Is your imagination stayed on God or is it starved? The starvation of the imagination is one of the most fruitful sources of exhaustion and sapping in a worker's life. If you have never used your imagination to put yourself before God, begin to do it now. It is no use waiting for God to come; you must put your imagination away from the face of idols and look unto Him and be saved. Imagination is the greatest gift God has given us and it ought to be devoted entirely to Him. If you have been bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, it will be one of the greatest assets to faith when the time of trial comes, because your faith and the Spirit of God will work together. Learn to associate ideas worthy of God with all that happens in Nature - the sun rises and the sunsets, the sun and the stars, the changing seasons, and your imagination will never be at the mercy of your impulses, but will always be at the service of God.

"We have sinned with our fathers; ... and have forgotten" - then put a stiletto in the place where you have gone to sleep. "God is not talking to me just now," but He ought to be. Remember Whose you are and Whom you serve. Provoke yourself by recollection, and your affection for God will increase tenfold; your imagination will not be starved any longer, but will be quick and enthusiastic, and your hope will be inexpressibly bright.

Is it worthwhile, this ceaseless chase by which so many are affected? Does it pay? And, after all, why this exciting pace which has all too truly become a part of our national program?

Must the sons of men be forever driven like so many beasts of prey? Is there no escape from the feverish haste which persists in manifesting itself in all the walks of life?

It is possible for a Christian to make his active life restful. He may carry the atmosphere of the closet into the street. The Shepherd promises to lead him beside still waters; and those are the deepest waters.

This feverish hurried life which too many of us lead is not in God’s economy, depend upon it. If we live in this way it is because we push on before the Shepherd instead of letting Him lead us beside still waters.

If we were more docile, we should be more restful.

Only when the soul is brimful of the life of faith does it work in rest.

Not until we shall have let our life drop back behind God, to follow at the rate which He prescribes, shall we learn what the words mean, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee” (Isaiah 26:3 KJV).

Our little restless earth and our little breathless lives will take on dignity and deeper worth if we catch step with the rhythmic movement of the quiet stars.

Most strong men know times of silence. Abraham, alone with God, was made the father of a nation; Moses, in the quietness and stillness of the desert, received God’s message at the burning bush. Most of their training was in the school of silence.

It takes time to be spiritual; it doesn’t just happen!

In the deep jungles of Africa, a traveler was making a long trek. Men had been engaged from a tribe to carry the loads. The first day they marched rapidly and went far. The traveler had high hopes of a speedy journey. But the second morning, these jungle tribesmen refused to move.

For some strange reason, they just sat and rested. On inquiry as to the reason for this strange behavior, the traveler was informed that they had gone too fast the first day, and that they were now waiting for their souls to catch up with their bodies.

This whirling rushing life which so many of us live does for us what that first march did for those poor jungle tribesmen. The difference: they knew what they needed to restore life’s balance; too often we do not.

Jesus calls us o’er the tumult of our life’s wild restless sea.

Cast thy burden upon the Lord , and he shall sustain thee; he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.

Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.

The effect of righteousness [shall be] quietness and assurance for ever.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.

Cast thy burden upon the Lord , and he shall sustain thee.—He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.—Is any among you afflicted? let him pray.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.—Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.

Are ye not much better than they?—Be not faithless, but believing.—Lo, I am with you alway.

O Lord , I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

Not as I will, but as thou wilt.

Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

We know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Ye know not what ye ask.

He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.

These things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

I would have you without carefulness.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.—He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord . His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies.

What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.—In the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy: I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord .

The God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.

I am the Lord : . . . they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.—Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord , and whose hope the Lord is.—Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.—My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defense; I shall not be moved.—I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed.

God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us; which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus.