? - Philip Yancey, Disappointment With God, Zondervan, p. 74.

Charles Spurgeon was saved on January 6, 1850, and on February 1 he wrote the following prayer of consecration:

O great and unsearchable God, who knowest my heart, and triest all my ways; with a humble dependence upon the support of Thy Holy Spirit, I yield up myself to Thee; as Thy own reasonable sacrifice, I return to Thee Thine own. I would be for ever, unreservedly, perpetually Thine; whilst I am on earth, I would serve Thee; and may I enjoy Thee and praise Thee for ever! Amen. - Charles Spurgeon, Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, W. Wiersbe, p. 235.

Loving Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, fill me with the love and devotion of Jesus. I ask this in the wonderful name of Jesus. Amen.

Be encouraged!
GBYAY