“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:3-7.

I read this passage this morning and shook my head at the wonder of it. It’s too vast, too wonderful for me to fully grasp. God has found it necessary that for this little while we have been grieved by various trials. But in this rejoice, that according to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus; we have an inheritance in heaven; and we are being guarded through faith for salvation. May my faith be proven genuine, to the praise and glory of Jesus.

There are times when solitude is better than company, and silence is wiser than speech. We would be better Christians if we were alone more often, waiting on God and gathering through meditation on His Word spiritual strength for service in His kingdom. We ought to ponder the things of God, because that is how we get the real nutriment out of them. –Charles Spurgeon

“Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.” —Jeremiah Burroughs

My devotional reading this week is in Hebrews. It’s been very enouraging, because life seems to be a deliberate putting of one foot in front of the other to move foreward. It’s not a smooth or easy gait; it takes thought and prayer and courage. It takes hope.

I read from the ESV Reformation Study Bible, and in reading Hebrews 6 today, there is a boxed-in commentary on the subject of hope. I will quote the whole thing, because it’s good.

Christians look forward with hope to the joy of being wih Christ in glory forever. Faith is defined as “the assurance of things hoped for” (Heb. 11:1) because the invisible things hoped for in the future are grasped through faith. Hope is certain; it is “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Heb. 6:18,19). According to the Bible, Christ is “our hope” (1 Tim 1:1), and our God is called “the God of hope” (Rom. 15:13).

An ethic of hope pervades the New Testament. It is an ethic of pilgrimage for strangers on their way home (Heb. 11:13; 1 Pet. 2:11). It is an ethic of purity, as the one who hopes to be like Jesus when He appears “purifies himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:3). It is an ethic of preparedness, since we should be ready to leave this world at any time (2 Cor. 5:6-8; Phil. 1:21-24; cf. Luke 12:15-21). Hope calls us to be patient (Rom. 8:25; cf. 5:1-5.). Hope gives strength and confidence for running the race, fighting the good fight, and enduring the tribulations that continue in this life (John 16:33; Acts 14:22; Rom. 8:18; 2 Tim. 4:7-8).

Though the Christian life is marked more by suffering than by triumph (Acts 14:22; 1 Cor. 4:7-18), our hope is sure and our mood should be free from despair (1 John 4:18).

I definitely like triumph more than suffering, The ongoing, unchanging, circumstances of suffering wear me out if I start to drift away from a vibrant, lively hope in Christ. It takes paying constant attention to the truths of the Bible. Meditating on them, singing them, speaking them all keep them in the front of my mind and help them to sink deep into my heart. Christ is my hope, and he has provided all that I need to be and do as he is.

“Heaven is not here, it’s There. If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next. God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still invisible kingdom, where we will certainly find what we so keenly long for.”

—Elisabeth Elliot in Keep a Quiet Heart

“A Christian ought to be a comforter, with kind words on his lips and sympathy in his heart; he should carry sunshine wherever he goes and diffuse happiness around him.

Gracious Spirit dwell with me;
I myself would gracious be,
And with words that help and heal
Would Thy life in mine reveal,
And with actions bold and meek
Would for Christ my Saviour speak.”

Methinks it would be profitable to memorize Mr. Spurgeon’s poem. And live by it.

“Believers are not dependent upon circumstances. Their joy comes not from what they have, but from what they are; not from where they are, but from whose they are; not from what they enjoy, but from that which was suffered for them by their Lord. It is a singular joy, then, because it often buds, blossoms, and ripens in winter time, and when the fig tree does not blossom, and there is no herd in the stall, God’s Habakkuks rejoice in the God of their salvation.”

The following is part of today’s reading in “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers:

“If you keep your relationship right with Him, then regardless of your circumstances or whoever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour “rivers of living water” through you (John 7:38). And it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it. Once you have the right relationship with God through salvation and sanctification, remember that whatever your circumstances may be, you have been placed in them by God. And God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose, as long as you continue to “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7).”

The reaction of my life to my circumstances…where the rubber hits the road, as the saying goes. That’s what God uses for his purpose, if I keep my relationship right with him. That’s the qualifying issue. How I react, on a daily basis, to what happens in my life is the very thing that brings glory to God and furthers his purpose. That amazes me. I tend to look for something bigger, something that feels noteworthy and substantive. I listen to someone speaking to thousands or writing a powerful book or beautiful music and think, ‘there’s something God can use.” And he does. But if that person is not reacting to his or her personal circumstances in a way that reflects a right relationship with God, the effectiveness is diminished and will eventually disappear. Sadly, we’ve seen public display of that very thing.

So it is with me. The message repeatedly floats to the top of whatever I read and is very clear: keep my relationship right with God, and with that as a basis, react rightly to my circumstances. It is then that God will pour “rivers of living water” through me. Amazing.

If you check out my favorite books list on my blog profile, you’ll see that I read Spurgeon’s “Morning and Evening” every day. In light of the physical issues I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, today’s Evening reading of Spurgeon is exactly what I need.

Writing of the limits God puts on illness, Mr. Spurgeon says that “The God of providence has limited the time, manner, intensity, repetition, and effects of all our sickness; each throb is decreed….Affliction is not haphazard….He who made no mistakes in balancing the clouds and stretching out the heavens commits no errors in measuring out the ingredients that compose the medicine of souls. We cannot suffer too much nor be relieved too late. (Italics mine.)

This encourages me, not only for my present circumstance but for every time I suffer in any way. Every one of us suffers in various ways and various degrees. We’re eager–no, we’re frantic–to get it over with. “Oh Lord, how long?” has been the cry of my heart many times, wanting him to relieve my pain. Too frequently I have been prone to thinking I have suffered too much and have been relieved too late. Or even years later, not yet.

Spurgeon closes with this pithy word: “When we consider how hardmouthed we are, it is a wonder that we are not driven with a sharper bit. The thought is full of comfort that He who has established the boundary lines of our lives has also determined the boundaries of our tribulation.”

Knowing how hardmouthed I am in the sight of God is necessary before I can understand and receive the grace he extends to me even in every moment of suffering. Only then can I be full of comfort with the thought that God has determined the boundaries of my suffering. I am in a place of complete safety, regardless of where circumstances may lead! Quietness and rest!

All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.

“Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving in words evidence of the fact.” —George Eliot