Morning & Evening Daily Devotional Reading– April 29

by Charles H. Spurgeon, Revised and Edited by William C. Neff

“[Lord], you are my hope in the day of evil.”

—Jeremiah 17:17

The path of the Christian is not always bright with sunshine; he must endure his seasons of darkness and storm. Yes, the ways of God are pleasantness and peace, and one’s faith in God is a source of great happiness. And yet, while “the shining light shines more and more until the perfect day,” sometimes that light is eclipsed. At certain times clouds may cover the believer’s sun, and he walks in darkness and sees no light.

There are many who have rejoiced in the presence of God for a season; they have basked in the sunshine in the earlier stages of their Christian life; they have walked in the green pastures and beside the still waters, but suddenly they find the glorious sky is clouded; instead of the green Land of Goshen they have to tread the sandy desert; in the place of sweet waters they find troubled streams bitter to their taste, and they say, “Surely, if I were a child of God, this would not happen to me.”

Oh, dear believer, don’t talk like that! The best of God’s saints must drink the bitter cup; the dearest of His children must bear the cross. No Christian has enjoyed perpetual prosperity. Perhaps at first the Lord allowed you to have a smooth path because you were weak and timid, but, now that you are stronger in the spiritual life, you must enter upon the riper and rougher experience of God’s full-grown children. These winds will tear off the rotten branches of self-dependence and root us more firmly in Christ. The day of evil reveals to us the value of our glorious hope. [M&E]