Colossians 2:6-7 (NLT)
Just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
Polycarp of Smyrna (69-156)
Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal high priest himself, the Son of God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth and in all gentleness and in all freedom from anger and forbearance and steadfastness and patient endurance and purity.
Thomas a' Kempis The Imitation of Christ
Finally, I want to teach you the way of peace and true liberty. There are four things you must do. First, strive to do another's will rather than your own. Second, choose always to have less than more. Third, seek the lower places in life, dying to the need to be recognized and important. Fourth, always and in everything desire that the will of God may be completely fulfilled in you.
William Gurnall The Christian in Compete Armour
Dare to be holy, despite men and devils.
Henry Scudder A Key of Heaven: The Lord’s Prayer Opened, and So Applied, that a Christian May Learne how to Pray, and to Procure All Things which May Make for the Glorie of God, and the Good of Himselfe, and of His Neighbour: Containing Likewise Such Doctrines of Faith and Godlines, as May be Very Usefull to All that Desire to Live Godly in Christ Jesus, 1633
Be perfect, says Christ, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48); in every thing, and in every way, be perfect. The way to attain this is first to convince the heart that we ought to be perfect.
Then we must see that we are not already perfect.
Thirdly, let us not look on what we have done, and what is behind, but on that which is before us to be done.
Fourthly, we must be daily purging ourselves from filthiness of flesh and spirit, and so perfect holiness.
Fifthly, that we may do all these, we must daily be reading, hearing, and meditating on the Holy Scriptures; for their end is to make the man of God perfect.
Lastly, give all diligence, and press forward toward the mark and prize of the high calling of God in Christ. (Philippians 3:13-14)
Thomas Gataker, pastor of Rotherhith, member of the Westminster Assembly, on Philippians 3:13-14
(Paul) did as men in a race that look not back to see how many they have passed, or how far they have progressed, but have their eyes fixed on the ground before them (and) how far we are to go, and how far we come short of that Christian perfection that we should all strive and contend to attain unto.
Thomas Manton A Practical Exposition of the Lord's Prayer "Thine is the Glory"
This life is not to be valued but as it yields opportunities to glorify God. Every morning we should revive the sense of this upon our hearts. This day I am going to live with God.
John Newton “The Ascension of Messiah to Glory”
https://books.google.com/books?id=ejYIv91QlGUC&pg=PA302&lpg
Let not those who know Christ be ashamed of their attachment to him. You will not repent in a dying hour, that you once thought too highly of him, or expected too much from him, or devoted yourself with too much earnestness to his service.
Nor yield to unbelief and fear. Though your enemies are many and mighty, and your trials great, greater is he that is with you. If the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Lord strong and mighty in battle, be for you, who can be against you, so as effectually to harm you? Continue instant in prayer; persevere in well doing. Our ascended Lord will one day return; and then they who have loved and served and trusted him here shall appear with him in glory.
Robert Murray McCheyne
For every one look at your problems, your weaknesses, your failures - take ten looks at Jesus.
F.B. Meyer
Act worthily of the love which summoned you, and of the goal to which you have been called. Stand still and ask yourself before you speak, or act, or decide-Is this worthy of that great ideal which God has conceived for me, when He called me from the rest of men to be his priest, his saint, his son?
A.W. Tozer The Root of The Righteous
The whole Bible and all the great saints of the past join to tell us the same thing. "Take nothing for granted," they say to us. "Go back to the grass roots. Open your hearts and search the Scriptures. Bear your cross, follow your Lord and pay no heed to the passing religious vogue. The masses are always wrong. In every generation the number of the righteous is small. Be sure you are among them."
Thomas More A Godly Meditation, Written in the Tower c. 1534
1. Give me Thy grace, good Lord, to set the world at naught; to set my mind fast upon Thee; and not to hang upon the blast of men's mouths.
2. To be content to be solitary; not to long for worldly company; little and little utterly to cast off the world, and rid my mind of all the business thereof; not to long to hear of any worldly things, but that the hearing of worldly phantasies may be to me displeasant.
3. Gladly to be thinking of God; piteously to call for His help; to lean unto the comfort of God; busily to labour to love Him.
4. To know mine own vility and wretchedness; to humble and meeken myself under the mighty hand of God. To bewail my sins past; for the purging of them patiently to suffer adversity; gladly to bear my purgatory here; to be joyful of tribulations; to walk the narrow way that leadeth to life.
