Charles Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook

"It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth." Lamentations 3:27

This is as good as a promise. It has been good, it is good, and it will be good for me to bear the yoke.

Early in life I had to feel the weight of conviction, and ever since it has proved a soul-enriching burden. Should I have loved the gospel so well had I not learned by deep experience the need of salvation by grace? Jabez was more honorable than...

"Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out." Deuteronomy 28:6

The blessings of the law are not canceled. Jesus confirmed the promise when He bore the penalty. If I keep the commands of my LORD, I may appropriate this promise without question.

This day I will come in to my house without fear of evil tidings, and I will come in to my closet expecting to hear good news from my...

"Happy is the man that feareth alway." Proverbs 28:14

The fear of the LORD is the beginning and the foundation of all true religion. Without a solemn awe and reverence of God there is no foothold for the more brilliant virtues. He whose soul does not worship will never live in holiness.

He is happy who feels a jealous fear of doing wrong. Holy fear looks not only before it leaps, but even before it moves. It is afraid of...

"A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench." Isaiah 42:3

Then I may reckon upon tender treatment from my LORD. Indeed, I feel myself to be at best as weak, as pliant, as worthless as a reed. Someone said, "I don't care a rush for you"; and the speech, though unkind, was not untrue. Alas! I am worse than a reed when it grows by the river, for that at least can hold up its head. I am bruised —...

"It shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God." Hosea 1:10

Sovereign grace can make strangers into sons, and the LORD here declares His purpose to deal thus with rebels and make them know what He has done. Beloved reader, the LORD has done this in my case; has He done the like for you? Then let us join hands and...

"Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD." Psalms 27:14

Wait! Wait! Let your waiting be on the LORD! He is worth waiting for. He never disappoints the waiting soul.

While waiting keep up your spirits. Expect a great deliverance, and be ready to praise God for it.

The promise which should cheer you is in the middle of the verse — "He shall strengthen thine...

"The LORD will be with you." 2 Chronicles 20:17

This was a great mercy for Jehoshaphat, for a great multitude had come out against him; and it will be a great mercy for me, for I have great need, and I have no might or wisdom. If the LORD be with me, it matters little who may desert me. If the LORD be with me, I shall conquer in the battle of life, and the greater my trials the more glorious will be my victory. How can I be sure...

"But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen." Hosea 1:7

Precious Word. Jehovah Himself will deliver His people in the greatness of His mercy, but He will not do it by the ordinary means. Men are slow to render to God the glory due unto His name. If they go to battle with sword and bow and win the...

"And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves." Ezekiel 37:13

Indeed it must be so: those who receive life from the dead are sure to recognize the hand of the LORD in such a resurrection. This is the greatest and most remarkable of all changes that a man can undergo — to be brought out of the grave of spiritual death and made to rejoice in the light and...

"Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD." Hosea 6:3

Not all at once, but by degrees shall we attain to holy knowledge, and our business is to persevere and learn by little and little. We need not despair, though our progress may be slow, for we shall yet know. The LORD, who has become our Teacher, will not give us up, however slow of understanding we may be; for it is not for His honor that any degree of human folly...

"If ye keep My Commandments, ye shall abide in My love." John 15:10

These things cannot be parted — abiding in obedience and abiding in the love of Jesus. A life under the rule of Christ can alone prove that we are the objects of our LORD's delight. We must keep our LORD's command if we would bask in His love. If we live in sin we cannot live in the love of Christ. Without the holiness which pleases God we cannot please Jesus. He...

"But the Word of the LORD endureth for ever. And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." 1 Peter 1:25

All human teaching and, indeed, all human beings shall pass away as the grass of the meadow; but we are here assured that the Word of the LORD is of a very different character, for it shall endure forever.

We have here a divine gospel; for what word can endure forever but that which is spoken by the...

"Although my house be not so with God; yet He hath made with me an Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although He make it not to grow." 2 Samuel 23:5

This is not so much one promise as an aggregate of promises — a box of pearls. The covenant is the ark which contains all things.

These are the last words of David, but they may be mine today. Here is a sigh:...

"Their soul shall be as a watered garden." Jeremiah 31:12

Oh, to have one's soul under heavenly cultivation; no longer a wilderness but a garden of the LORD! Enclosed from the waste, walled around by grace, planted by instruction, visited by love, weeded by heavenly discipline, and guarded by divine power, one's favored soul is prepared to yield fruit unto the LORD.

But a garden may become parched for want of water, and...