Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

May 22– Morning

 by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“He led them forth down the right pathway.” 

—Psalm 107:7

 

Times of change often lead the anxious believer to ask, “Why is this happening to me? I looked for light, but only darkness came; I looked for peace, but I found only trouble. I resolved in my heart to stand firm in the Lord, but now he seems to hide his face from me, and I am troubled.

It was only yesterday that I could see clearly, but today everything seems so dim, and my hopes are clouded. Yesterday I could climb to the top of Mount Pisgah, survey the Promised Land, and rejoice with confidence in my future inheritance; but today my spirit has no hopes but many fears, no joys but much distress. And I wonder: Is this part of God’s plan with me? Can this be the way God will bring me to heaven?

In a word, the answer is “Yes.” The eclipse of your faith, the darkness of your mind, the fainting of your hope: these are things that God uses to make you ready for the great inheritance you will receive soon enough. These trials are for the testing and strengthening of your faith; they are waves that wash you further up on the beach of his sufficiency; they are winds that blow your ship more quickly to your destination. By honor and dishonor, by bad news and good news, by plenty and poverty, by joy and distress, by persecution and peace— he uses all of these to help you on your way.

Don’t think, dear believer, that your sorrows are outside of God’s plan; they are necessary parts of it. Remember: “We must pass through much tribulation to enter the kingdom of God.” [M&E]