August 5, 2009

• We know that all things work together for good...(Spurgeon)

  I've not been reading much Spurgeon lately, but his "Morning and Evening" sitting on the bookshelf caught my eye this morning. After I opened and read I knew why. (I think I may have posted this in part and/or referred to it previously, but it's certainly worth another look today. EDIT 8.21.09: I did reference this particular devotional here.)

  From Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening," August 5 Morning:

  "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God." — Romans 8:28

  Upon some points a believer is absolutely sure. He knows, for instance, that God sits in the stern-sheets of the vessel when it rocks most. He believes that an invisible hand is always on the world's tiller, and that wherever providence may drift, Jehovah steers it.

  

  That re-assuring knowledge prepares him for everything. He looks over the raging waters and sees the spirit of Jesus treading the billows, and he hears a voice saying, "It is I, be not afraid." He knows too that God is always wise, and, knowing this, he is confident that there can be no accidents, no mistakes; that nothing can occur which ought not to arise. He can say, "If I should lose all I have, it is better that I should lose than have, if God so wills: the worst calamity is the wisest and the kindest thing that could befall to me if God ordains it." "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God." The Christian does not merely hold this as a theory, but he knows it as a matter of fact. Everything has worked for good as yet; the poisonous drugs mixed in fit proportions have worked the cure; the sharp cuts of the lancet have cleansed out the proud flesh and facilitated the healing. Every event as yet has worked out the most divinely blessed results; and so, believing that God rules all, that He governs wisely, that He brings good out of evil, the believer's heart is assured, and he is enabled calmly to meet each trial as it comes. The believer can in the spirit of true resignation pray, "Send me what thou wilt, my God, so long as it comes from Thee; never came there an ill portion from Thy table to any of Thy children."

  "Say not my soul, 'From whence can God relieve my care?'
  Remember that Omnipotence has servants everywhere.
  His method is sublime, His heart profoundly kind,
  God never is before His time, and never is behind."

  ---

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