My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
When flesh and heart and all human strength and courage give out, God Himself remains the enduring strength of the heart and the lasting share forever. It is the experience of true trusting children who stay continually with Him, are held by His hand and guided by His counsel, want no one in heaven or earth beside Him, and find it good to draw near, trust fully and tell of all His works. It is the confession every child of God is to speak from the heart in weakness and temptation, asking and seeking and knocking in faith for the Holy Spirit, so that in the daily warfare heavenly help, cooperation with angels and victory day by day unto the life to come are gained. In trouble and perplexity, in sickness and deep affliction, in grief and weariness and even in facing death, trusting Him by faith brings a living sense of His comforting presence and power, for weakness does not cancel His promises and feelings are no test of their steadfastness. He is known not by defining His essence in words but by living experience, by contemplating Him, sensing His presence and talking with Him in prayer, and Jesus Himself is that lasting portion, tasted as good when the heart is opened to the Word and the will is surrendered to learn of Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Words and Heart Experience
The verse expresses the individual experience gained by God's true, believing, trusting children, who are learners and not novices, continually with Him, held by His right hand, guided by His counsel and afterward received to glory, having no one in heaven but Him and desiring none on earth beside Him, finding it good to draw near to Him, to put all trust in Him and to declare all His works. When flesh and heart, body, human strength, courage and endurance fail, God Himself remains the strength of the heart and the lasting portion forever. His being the rock and strength of the heart expresses Christ's grace and strength, pictured as life-giving water.
The Lord Jesus is the believer's portion forever, confessed as personal testimony after tasting that the Lord is good. That confession comes when the heart is opened to receive the Word, faith works by love and purifies the soul by obeying the truth, and believing brings His transforming grace so that His virtues are reflected in mind and character. Then the power of the cross moves hope and fear, adoration and love, the will is surrendered to Christ, the believer sits at His feet to learn from Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life, the world fades from view, heaven's glory becomes all-attractive, and willing obedience is delighted in and gladly imparted to others. Christ is the lasting portion and it is good to have Him as that portion, known by evidence when souls are surrendered to God to be guided by His Word, and those who have this evidence are to tell others of it and of the surrender that brings it.
God becomes in a literal sense the strength of the heart and the portion forever when a person decides that loving God supremely and loving his neighbor as himself is the only hope of eternal life, and that decision gives much clearer, higher and holier conceptions of God, of eternity and of what obedience means. As strength of heart and portion forever He is known by living experience and not by defining His essence in words. His glory and majesty are beyond expression, yet through faith people can know and contemplate as much of Him as they can bear by contemplating Him, sensing His presence and talking with Him in prayer, enduring as seeing the Invisible and becoming one with Christ in God. In trouble and perplexity, trusting Him fully and by faith brings a living sense of His comforting, cheering, all-pervading presence and power. The soul finds its strength in the One who never fails, and He is the joy of life above every earthly desire.
Trust in Trial and Life
The verse is a confession to be spoken from the heart by every child of God who calls for help, acknowledging that flesh and heart fail in weakness and temptation while God Himself becomes the enduring strength of the heart and the everlasting portion. It belongs in prayer when asking, seeking and knocking in faith, believing that God will fulfill His Word and give the Holy Spirit more willingly than parents give good gifts to their children. In the daily warfare where satanic agencies fight for mastery over minds, while angels work to strengthen weak hands and confirm feeble knees, this trust brings divine help, cooperation with heavenly intelligences, fitness to stand in God's presence and see His face, and victory gained day by day unto the life to come.
In trouble and perplexity, trusting God fully and by faith brings a living sense of His comforting and cheering presence and power as strength and portion forever. Through that faith people can know and contemplate as much of God as they can bear. The verse is also the testimony of a whole life lived in Bible truth day by day in integrity, equity and uprightness. Such a life refuses to cooperate with worldly men to carry out worldly principles, and the temptations and allurements of the world cannot draw it from the right path, for with the eye of faith it beholds the invisible.
Human strength and endurance fail, and human plans and ceremonies alone cannot succeed in Christian work. God's power must work in the mind and heart to inspire and give courage for the effort. Christ sustains His servants in adversity and gives them strength for the work He asks them to do.
When body and heart give out in weakness, God still loves and will not thrust the failing one away. His grace is all-sufficient, and He gives peace and grace. The failing one is to stop worrying, rest quietly in Jesus' love and arms, gather God's promises to the soul, and trust Jesus as a constant, unfailing friend.
When body and heart break down in deep affliction and sickness, God and His promises remain full and rich and free and precious to the sufferer. Weakness and sickness do not cancel His promises, and not all have the same boldness and confidence when brought into deep affliction. Feelings are no test, but faith and hope resting on the promises stay steadfast and hold like an anchor.
