Patience and Hope

Pastor Mike has some wise words in this post Patience and Hope – A look at Job through new eyes.

From “Morning Thoughts” by Winslow

“Leaning upon her Beloved.” Solomon’s Song, 8:5

WHAT more appropriate, what more soothing truth could we bring before you, suffering Christian, than this? You are sick-lean upon Jesus. His sick ones are peculiarly dear to His heart. You are dear to Him. In all your pains and languishings, faintings and lassitude, Jesus is with you; for He created that frame, He remembers that it is but dust, and He bids you lean upon Him, and leave your sickness and its issue entirely in His hands. You are oppressed-lean upon Jesus. He will undertake your cause, and committing it thus into His hands, He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday. You are lonely-lean upon Jesus. Sweet will be the communion and close the fellowship which you may thus hold with Him, your heart burning within you while He talks with you by the way. Is the ascent steep and difficult? lean upon your Beloved. Is the path strait and narrow? lean upon your Beloved. Do intricacies and perplexities and trials weave their network around your feet? lean upon your Beloved. Has death smitten down the strong arm and chilled the tender heart upon which you were used to recline? lean upon your Beloved. Oh! lean upon Jesus in every strait, in every want, in every sorrow, in every temptation. Nothing is too insignificant, nothing too mean, to take to Christ. It is enough that you want Christ, to warrant you in coming to Christ. No excuse need you make for repairing to Him; no apology will He require for the frequency of your approach; He loves to have you quite near to Him, to hear your voice, and to feel the confidence of your faith and the pressure of your love. Ever remember that there is a place in the heart of Christ sacred to you, and which no one can fill but yourself, and from which none may dare exclude you. And when you are dying, oh! lay your languishing head upon the bosom of your Beloved, and fear not the foe, and dread not the passage; for His rod and His staff, they will comfort you. On that bosom the beloved disciple leaned at supper; on that bosom the martyr Stephen laid his bleeding brow in death; and on that bosom you, too, beloved, may repose, living or dying, soothed, supported, and sheltered by your Savior and your Lord.

 

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From “Morning and Evening” by C.H. Spurgeon

“Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord!”  – Deu_33:29

He who affirms that Christianity makes men miserable, is himself an utter stranger to it. It were strange indeed, if it made us wretched, for see to what a position it exalts us! It makes us sons of God. Suppose you that God will give all the happiness to his enemies, and reserve all the mourning for his own family? Shall his foes have mirth and joy, and shall his home-born children inherit sorrow and wretchedness? Shall the sinner, who has no part in Christ, call himself rich in happiness, and shall we go mourning as if we were penniless beggars? No, we will rejoice in the Lord always, and glory in our inheritance, for we “have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but we have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” The rod of chastisement must rest upon us in our measure, but it worketh for us the comfortable fruits of righteousness; and therefore by the aid of the divine Comforter, we, the “people saved of the Lord,” will joy in the God of our salvation. We are married unto Christ; and shall our great Bridegroom permit his spouse to linger in constant grief? Our hearts are knit unto him: we are his members, and though for awhile we may suffer as our Head once suffered, yet we are even now blessed with heavenly blessings in him. We have the earnest of our inheritance in the comforts of the Spirit, which are neither few nor small. Inheritors of joy for ever, we have foretastes of our portion. There are streaks of the light of joy to herald our eternal sunrising. Our riches are beyond the sea; our city with firm foundations lies on the other side the river; gleams of glory from the spirit-world cheer our hearts, and urge us onward. Truly is it said of us, “Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord?”

From “The Word For You Today” by Bruce Christian

STARTING OVER

Tom was very depressed following his wife Elle’s death.  For an hour he poured out his heart.  Now, catharsis is good; it can show you what needs to be dealt with.  But talk alone doesn’t change anything.  So his counselor asked, “If the situation was reversed and you’d died first, what would you want Elle to do?”  Immediately he replied, “Go on and enjoy life.”  The minute he verbalized it a light within him came on and he said, “I’ve been feeling sorry for myself too long.  We both hated it when people did that.  I’m going to live, find purpose, and get back to church.”  He did, and next time Tom and his counselor spoke he had begun to rebuild his life.  The pain was still there, but he’d started to transcend it by taking action.  Freud taught that the subconscious mind could be freed from painful memories by psychoanalysis.  But his premise was faulty because memories, good and bad, remain part of you.  Plus, his theory can lead you to believe that your problems can be talked to death without ever having to do anything about them.  Some people get through their grief faster than others; sadly, some people never do.  But you don’t have to be one of them!  God said, “I will turn their mourning into joy.  I will comfort them and exchange their sorrow for rejoicing.”  God can reframe your past and give it meaning.  He can help you to look back with gratitude, then forward with confidence.  How?  By transforming painful memories into powerful motivators and sources of future wisdom.  Ask Him; He will show you how!