5. To bear the cross with Christ; to have the last things in remembrance; to have ever afore mine eye my death that is ever at hand; to make death no stranger to me; to foresee and consider the everlasting fire of hell; to pray for pardon before the Judge come.
6. To have continually in mind the passion that Christ suffered for me; for His benefits incessantly to give Him thanks.
7. To buy the time again, that I before have lost; to abstain from vain confabulations; to eschew light, foolish mirth; and gladness; recreations not necessary to cut off; of worldly substance, friends, liberty, life and all, to set the loss at right nought for the winning of Christ.
8. To think my most enemies my best friends; for the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good with their love and favour as they did him with their malice and hatred.
These minds are more to be desired of every man than all the treasure of all the princes and kings, Christian and heathen, were it gathered and laid together all upon one heap.
Thomas Lye “How Are We to Live by Faith of Divine Providence?”
There are rocks and quicksands that faith must take the utmost care to avoid.
1. Watch for distracting cares (Philippians 4:6).
2. Watch carnal counsel, and do not trust in man or fleshly help.
3. Do not limit the Holy One of Israel to only one manner of deliverance.
4. Watch impatient fretting, murmuring, and quarrelling against God's dispensation.
5. Don't doubt God's love under sufferings. Faith runs in the current of contentment (Philippians 4:11) and humility. Humility steadies the soul and makes it ride out the storm.
John Bunyan A Discourse Touching Prayer 1662
1. Believe that as sure as you are in the way of God you must meet with temptations, trials, and testing.
2. The first day therefore that thou dost enter into Christ's congregation, look for them.
3. When they do come, beg of God to carry thee through them.
4. Be jealous of (guard and examine) thine own heart, that it deceive thee not in thy evidences for heaven (2 Corinthians 13:5), nor in thy walking with God in this world (Lamentations 3:40).
5. Take heed of the flatteries of false brethren.
6. Keep in the life and power of truth.
7. Look most at the things which are not seen. (Your thoughts, desires, motivations.)
8. Take heed of little sins.
9. Keep the promise (of the Gospel) warm upon thy heart.
10. Renew thy acts of faith in the blood of Christ.
11. Consider the work of thy generation
(Bunyan here means your peers in Christ; observe, consider, pray, fellowship, emulate.)
12. Count to run with the foremost therein. (See how Christ is using your “foremost” peers. Aim to “run with” those who are serving him most faithfully and powerfully.)
Jeremy Taylor The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living
1. Do not think better of yourself because of any outward circumstance that happens to you.
2. Humility consists in a realistic opinion of yourself, namely, that you are an unworthy person.
3. When you hold this opinion of yourself, be content that others think the same of you.
4. Nurture a love to do good things in secret.
5. Never be ashamed of your birth.
6. Never say anything that will provoke praise or elicit compliments from others.
7. When you do receive praise for something you have done, take it indifferently and return it to God.
8. Make a good name for yourself by being a person of virtue and humility.
9. Do not take pride in any praise given to you.
10. Do not ask others your faults with the intent or purpose being to have others tell you of your good qualities.
11. When you are slighted by someone, or feel undervalued, do not harbor any secret anger.
12. Do not entertain any of the devil's whispers of pride.
13. Take an active part in the praising of others, entertaining their good with delight.
14. Be content when you see or hear that others are doing well...even when you are not.
15. Never compare yourself with others unless it be to advance your impression of them and lower your impression of yourself.
16. Do not constantly try to excuse all of your mistakes.
17. Give God thanks for every weakness, fault, and imperfection you have. Accept it as a favor of God, an instrument to resist pride and nurse humility.
18. Do not expose others' weaknesses in order to make them feel less able than you.
19. Remember that what is most important to God is that we submit ourselves and all that we have to Him.
20. Confess your sins often to God.
John Love (1757–1825) Remembrance of Daily Duties
1. Return solemn thanks for the night’s mercies. Beg assistance for the day.
2. In all acts of devotion, let me first collect my thoughts. Let me have them at their bent before I begin. Speak directly to God. Give way to no external, nor internal diversion.
3. Let me read the Scriptures—
(a) with a serious, practical view; and
(b) with comment.
4. Never trifle with a book with which I have no present concern. And, in reading any book—
(a) let me reflect what I may learn by it, and
(b) beg Divine assistance.
5. Never lose one minute of time.
6. Watch against undue expenditure, that I may have the more to spend for God.
7. When abroad, let me be desirous of doing and receiving good. Let me have some subject of contemplation, in readiness to occupy my thoughts as I walk along.
