Category: Carmichael, Amy

“Never, never did He not hear.”

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

I just had to dig Amy Carmichael out today to look for something of hers to share.  She just has such a wonderful way of saying things and hitting the nail right on the head.

Ps 116.1 I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my supplications.

As we look back on past years,  they are full of memories of great sorrows and great joys also.  If I were asked to give the sum of the years in a sentence I would write this: I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my supplications.  Never, never did He not hear.  Never was He far away.

It will be the same with you.  Just now you are in the midst of the pressure of life.  One thing follows another so closely that you have hardly time to think, hardly time to realize how much you are being helped.  But looking back, it will be different.  If there have been sorrows, you will see how marvelous His lovingkindness was.  If there have been joys, it will be the same.  If the time held just one steady round of service it will still be the same.  Every day, every hour will seem to you than as if these words were written across it: I love the Lord because He has heard.

So love Him now, rejoice in Him now, however things are because it is true today–He hears your voice and your supplications.

When life feels a bit much

Sr. Dorcee, beloved2 Comments

I have been thinking of this Elizabeth of the Trinity quote a lot the last couple of days, so I thought I would repost this piece from a few years ago.  It’s still relevant:

I haven’t posted in the past two days because life has been full of more important things.  As many of you know, we run two Emmanuel Houses: homes for older adults who are no longer capable of living alone and have limited support and no resources.  This week three of the residents have been in the hospital and one at home passed on to be with the Lord.  Two of our Sisters who work there are on vacation.  It’s times like these when life can feel like it’s a bit too much.  Yet we know that all is in God’s Providence.  I meditate often on these words from Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity: “Everything that happens is for me a message of the excessive love of God for my soul.”  And as Amy Carmichael would say: “Everything means everything.”

I love thinking about the words: “excessive love.”  Wow.

The right kind of sympathy

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

Matthew 26.38 Then he said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”

“Mary Mozley of Central Africa wrote in a letter: “Somebody suggested this thought to me, and it came home to me the other day in reading about Christ in Gethsemane–that the way to show true sympathy is not to pity, but to stand by and strengthen the sufferer to do God’s will.  And in Gethsemane, when Christ turned to the three for sympathy, it was with the words, ‘Watch with Me.’ ‘Stand by Me.’  He asked for no pity, but for the strengthening which might seem a feeble help, just that they might let their presence and prayer tell there for Him, to strengthen Him to do the will of God.”

“The Lord help each one of us to ‘stand by’ one another with just this kind of bracing sympathy.”

(Amy Carmichael)

“I trust you not to misunderstand Me”

Sr. Dorcee, beloved1 Comment

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything from my old friend, Amy Carmichael.  I hope you find encouragement here:

Ps 37.31 None of his steps shall slide.

Ps 18.36 Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my ankles did not slip.

Luke 21.16-18  You shall be betrayed . . . and some of you shall they cause to be put to death . . . . But there shall not a hair of your head perish.

These words of our God are most gloriously trustful.  Our Lord was speaking to some who were to die by martyrdom and He said in effect: “I trust you not to misunderstand when your ankles do slip and every hair of your head does perish.  I trust you never to be offended in Me.”

There is a delightful “though” in Psalm 37.24 which goes to the core of the matter.  Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholds him with His hand.  Kay translates it, He shall not be prostrated, for the Lord supports His hand; and Rotherham, with enchanting vigor: Though he fall, he shall not be hurled headlong, for the Lord is holding his hand.

What do falls matter if the Lord is holding us up?  He will keep us safe; we shall be more than conquerors through Him who loves us.

Friday: from the archives

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

Something from Amy Carmichael:

1 John 4:18  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.  For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love.

Let us take time today to consider the love of God.

Some of us are tempted to fear about ourselves.  What about tomorrow?  Shall we be able to go on?  Perfect love casts out fear.  Love God and there will be no room for fear, for to love is to trust and if we trust we do not fear.

Some of us are tempted to fear the future.  There again perfect love casts out fear.  He who has led will lead.  It quickens love and encourages faith to think of all that God has done.  He has not brought us so far, to leave us now.

So let us open all our windows and our doors to the great love of God.  Love is like light.  It will flood our rooms if only we open to it.  Let us take time today to open more fully than ever before to the blessed love of God.

 

Friday: from the archives

Sr. Dorcee, beloved2 Comments

A bit of a balm for those who are fearful:

Jer 39.17: But I will deliver you on that day, says the Lord, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.

What is the thing you most fear and most earnestly pray about, the thing that you most dread?  If you love your Lord and yet know your own weakness, it is that something may happen to sweep you off your feet, or that your strength may be drained and you may yield and fall, and fail Him at the end.  The lives of many are shadowed by this fear.

