the Third Week after Easter
Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. - Philippians 1:19.
WHILE the Bible enjoins us to be humble, and forbids every thing like rashness and presumption, it admits of confidence and assurance; and what a recommendation of religion this is! Nothing is so distressing as uncertainty with regard to any very valuable interest, such as the issue of a malady, or the title to an estate, or the success of an enterprise. In what wretchedness must a Christian be who possesses no confidence and certainty with regard to those “things which are unseen and eternal”! But this confidence is attainable. The Christian can gain this confidence and certainty with regard to four things:-First, With regard to the doctrines of the gospel. He may not only have faith unfeigned, but be “strong in faith.” Take a Christian who has been in the ways of God forty or fifty years: he would say, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” With regard to many circumstantial things and minor points of doctrine in religion, we may leave the mind open to conviction; here we cannot exercise too much candour; but nothing can be more pernicious than to apply this to the leading truths of Christianity. “It is a good thing for the heart to be established with grace.”
Secondly, We may gain this confidence and certainty with regard to the privileges of the gospel. There is such a thing as enjoying the “comforts of the Holy Ghost,”-as “peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ,” -as relief under a distressed conscience by the application of the “blood of sprinkling.”
Thirdly, We may gain this confidence and certainty with regard to our personal interest in all this, and be able to say, “Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.” We do not affirm, indeed, that all the subjects of divine grace have this certainty, or we should “break the bruised reed and quench the smoking flax.” But if it were not attainable we should not have heard Job saying, “I know that my Redeemer liveth;” nor David, “Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory;” nor John, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.”
Fourthly, We may gain this confidence and certainty with regard to the end and issue of afflictive dispensations. “I know that this shall turn to my salvation;” and this is the very spirit of the motto. Those know who are exercised thereby, that sanctified afflictions may be very useful and subserve the very purpose of their salvation. We allow that there is sometimes a difficulty in gaining this conviction. The providence of God is sometimes very mysterious. Job said, “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him, on the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold him, he hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him.” And Jacob said, “All these things are against me;” while at the same time they were subserving his real welfare.
And we can gain this confidence, even now, being assured that though “no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous, yet nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby.”
Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD. - Psalms 115:11
TRUSTING in God is the basis of every part of religion. We fall by losing our confidence in God, and we can only be recovered by the renewal of it. And the one simple design of revelation, from the beginning to the end, is that “we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” This is the grand design of the mediation of our Saviour. “God raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God.” Hence we are said to be “saved through faith,” to be “justified by faith,” “purifying our hearts by faith,” and to be sanctified by faith, to “live by faith,” and to “walk by faith.” And faith is this trust in its principle, and trust is this faith in its exercise. Let us consider what it is that characterizes a believer’s trust in God.
First, It is difficult. It is no easy thing for a man whose conscience is truly awakened to trust in a Being who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and whom he has offended times without number; and especially to trust in him not only for pardon, but for acceptance and supplies, and salvation, and salvation with eternal glory-to trust a Being who has never been the object of any of our senses, who is therefore an entirely invisible Being to us.
Secondly, This trust in God is warranted. This warrant is to be found in God’s word. It is this makes him known, and proclaims his name, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious.” It is here we have his engagement confirmed by his oath, his promise, and his command, to authorize our trust in him.
Thirdly, It is always of a practical nature. I may tempt God in a thousand ways, but I can only trust God Spiritually in the path of duty and in the use of means.
Fourthly, This trust is perpetual. We are to trust in him at all times. In general there are two conditions, both of them great trials of this confidence. The first is a state of prosperity, when our very successes and engagements keep us from feeling our need of him so much; and the other is a state of adversity, when events seem to oppose the promises of God. Here is the time to trust in God, and to say with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” This trust is very extensive. It regards everything we need for time and for eternity. It is very relieving. “His heart shall not be afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord;” and it is this trust by which God is pleased and honoured.
“Retreat beneath his wings,
And in his grace confide,
This more exalts the King of kings,
Than all your works beside.”
