Wisdom from those who have walked with their God in a New Covenant relationship. These words are from Amy Carmichael, a missionary first in Japan and then in India, where she gave her life to rescuing young girls and boys from Hindu temple prostitution.

“”But when he was yet a great way off, his Father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). So does our Father see and run (O word of mystery!) to meet our heart’s deep longing; so does his love embrace. For he meets us everywhere. If I am in trouble because of my sin, there is forgiveness with thee, O my Father; if I am cast down, with thee is lifting up; if I am athirst, with thee is eternal refreshment. Always the word to me is that tender word, “Son, thou are ever with me, and all that I have is thine” (Luke 15:31).”

“Prayer in the name of his beloved Son cannot lose its way in the void. It must find the ear of God. For prayer is not emotion, it is the traffic between earth and heaven, “a commerce in love.” Our ships set sail for heavenly shores; they do not return empty; it is impossible that they should, but we are not told what tide will bring them back. We think in terms of time: God thinks in terms of eternity. We see the near end of the thread on which are strung our moments, minutes, hours, days, like little pearls on a string. The other end is out of view, and yet the thread is one, indivisible. We call the near end time, and the far end eternity, as though somewhere the thread broke (at death perhaps). But it is not so. We are living in eternity now.“

“I have noticed that God sometimes waits until as a fellowship we wait on him about something. When we do that, things happen. Sometimes at the meeting there is a drag. Is our Father trying to show us that if he is too work wonders for us we must be in earnest about it, we must stir ourselves to lay hold of him? There are words in the Bible that make one wonder whether we do really as a company go very far in prayer. I want to go much further.“

“Life is a journey; it is a climb; it is also and always a war. The soldier of the Lord of Hosts is always a soldier. He dare not drivel down to any other kind of life.”

“We can’t be entangled in the affairs of this life if we are to be real soldiers. By its affairs I mean its chatter and its ways of thinking and deciding questions, its whole aspect and thread.”

“What do we know of travail? Of tears that scald before they fall? Of heartbreak? Of being scorned? God forgive us our love of ease. God forgive us that so often we turn our faces from a life that is even remotely like his. Forgive us that we all but worship comfort, the delight of the presence of loved ones, possessions, treasures on earth.“

Image via Pixabay.