HIS GRACE

In my life, I've experienced more loss and pain than I'd have liked. Naturally, it's a normal human response to avoid discomfort. Such loss, such pain...it can produce fear: Fear of more pain, more loss. Fear that my loved ones would feel pain, feel loss. Nobody wants that, and yet, in the words of Spurgeon:

"If none of God's saints were poor and tried, we should not know half so well the consolations of divine grace. When we find the wanderer who has nowhere to lay his head who still can say, "I will trust in the Lord," or when we see the pauper starving on bread and water who still glories in Jesus, when we see the bereaved widow overwhelmed in affliction and yet having faith in Christ--oh, what honor it reflects on the Gospel.

God's grace is illustrated and magnified in the poverty and trials of believers. Saints bear up under every discouragement, believing that all things work together for their good, and that out of apparent evils a real blessing shall ultimately spring--that their God will either work a deliverance for them speedily or most assuredly support them in the trouble, as long as He is pleased to keep them in it. This patience of the saints proves the power of divine grace.

There is a lighthouse out at sea: It is a calm night--I cannot tell whether the edifice is firm. The tempest must rage about it, and then I shall know whether it will stand. So with the Spirit's work: If it were not on many occasions surrounded with tempestuous waters, we would not know that it was true and strong; if the winds did not blow upon it, we would not know how firm and secure it was. The masterworks of God are those men who stand in the midst of difficulties steadfast, unmovable-

 

Calm mid the bewildering cry,

Confident of victory.

The one who would glorify his God must be prepared to meet with many trials. No one can be illustrious before the Lord unless his conflicts are many. If, then, yours is a much-tried path, rejoice in it, because you will be better able to display the all-sufficient grace of God. As for His failing you, never dream of it--hate the thought. The God who has been sufficient until now should be trusted to the end."

Morning and Evening, Charles H. Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg

So, although I battle my fleshly responses to the pains of my past and ask to be freed from the trappings that remain in their wake, I take heart in knowing that God has designed our lives on earth to include the experience of sorrow. He has actually employed our afflictions to lead us to Him. And, when they do, our faith and joy IN HIM (not in our circumstances) shine brightly of His all sufficient grace. Hallelujah!

(Click the link and sing it out...Take Heart!)

"I have told you these things,

so that in me you may have peace.

In this world you will have trouble.

But take heart! I have overcome the world."

John 16:33

 

"Yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength."

Habakkuk 3:18-19

 

(My Grace Is Sufficient by Shane and Shane)

 

 "A thorn was given me in the flesh...

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this,

that it should leave me. But he said to me,

'My grace is sufficient for you,

for my power is made perfect in weakness.'

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses,

so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses,

insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

For when I am weak, then I am strong."
 2 Corinthians 12:7-10