In physical weakness God alone is to be desired above all in heaven and on earth as all and in all. The believer is not left in human strength to struggle against difficulties and seeming impossibilities, but brings all difficulties to the heavenly Father who understands necessities and will not misinterpret the expression of need. Drawing near to Him in weakness, clinging to the cross with nothing to bring, the believer stands and works not in own strength but in the strength the Lord gives, leaning on the Saviour's arm so that feebleness is gone and depending wholly on His power makes strong. His keeping power, blessing and peace rest on the one who trusts Him, and supply is given to impart to others.
When strength fails and powers are no longer vigorous, when afflicted with sickness and weary and worn with pain, a person lives on the faith talked and the hope nourished beforehand until faith and confidence in God have grown into habit. Treasuring up the words of promise in health makes it possible to only believe and trust when mental struggle is impossible. In helplessness the failing one commits the keeping of the soul to God as unto a faithful Creator, clinging to the cross and relying wholly by faith upon the precious promises. In weakness and perplexity, relying on God by faith brings the help needed to act, giving clear speech and courage to undertake a difficult journey.
When temptations assail and cares and darkness oppress and heart and flesh are ready to fail, Jesus throws His everlasting arms around, supplies the precious promise, and brings to remembrance words of assurance and hope. He gives grace in rich measure to those who ask in sincerity and truth, imputes His righteousness and saves from sin, and rolls back fog and mist with His light to bring into the sunshine of His presence. Therefore He is to be loved and praised and rejoiced in always as a living Saviour, through whose mercy and gracious love those risen with Him are declared chosen, adopted, pardoned and justified.
The verse gives comfort and lasting portion in facing execution and death, looking beyond death with joyful hope to embrace the Lord and see Him without a veil. When human feelings fail in grief over losing someone loved, hope rests in strong faith in God as the heart's lasting strength and portion. Earthly attachments must not take God's place, and the heart's deepest attachment should be to God. God is the believer's lasting portion even when choosing Christ means sharing in His sufferings. He is the source of joy, and staying close to the Redeemer brings assurance that no one can take the believer from His hand.
God is our God, our only trust and the strength of the soul. Those preparing for the test of the judgment must be much with Him in earnest prayer and take hold upon Him. He is pleased when importuned for grace and favor, not only for self but for those in need of help. Implicit confidence is to be put in Jesus, praying and believing and continuing to pray, and He will certainly hear.
When flesh and heart and all human strength and courage give out, God Himself remains the enduring strength of the heart and the lasting share forever. It is the experience of true trusting children who stay continually with Him, are held by His hand and guided by His counsel, want no one in heaven or earth beside Him, and find it good to draw near, trust fully and tell of all His works. It is the confession every child of God is to speak from the heart in weakness and temptation, asking and seeking and knocking in faith for the Holy Spirit, so that in the daily warfare heavenly help, cooperation with angels and victory day by day unto the life to come are gained. In trouble and perplexity, in sickness and deep affliction, in grief and weariness and even in facing death, trusting Him by faith brings a living sense of His comforting presence and power, for weakness does not cancel His promises and feelings are no test of their steadfastness. He is known not by defining His essence in words but by living experience, by contemplating Him, sensing His presence and talking with Him in prayer, and Jesus Himself is that lasting portion, tasted as good when the heart is opened to the Word and the will is surrendered to learn of Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Words and Heart Experience
The verse expresses the individual experience gained by God's true, believing, trusting children, who are learners and not novices, continually with Him, held by His right hand, guided by His counsel and afterward received to glory, having no one in heaven but Him and desiring none on earth beside Him, finding it good to draw near to Him, to put all trust in Him and to declare all His works. When flesh and heart, body, human strength, courage and endurance fail, God Himself remains the strength of the heart and the lasting portion forever. His being the rock and strength of the heart expresses Christ's grace and strength, pictured as life-giving water.
The Lord Jesus is the believer's portion forever, confessed as personal testimony after tasting that the Lord is good. That confession comes when the heart is opened to receive the Word, faith works by love and purifies the soul by obeying the truth, and believing brings His transforming grace so that His virtues are reflected in mind and character. Then the power of the cross moves hope and fear, adoration and love, the will is surrendered to Christ, the believer sits at His feet to learn from Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life, the world fades from view, heaven's glory becomes all-attractive, and willing obedience is delighted in and gladly imparted to others. Christ is the lasting portion and it is good to have Him as that portion, known by evidence when souls are surrendered to God to be guided by His Word, and those who have this evidence are to tell others of it and of the surrender that brings it.