But take comfort.  The God who knew the heart of His servant Ebed-melech knows our heart too.  He knows who the men are (what the forces of trial are) of whom we are afraid.  And He assures us and reassures us.  The Bible is full of “Fear nots.”  You shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.  (Amy Carmichael)

What can man do to me?

Sr. Dorcee, beloved1 Comment

Ps 118.6: The Lord is on my side; I will not fear; what can man do to me?

Job 34.29: When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble?

The Lord is for me (margin).  What can man do to me?  Nothing.  Nothing that really matters.  Nothing that can do any harm.  Nothing that will not be turned to golden good.

Sometimes we feel as though man could do a great deal. A perverse child can cloud a whole day.  The sight of deadly sin, injustice and suffering can overwhelm us.  And deeper things, the inward assaults of the never-resting foe (though he is not man but stronger than man) can seem to do appalling things.

But still the word stands, the question that can have only one answer.  The Lord is for me.  What can man do to me?  Nothing.

And to another questions there is only one answer.  When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble?  No one.

However things seem, the answers to those two questions are among the things that cannot be shaken.

~Amy Carmichael

Hard-pressed

Sr. Dorcee, beloved1 Comment

It’s been a good while since I’ve quoted anything from my friend, Amy Carmichael . . . and she is always so good:

Is 53.7 Hard-pressed–yet He humbled Himself, nor opened His mouth.

The assault of our great enemy comes in waves.  Sometimes we cannot do the work committed to us to do, and this is indeed a trial of faith.  “Hard-pressed” is the word that describes it all.

It is the word spoken of our Lord Jesus in Rotherman’s translation. Hard-pressed–yet He humbled Himself, nor opened His mouth.  To ask why, even to wonder why, is to open our mouth.  Our Lord Jesus Christ shows us the way here as everywhere.  Am I hard-pressed in any direction inward or outward?  The only word I speak must be a word of acceptance  “Even so, Father.”  Underfoot is the rock of Romans 8.28.  Overhead is the banner of Eternal Love.  Nothing is going wrong, however wrong it seems.  All, all is well.

Friday: from the archives

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

A bit of a balm for those who are fearful:

Jer 39.17: But I will deliver you on that day, says the Lord, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.

What is the thing you most fear and most earnestly pray about, the thing that you most dread?  If you love your Lord and yet know your own weakness, it is that something may happen to sweep you off your feet, or that your strength may be drained and you may yield and fall, and fail Him at the end.  The lives of many are shadowed by this fear.

But take comfort.  The God who knew the heart of His servant Ebed-melech knows our heart too.  He knows who the men are (what the forces of trial are) of whom we are afraid.  And He assures us and reassures us.  The Bible is full of “Fear nots.”  You shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.  (Amy Carmichael)

A good story

Sr. Dorcee, beloved3 Comments

Yesterday, I had one of those days that did not go according to “my” plans.  It did make for a good story later, but at the moment I found myself quite frustrated and irritated that I had to drop everything for someone else and that I didn’t get to eat lunch until mid-afternoon.  I had to do something on the computer that I really didn’t know how to do.  I had someone on the phone walking me through it, but the phone cord was too short to reach to the computer so I had to keep dropping the receiver, go work on the computer, and then back to pick up the phone. (I hope you’re laughing at this point–but let me assure you, I wasn’t.) I did have the brilliant idea at one point to switch a cord and handset from another phone–but when I went to hang it up so that I could call the person back later, the handset did not fit the cradle!  Then the online account that was needed to pay for the services I was trying to secure ran out of money.  That would have been easy if the account had been in my name, but it wasn’t.  Something else to figure out.  And so on and so on. (And there was a “so on and so on”, let me tell you.) Like I said, it made for a good story later–but not at the time.  It was humbling to see my weakness and selfishness cry out so strongly at such a simple interruption.

I pray that you respond more quickly to the grace of God than I did yesterday.  Let us pray for each other–that at least we will have the humility to cry out to God in our weakness . . . and hopefully have a  good story to tell when it is all over.  I love this prayer from Amy Carmichael:

A day or two ago one who was with me prayed like this, “Lord, help me to welcome interruptions, especially when the interruption seems less important than the work I am trying to do.”  That prayer has often been mine.  I expect many of you have felt the need of the loving grace of the Lord to help you to welcome interruptions, especially when they do not seem to matter nearly so much as what we are doing at the moment.  Thinking of this, I found myself this early morning in Lk. 9.11.  The people followed our Lord Jesus (He had wanted to be alone with His disciples just then), and He welcomed them.