Thursday 10 November 2011

Held in Suspense

It can be somewhat frustrating when we can not discern what it is that God is doing in our lives.  We feel that we are being held in suspense by our Father.  The Psalmist David found that, you know, and so have his countless servants throughout the running centuries. God is mysterious, and His doings are equally mysterious. 

In such times, what are we to do?  We are to do the only thing it is proper for us to do in these circumstances, and that it to repose our lives confidently in His Word.  He is faithful Who promised.  We cast ourselves unreservedly upon His grace and mercy.

Now, the last thing we ought to do, and the first thing we are often tempted to do, is to look for the consolations of the world.  What utter folly that would be!  It is vanity to look to the empty world to help and succour us when in difficulties.  The world has absolutely nothing to offer.  Indeed, this is exactly what worldlings do - they look around them everywhere to find something from the world that will mitigate their miseries.  But there's nothing there.  They may drown their sorrows with alcohol, but they still have them when they sober up.  They may use some kind of escapism, but that is OK now for the short time they have 'escaped.'  But they still have to return to the real world.

No, the world and its ways have nothing to offer the child of God.  They mock us, deride us, make fun of us. Let us be satisfied, rather, with God's marvellous Word.  Let us find our satisfaction in Him alone.  As Charles Wesley put it:

Thou, O Christ, art all I want; more than all in Thee I find;
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, Heal the sick, and lead the blind.


Just and holy is Thy name; I am all unrighteousness,
False and full of sin I am; Thou art full of truth and grace
.

But be very, very careful; He might take you at your word, and withdraw everything from you, and leave you with Him alone, and nothing else.

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