". . . when thou walkest through fire, thou shalt not be burned." Isaiah 43:2
A woman who had endured much suffering once asked her pastor, "WHEN am I going to get out of these troubles?" He wisely responded, "You should have asked, 'WHAT am I going to get out of these troubles?'"
We cannot do good to others save at a cost to ourselves, and our afflictions are the price we pay for our ability to sympathize. He who would be a helper, must first be a sufferer. He who would be a saviour must somewhere and somehow have been upon a cross; and we cannot have the highest happiness of life in succoring others without tasting the cup which Jesus drank, and submitting to the baptism wherewith He was baptized.
No words can express how much the world owes to sorrow. Most of the Psalms were born in the wilderness. Most of the epistles were written in a prison. The greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers have all passed through the fire. The greatest poets have "learned in suffering what they taught in song." In bonds, Bunyan lived the allegory that he afterward indited, and we may thank Bedford Jail for the "Pilgrim's Progress."
Take comfort, afflicted Christian! When God is about to make pre-eminent use of a man, He puts him in the fire.
"Through the fire, perchance, thou walkest?
Yet thou shalt not there be burned;
In its midst my love and presence
In a new way thou may'st learn."
"I have formed thee, I have loved thee,
All thy griefs to me belong;
I have made thee for my glory -
Fear thou not beloved be strong!"
Yea, upon the sky God rideth
For thy help against alarms;
Underneath, for blest assurance,
Are His everlasting arms.
- anonymous
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365 Devotionals
רוחניA daily devotional to reflect on the adoration and joy that is God's love.
