Isa 40:1 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Store up comfort.This was the prophet Isaiah’s mission.The
world is full of hurting and comfortless hearts. But before you will be competent for this lofty ministry, you must be trained.
And your training is extremely costly, for to make it complete, you too must endure the same afflictions that are wringing countless hearts of tears and blood.
Consequently, your own life becomes the hospital ward where you are taught the divine art of comfort.
You will be wounded so that in the binding up of your wounds by the Great Physician, you may learn how to render first aid to the wounded everywhere.
Do you wonder why you are having to experience some great sorrow?
Over the next ten years you will find many others afflicted in the same way.
You will tell them how you suffered and were comforted.
As the story unfolds, God will apply the anesthetic He once used on you to them.Then in the eager look followed by the gleam of hope that chases the shadow of despair from the soul, you will know why you were afflicted.
And you will bless God for the discipline that filled your life with such a treasure of experience and helpfulness.
~Select~
His afflictions are no arbitrary appointments. There is righteous necessity in all that He does.
As He lays His chastening hand upon you, and leads you by ways you know not, and which you never would have chosen He whispers the gentle accents in your ear, "Beloved I wish above all things that you would prosper even as your soul prospers."
Rest in the quiet consciousness that all is well.
Murmur at nothing which brings you nearer to His own loving Presence.
Be thankful for your very cares, because you can confidently cast them all upon Him.
He has both your temporal and eternal "prosperity" too much at heart to appoint one superfluous pang, one needless stroke.
Commit therefore, all that concerns you to His safe keeping, and leave it there!
~John MacDuff~
Isa 30:18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
We should not only understand the importance of our waiting on God but also realize something even more wonderful—the Lord waits on us.
And the very thought of His waiting on us will give us renewed motivation and inspiration to “wait for him.” It will also provide inexpressible confidence that our waiting will never be in vain.
Therefore, in the spirit of waiting on God, let us seek to discover exactly what it means right now.
The Lord has an inconceivably glorious purpose for each of His children.“If this is true,” you ask,“why is it that He continues
to wait longer and longer to offer His grace and to provide the help I seek, even after I have come and waited on Him?”
He does so because He is a wise gardener who “waits for the land to yield its valuable crop” and is “patient . . . for the autumn and spring rains” (James 5:7). God knows He cannot gather the fruit until it is ripe, and He knows precisely when we are spiritually ready to receive blessings for our gain and His glory.
And waiting in the sunshine of His love is what will ripen our soul for His blessings. Also,waiting under the clouds of trials is as important, for they will ultimately produce showers of blessings.
Rest assured that if God waits longer than we desire, it is simply to make the blessings doubly precious.
Remember,He waited four thousand years, “but when the time had fully come,God sent his Son” (Gal. 4:4).
Our time is in His hands, and He will quickly avenge those He has chosen, swiftly coming to our support without ever delaying even one hour too long.
~Andrew Murray~
Because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky because you have obeyed me. (Genesis 22:16–18)
From the time of Abraham, people have been learning that
when they obey God’s voice and surrender to Him whatever they hold most precious, He multiplies it thousands of times.
Abraham gave up his one and only son at the Lord’s command, and in doing so, all his desires and dreams for Isaac’s life, as well as his own hope for a notable heritage, disappeared.
Yet God restored Isaac to his father, and Abraham’s family became “as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore” (v. 17). And through his descendants, “when the time had fully come, God sent his Son” (Gal. 4:4).
This is exactly how God deals with every child of His when we truly sacrifice.
We surrender everything we own and accept poverty—then He sends wealth.
We leave a growing area of ministry at His command—then He provides one better than we had ever dreamed.We surrender all our cherished hopes and die to self—then He sends overflowing joy and His “life . . . that [we] might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 KJV).
The greatest gift of all was Jesus Christ Himself, and we can never fully comprehend the enormity of His sacrifice.
Abraham, as the earthly father of the family of Christ, had to begin by surrendering himself and his only son, just as our heavenly Father sacrificed His only Son, Jesus.
We could never have come to enjoy the privileges and joys as members of God’s family through any other way.