God becomes in a literal sense the strength of the heart and the portion forever when a person decides that loving God supremely and loving his neighbor as himself is the only hope of eternal life, and that decision gives much clearer, higher and holier conceptions of God, of eternity and of what obedience means. As strength of heart and portion forever He is known by living experience and not by defining His essence in words. His glory and majesty are beyond expression, yet through faith people can know and contemplate as much of Him as they can bear by contemplating Him, sensing His presence and talking with Him in prayer, enduring as seeing the Invisible and becoming one with Christ in God. In trouble and perplexity, trusting Him fully and by faith brings a living sense of His comforting, cheering, all-pervading presence and power. The soul finds its strength in the One who never fails, and He is the joy of life above every earthly desire.
Trust in Trial and Life
The verse is a confession to be spoken from the heart by every child of God who calls for help, acknowledging that flesh and heart fail in weakness and temptation while God Himself becomes the enduring strength of the heart and the everlasting portion. It belongs in prayer when asking, seeking and knocking in faith, believing that God will fulfill His Word and give the Holy Spirit more willingly than parents give good gifts to their children. In the daily warfare where satanic agencies fight for mastery over minds, while angels work to strengthen weak hands and confirm feeble knees, this trust brings divine help, cooperation with heavenly intelligences, fitness to stand in God's presence and see His face, and victory gained day by day unto the life to come.
In trouble and perplexity, trusting God fully and by faith brings a living sense of His comforting and cheering presence and power as strength and portion forever. Through that faith people can know and contemplate as much of God as they can bear. The verse is also the testimony of a whole life lived in Bible truth day by day in integrity, equity and uprightness. Such a life refuses to cooperate with worldly men to carry out worldly principles, and the temptations and allurements of the world cannot draw it from the right path, for with the eye of faith it beholds the invisible.
Human strength and endurance fail, and human plans and ceremonies alone cannot succeed in Christian work. God's power must work in the mind and heart to inspire and give courage for the effort. Christ sustains His servants in adversity and gives them strength for the work He asks them to do.
When body and heart give out in weakness, God still loves and will not thrust the failing one away. His grace is all-sufficient, and He gives peace and grace. The failing one is to stop worrying, rest quietly in Jesus' love and arms, gather God's promises to the soul, and trust Jesus as a constant, unfailing friend.
When body and heart break down in deep affliction and sickness, God and His promises remain full and rich and free and precious to the sufferer. Weakness and sickness do not cancel His promises, and not all have the same boldness and confidence when brought into deep affliction. Feelings are no test, but faith and hope resting on the promises stay steadfast and hold like an anchor.
In physical weakness God alone is to be desired above all in heaven and on earth as all and in all. The believer is not left in human strength to struggle against difficulties and seeming impossibilities, but brings all difficulties to the heavenly Father who understands necessities and will not misinterpret the expression of need. Drawing near to Him in weakness, clinging to the cross with nothing to bring, the believer stands and works not in own strength but in the strength the Lord gives, leaning on the Saviour's arm so that feebleness is gone and depending wholly on His power makes strong. His keeping power, blessing and peace rest on the one who trusts Him, and supply is given to impart to others.
When strength fails and powers are no longer vigorous, when afflicted with sickness and weary and worn with pain, a person lives on the faith talked and the hope nourished beforehand until faith and confidence in God have grown into habit. Treasuring up the words of promise in health makes it possible to only believe and trust when mental struggle is impossible. In helplessness the failing one commits the keeping of the soul to God as unto a faithful Creator, clinging to the cross and relying wholly by faith upon the precious promises. In weakness and perplexity, relying on God by faith brings the help needed to act, giving clear speech and courage to undertake a difficult journey.
When temptations assail and cares and darkness oppress and heart and flesh are ready to fail, Jesus throws His everlasting arms around, supplies the precious promise, and brings to remembrance words of assurance and hope. He gives grace in rich measure to those who ask in sincerity and truth, imputes His righteousness and saves from sin, and rolls back fog and mist with His light to bring into the sunshine of His presence. Therefore He is to be loved and praised and rejoiced in always as a living Saviour, through whose mercy and gracious love those risen with Him are declared chosen, adopted, pardoned and justified.
The verse gives comfort and lasting portion in facing execution and death, looking beyond death with joyful hope to embrace the Lord and see Him without a veil. When human feelings fail in grief over losing someone loved, hope rests in strong faith in God as the heart's lasting strength and portion. Earthly attachments must not take God's place, and the heart's deepest attachment should be to God. God is the believer's lasting portion even when choosing Christ means sharing in His sufferings. He is the source of joy, and staying close to the Redeemer brings assurance that no one can take the believer from His hand.
God is our God, our only trust and the strength of the soul. Those preparing for the test of the judgment must be much with Him in earnest prayer and take hold upon Him. He is pleased when importuned for grace and favor, not only for self but for those in need of help. Implicit confidence is to be put in Jesus, praying and believing and continuing to pray, and He will certainly hear.