Charles Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook

"And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." Genesis 50:24

Joseph had been an incarnate providence to his brethren. All our Josephs die, and a thousand comforts die with them. Egypt was never the same to Israel after Joseph was dead, nor can the world again be to some of us what it was when our beloved...

"He hath given meat unto them that fear Him: He will ever be mindful of His Covenant." Psalms 111:5

Those who fear God need not fear want. Through all these long years the LORD has always found meat for His own children, whether they have been in the wilderness, or by the brook Cherith, or in captivity, or in the midst of famine. Hitherto the LORD has given us day by day our daily bread, and we doubt not that He will continue to...

"Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." Psalms 81:10

What an encouragement to pray! Our human notions would lead us to ask small things because our deservings are so small; but the LORD would have us request great blessings. Prayer should be as simple a matter as the opening of the mouth; it should be a natural, unconstrained utterance. When a man is earnest he opens his mouth wide, and our text urges us to be fervent in our...

"He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you." John 16:14

The Holy Ghost Himself cannot better glorify the LORD Jesus than by showing to us Christ's own things. Jesus is His own best commendation. There is no adorning Him except with his own gold.

The Comforter shows us that which He has received of our LORD Jesus. We never see anything aright till He reveals it. He has a way of opening...

"There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." Hebrews 4:9

God has provided a Sabbath, and some must enter into it. Those to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief; therefore, that Sabbath remains for the people of God. David sang of it; but he had to touch the minor key, for Israel refused the rest of God. Joshua could not give it, nor Canaan yield it: it remains for believers.

Come, then,...

"For Thou wilt light my candle." Psalms 18:28

It may be that my soul sits in darkness; and if this be of a spiritual kind, no human power can bring me light. Blessed be God! He can enlighten my darkness and at once light my candle. Even though I may be surrounded by a "darkness which might be felt," yet He can break the gloom and immediately make it bright around me.

The mercy is that if He lights the candle none can blow...

"Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be redeemed among the nations." Numbers 23:9

Who would wish to dwell among the nations and to be numbered with them? Why, even the professing church is such that to follow the LORD fully within its bounds is very difficult. There is such a mingling and mixing that one often sighs for "a lodge in some vast wilderness."

Certain it is that the LORD would have His people follow a...

"If the LORD were pleased to kill us, He would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would He have showed us all these things." Judges 13:23

This is a sort of promise deduced by logic. It is an inference fairly drawn from ascertained facts. It was not likely that the LORD had revealed to Manoah and his wife that a son would be born to them and yet had it in His heart to destroy them. The...

"And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live." Ezekiel 47:9

The living waters, in the prophet's vision, flowed into the Dead Sea and carried life with them, even into that stagnant lake. Where grace goes, spiritual life is the immediate and the everlasting consequence. Grace proceeds sovereignly according to the will of God, even as a river in all its...

"For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all sections, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth." Amos 9:9

The sifting process is going on still. Wherever we go, we are still being winnowed and sifted. In all countries God's people are being tried "like as corn is sifted in a sieve." Sometimes the devil holds the sieve and tosses us up and down at a great rate,...

"But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby." Isaiah 33:21

The LORD will be to us the greatest good without any of the drawbacks which seem necessarily to attend the best earthly things. If a city is favored with broad rivers, it is liable to be attacked by galleys with oars and other ships of war. But when the...

"Knowing that tribulation worketh patience." Romans 5:3

This is a promise in essence if not in form. We have need of patience, and here we see the way of getting it. It is only by enduring that we learn to endure, even as by swimming men learn to swim. You could not learn that art on dry land, nor learn patience without trouble. Is it not worth while to suffer tribulation for the sake of gaining that beautiful equanimity of mind...

"Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power." Psalms 110:3

Blessed be the God of grace that it is so! He has a people whom He has chosen from of old to be His peculiar portion. These by nature have wills as stubborn as the rest of the froward sons of Adam; but when the day of His power comes and grace displays its omnipotence, they become willing to repent and to believe in Jesus. None are saved unwillingly, but the will...

"The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in his love, He will joy over thee with singing." Zephaniah 3:17

What a Word is this! Jehovah God in the center of His people in all the majesty of His power! This presence alone suffices to inspire us with peace and hope. Treasures of boundless might are stored in our Jehovah, and He dwells in His church; therefore...