Our God

"O Christians, God is so yours in Christ, and so yours by covenant, and so yours by promise, and so yours by purchase, and so yours by conquest, and so yours by marriage union and communion, and so yours by the earnest of the Spirit, and so yours by the feelings and witnesses of the Spirit, that no power on earth can ever pilfer your portion or cheat, or rob you of your portion."

Thomas Brooks

Secret Prayer

Matthew 6:6 — But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

These words of our Saviour are plain, and to be taken literally. Here we have a positive precept for every Christian to pray alone. Closet duties declare sincerity. The more sincerity, the more the soul will be faithful in the closet.

Secret prayer is not the hypocrite's ordinary walk or trade.

When we pray in public, there are many things that might bribe and provoke the carnal heart: pride, vain-glory, applause or a great name.

In private prayer, there is no such influence. God will reward his people outwardly for their faithfulness in secret.

God in the great day will recompense his people before all the world, for every secret prayer, tear, sigh, and groan from his people. In that day, he will declare to men and angels how often his people have poured out their souls before him in secret places, and will accordingly reward them. Ah, Christians! If we really believed this, how we would be in private prayer more frequently and more abundantly.

Thomas Brooks

Dancing with the Devil

When an asp stings a man, the poison little by little gets to the heart. So does sin; it may please a little at first, but it will pain the soul at last. Men must not think to dance and dine with the devil and then to sup with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Sin will usher in the greatest and saddest losses that can be upon our souls.

Thomas Brooks

Works 1:12-16