8. Let me render myself agreeable and useful to all, by tender, compassionate, friendly behaviour. Let me avoid trifling, impertinent stories. Imprudence is sin.
9. Watch against hypocrisy in thanksgiving.
10. Let me never delay a duty, unless I can prove that another time is more fit—or that some more important duty stands in the way of it.
Susanna Wesley in a letter to her son John, dated June 8, 1725
Take this rule: whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.
John Wesley – adapted from Christian Perfection
1. The first advice I would give to those who have been saved from sin by grace is to watch and pray continually against pride. For it is pride not only to ascribe what we have to ourselves, but also to think we have what we do not. One way we do this is to (admit) any (sin) we have.
2. …beware of the daughter of pride: enthusiasm. I mean the tendency to hastily ascribe everything to God, supposing dreams and voices and visions to be special revelations that God has given you. While they may be from God, they may also be from the devil.
Test all things by the written word of God, and let all bow down before it. But keep in mind that we must not despise reason, knowledge, or human learning, every one of which is a gift of God and was given to serve a purpose.
One general inlet to enthusiasm is expecting the end without the means; expecting knowledge without searching the Scripture and consulting with the people of God, or expecting spiritual strength without constant prayer and steady watchfulness, or expecting God to bless you without hearing the word of God at every opportunity.
(Richard Foster’s Devotional Classics – Wesley tells us to beware of wanting God to do things for us that He has ordained we should do for ourselves.)
3. Third, I caution you to beware of antinomianism, which is the belief that there is no need for laws in the life of the believer.
4. Sins of omission are avoiding to do good of any kind when we have the opportunity. (Galatians 6:10) Be zealous of good works.
5. …beware of desiring anything other than God. Let others see that you are not interested in any pleasure that does not bring you nearer to God.
6. Beware of everything which leads to separation. Beware of a dividing spirit.
7. O, beware of touchiness, of testiness, of an unwillingness to be corrected. Beware of being provoked to anger at the least criticism, and avoiding those who do not accept your word.
J.C. Ryle
Holiness http://www.gracegems.org/Ryle/holiness.htm
Strive to live a holy life. Walk worthy of the Church to which you belong. Live like citizens of Heaven. Let your light shine before men, so that the world may profit by your conduct. Let them know whose you are, and whom you serve. Be epistles of Christ, known and read of all men, written in such clear letters, that none can say of you, "I know not whether this man be a member of Christ or not." He who knows nothing of real, practical holiness — is no member of the Church on the rock.
Strive to live a courageous life. Confess Christ before men. Whatever station you occupy — in that station confess Christ. Why should you be ashamed of Him? He was not ashamed of you on the cross. He is ready to confess you now before His Father in Heaven. Why should you be ashamed of Him? Be bold. Be very bold. The good soldier is not ashamed of his uniform. The true believer ought never to be ashamed of Christ.
Strive to live a joyful life. Live like men who look for that blessed hope — the second coming of Jesus Christ. This is the prospect to which we should all look forward. It is not so much the thought of going to Heaven, as of Heaven coming to us, that should fill our minds. "There is a good time coming" for all the people of God, a good time for all the Church of Christ, a good time for all believers — a bad time for the impenitent and unbelieving — but a good time for true Christians. For that good time, let us wait and watch and pray.
Practical Religion, “Heirs of God”, 1878
https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/ryle/Practical%20Religion%20-Ryle.pdf
Persevere in your Christian calling and press forward more and more. Be careful to lay aside every weight, and the sin which most easily entangles you. (Hebrews 12:1) Keep your eyes fixed steadily on Jesus. (Hebrews 12:2) Remain in Him. (John 15:4) Remember that apart from Jesus you can do nothing (John 15:5) and with Jesus you can do everything. (Philippians 4:13) Watch and pray every day. Be steadfast, unmovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:58)
John Calvin Songs of the Nativity “The Promise to the Fathers” on Luke 1:69-74
Let us cast ourselves down before the majesty of our good God, conscious of our faults, praying that he might graciously open our eyes so that we might see our sins as they are and feel true shame, wholly despairing of ourselves. Nevertheless, let us not cease to seek after him, since he sought us when we were lost and ruined. And let us come to him by the way he has opened for us, for he invites us to come by his many promises. On them let us lean, and let us not fear to call upon him in prayer. May we struggle to overcome all our infirmities, and be confirmed more and more in our faith, attending with utmost care to his holy teaching, which daily bids us obey him with true perseverance. And may we serve and honour him all the days of our life.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Keep On!