Steadfastness
The business of a river is to flow. Its banks may be beautiful or unpleasing; its current strong or sluggish; its skies blue or clouded; its waters may mirror flowers in spring and ferns in summer; may float the dead leaves of fall, or be hemmed in and pressed by the ice in winter— it must flow on. A noisy brook in its youth, a noble river at last, so deep that men say, "There go the ships," majestically entering the ocean; but from its birth to its bourne its business is to flow. Here eddies may seem to be turning it back, there the current may be checked by a resisting arm of land, but the central stream moves steadily onward as though led by the hand of destiny.
Is not this steadfastness to mark, to make, the character of your lives? Is it not God's will that we should press steadily on to our goal in obedience to Him, in channels of his choosing, whether in sunshine or shadow, in the cheer of spring or in the chill of winter, neither detained by pleasure nor deterred by pain?
The hosannas of the children rang about Jesus and gladdened his heart, the palm branches were strewn in his path and gave him joy, but he would not build a tabernacle of the branches, good as it was to be there. The agony of Gethsemane confronted Jesus, but it could not turn his steadfast face.
His life moved unfalteringly onward, neither beguiled by pleasures nor daunted by perils. He felt both, but would not let them determine anything for him. They must be incidental; to please his Father was fundamental. "It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master, and the servant as his lord."
Remember, then, amid the joys of life, the glad but steadfast face of our Master, and amid the sorrows of life, the sad but steadfast face of our Lord. How strong, how peaceful, how deeply joyful our lives may be, if they are sacramental, lived in memory of Jesus, the central stream of their deep determination, like his— doing the will of our Father.
Maltbie D. Babcock 1858~1901 (excerpt from his book titled Thoughts For Every-Day Living)
Forwarded fromCarli • Saved by Grace
4September 3, 2026 34