~Charles Gallaudet Trumbull~
We sometimes seem to forget that what God takes from us, He takes with fire, and that the only road to a life of resurrection and ascension power leads us first to Gethsemane, the cross, and the tomb.
Dear soul, do you believe that Abraham’s experience was unique and isolated? It is only an example and a pattern of how God deals with those who are prepared to obey Him whatever the cost.
After waiting patiently,Abraham received what was promised”(Heb. 6:15), and so will you.
The moment of your greatest sacrifice will also be the precise moment of your greatest and most miraculous blessing.God’s river, which never runs dry, will overflow its banks, bringing you a flood of wealth and grace.
Indeed, there is nothing God will not do for those who will dare to step out in faith onto what appears to be only a mist.
As they take their first step, they will find a rock beneath their feet.
~F. B. Meyer~
I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. (Isaiah 48:10 KJV)
Doesn’t God’s Word come to us like a soft rain shower, dispelling the fury of the flames? Isn’t it like fireproof armor, against which the heat is powerless?
Then let afflictions come, for God has chosen me.Poverty,you may walk through my door,but God is already in my house, and He has chosen me. Sickness, you may intrude into my life, but I have a cure standing ready—God has chosen me.
Whatever occurs in the valley of tears, I know He has chosen me.
Dear Christian, do not be afraid, for Jesus is with you.
Through all your fiery trials, His presence is both your comfort and safety. He will never forsake those He has chosen for His own.
Do not be afraid, for I am with you Gen. 26:24
is His unfailing word of promise to His chosen ones who are experiencing “the furnace of affliction.
~Charles H. Spurgeon
Pain’s furnace heat within me quivers,
God’s breath upon the flame does blow;
And all my heart in anguish shivers
And trembles at the fiery glow;
And yet I whisper,“As God will!”
And in the hottest fire hold still.
He comes and lays my heart, all heated,
On the hard anvil, minded so
Into His own fair shape to beat it
With His great hammer, blow on blow;
And yet I whisper,“As God will!”
And at His heaviest blows hold still.
He takes my softened heart and beats it;
The sparks fly off at every blow;
He turns it o’er and o’er and heats it,
And lets it cool, and makes it glow;
And yet I whisper,“As God will!”
And in His mighty hand hold still.
Why should I complain? for the sorrow
Then only longer-lived would be;
So I say trusting,“As God will!”
And, trusting to the end, hold still.
~Julius Sturm
1Ch 17:23 Therefore now, LORD, let the thing that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his house be established for ever, and do as thou hast said.
1Ch 17:24 Let it even be established, that thy name may be magnified for ever, saying, The LORD of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel: and let the house of David thy servant be established before thee.
This is one of the most blessed aspects of genuine prayer. Often
we ask for things that God has not specifically promised. Therefore we are not sure if our petitions are in line with His purpose, until we have persevered for some time in prayer.Yet on
some occasions, and this was one in the life of David, we are
fully persuaded that what we are asking is in accordance with
God’s will.We feel led to select and plead a promise from the
pages of Scripture, having been specially impressed that it contains a message for us. At these times, we may say with confident faith,“Do as you promised.”
Hardly any stance could be more completely beautiful, strong, or safe than that of putting your finger on a promise of God’s divine Word and then claiming it. Doing so requires no anguish, struggle, or wrestling but simply presenting the check and asking for cash. It is as simple as producing the promise and claiming its fulfillment. Nor will there be any doubt or cloudiness about the request. If all requests were this definitive,there would be much more interest in prayer. It is much better to claim a few specific things than to make twenty vague requests.
~F. B. Meyer~
Every promise of Scripture is a letter from God, which we may plead before Him with this reasonable request: “Do as you promised.” Our Creator will never cheat those of us of His creation who depend upon His truth.And even more, our heavenly Father will never break His word to His own child.
Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope”(Ps.119:49).This is a very common plea and is a double argument,for it is “your word.”Will You not keep it? Why have You spoken it, if You will not make it good? “You have given me hope.”Will You now disappoint the hope that You Yourself have
brought forth within me?
~Charles H. Spurgeon~
