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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING http://www.heartlight.org/
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Tuesday, August 5, 2008
MORNING:
"We know that all things work together for good to them that
love God."
-- Romans 8:28
Upon some points a believer is absolutely sure. He knows, for instance,
that God sits in the stern-sheets of the vessel when it rocks most. He
believes that an invisible hand is always on the world's tiller, and
that wherever providence may drift, Jehovah steers it. That re-assuring
knowledge prepares him for everything. He looks over the raging waters
and sees the spirit of Jesus treading the billows, and he hears a voice
saying, "It is I, be not afraid." He knows too that God is always wise,
and, knowing this, he is confident that there can be no accidents, no
mistakes; that nothing can occur which ought not to arise. He can say,
"If I should lose all I have, it is better that I should lose than
have, if God so wills: the worst calamity is the wisest and the kindest
thing that could befall to me if God ordains it." "We know that all
things work together for good to them that love God." The Christian
does not merely hold this as a theory, but he knows it as a matter of
fact. Everything has worked for good as yet; the poisonous drugs mixed
in fit proportions have worked the cure; the sharp cuts of the lancet
have cleansed out the proud flesh and facilitated the healing. Every
event as yet has worked out the most divinely blessed results; and so,
believing that God rules all, that he governs wisely, that he brings
good out of evil, the believer's heart is assured, and he is enabled
calmly to meet each trial as it comes. The believer can in the spirit
of true resignation pray, "Send me what thou wilt, my God, so long as
it comes from thee; never came there an ill portion from thy table to
any of thy children."
"Say not my soul, 'From whence can God relieve my care?'
Remember that Omnipotence has servants everywhere.
His method is sublime, his heart profoundly kind,
God never is before his time, and never is behind."
EVENING:
"Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?"
-- Numbers 32:6
Kindred has its obligations. The Reubenites and Gadites would have been
unbrotherly if they had claimed the land which had been conquered, and
had left the rest of the people to fight for their portions alone. We
have received much by means of the efforts and sufferings of the saints
in years gone by, and if we do not make some return to the church of
Christ by giving her our best energies, we are unworthy to be enrolled
in her ranks. Others are combating the errors of the age manfully, or
excavating perishing ones from amid the ruins of the fall, and if we
fold our hands in idleness we had need be warned, lest the curse of
Meroz fall upon us. The Master of the vineyard saith, "Why stand ye
here all the day idle?" What is the idler's excuse? Personal service of
Jesus becomes all the more the duty of all because it is cheerfully and
abundantly rendered by some. The toils of devoted missionaries and
fervent ministers shame us if we sit still in indolence. Shrinking from
trial is the temptation of those who are at ease in Zion: they would
fain escape the cross and yet wear the crown; to them the question for
this evening's meditation is very applicable. If the most precious are
tried in the fire, are we to escape the crucible? If the diamond must
be vexed upon the wheel, are we to be made perfect without suffering?
Who hath commanded the wind to cease from blowing because our bark is
on the deep? Why and wherefore should we be treated better than our
Lord? The firstborn felt the rod, and why not the younger brethren? It
is a cowardly pride which would choose a downy pillow and a silken
couch for a soldier of the cross. Wiser far is he who, being first
resigned to the divine will, groweth by the energy of grace to be
pleased with it, and so learns to gather lilies at the cross foot, and,
like Samson, to find honey in the lion.
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=========================== FEATURED PRODUCT =========================
CURE FOR THE COMMON LIFE: LIVING IN YOUR SWEET SPOT, by Max Lucado
In Cure for the Common Life, Max Lucado offers practical tools for
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http://shopping.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/link?256
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MORNING & EVENING from HEARTLIGHT /\/\
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http://www.heartlight.org/spurgeon \/
Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
and preacher Charles Spurgeon. It's part of HEARTLIGHT Magazine,
the leading Christian living e-zine on the Web. Visit HEARTLIGHT
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