Morning, March 4
Go To Evening Reading
“My grace is sufficient for thee.”
2 Corinthians 12:9
If none of God’s saints were poor and tried, we should not know half so well the
consolations of divine grace. When we find the wanderer who has not
where to lay his head, who yet can say, “Still will I trust in the Lord;” when we see the pauper starving on bread and water, who still glories
in Jesus; when we see the bereaved widow overwhelmed in affliction,
and yet having faith in Christ, oh! what honour it reflects on the
gospel. God’s grace is illustrated and magnified in the poverty and trials of
believers. Saints bear up under every discouragement, believing that
all things work together for their good, and that out of apparent
evils a real blessing shall ultimately spring—that their God will either work a deliverance for them speedily, or
most assuredly support them in the trouble, as long as he is pleased
to keep them in it. This patience of the saints proves the power of
divine grace. There is a lighthouse out at sea: it is a calm night—I cannot tell whether the edifice is firm; the tempest must rage about
it, and then I shall know whether it will stand. So with the Spirit’s work: if it were not on many occasions surrounded with tempestuous
waters, we should not know that it was true and strong; if the winds
did not blow upon it, we should not know how firm and secure it was.
The master-works of God are those men who stand in the midst of difficulties,
stedfast, unmoveable,—
“Calm mid the bewildering cry,
Confident of victory.”
He who would glorify his God must set his account upon meeting with
many trials. No man can be illustrious before the Lord unless his
conflicts be many. If then, yours be a much-tried path, rejoice in
it, because you will the better show forth the all-sufficient grace
of God. As for his failing you, never dream of it—hate the thought. The God who has been sufficient until now, should
be trusted to the end.