Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

November 11– Evening

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

“[God] chooses our inheritance for us.”

—Psalm 47:4

Believer, if your earthly inheritance– the circumstances of your life– seem more modest and meager than you would like, you should learn to be satisfied with it. God, in His unerring wisdom has ordained and selected for you the safest and best pathway.

When a heavy cargo ship is brought up the river, it must navigate sandbanks and other obstacles. If someone asks, “Why does the captain steer through the waves and deviate so much from a straight line?” His answer would be, “Because the only way to get this ship into the harbor in by keeping it in the deep channel.” In the same way, you would run aground and suffer shipwreck, if your divine Captain did not steer you into the depths of affliction and into the waves of trouble. Some plants die if they have too much sunshine. It may be that you are planted where you only get a little, but you should know that you are put there by the loving Gardner because that’s the best place for you to flourish and bear good fruit.

Remember this: if any other condition had been better for you than the one in which you are, divine love would have put you there. If you were given the task of choosing of your own lot, you would soon cry, “Lord, choose my inheritance for me, for by my self-will I am pierced through with many sorrows.”

Be content with whatever you have, since the Lord has ordered them for your good. Take up your own cross daily; it is the burden best suited for your shoulders. It will prove most effective to make you perfect in every good work to the glory of God. Down, busy self and proud impatience! It is not for you to choose, but for the Lord of Love.

“Trials must come my way, so I need humble faith to see;
that Love is inscribed upon them all, and this is happiness to me.” [M&E]