Morning By Morning #124

In this world you will have trouble.

John 16:33

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Dear believer, do you find yourself asking the reason for this? Look upward to your heavenly Father and behold His purity and holiness. Do you realize that someday you will be like Him? Do you believe, however, it will be easy to be conformed to His image? (See Rom. 8:29.) Will you not require much refining in “the furnace of affliction” (Isa. 48:10) to become pure? Will it be an easy process to rid you of your sinful impurities and make you “perfect…as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48)?

Next, dear Christian, turn your eyes downward. Do you realize what enemies you have beneath your feet? You were once a servant of Satan, and no king willingly loses his subjects. Do you really believe Satan will leave you alone? No, he will always harass you, for he “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Therefore, believer, expect trouble when you look beneath your feet.

Next, look around you. Do you realize where you are? You are in the enemy’s country—“an alien and a stranger” in his land. The world is not your friend. If it is, then you are not God’s friend, for whoever is “a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4 ESV). Be assured you will find enemies everywhere. When you sleep, remember you are only resting on the battlefield, and when you are walking, suspect an ambush from behind every hedge. Just as mosquitoes are said to bite strangers more than natives, the trials of this earth will be harsher to you.

Finally, look within yourself, into your own heart, and observe what is there. Sin and self are still within you. If you had no devil to tempt you, no enemies to fight you, and no world to ensnare you, you would still find enough evil within you to bring severe trouble to yourself, for “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9 KJV).

Thus, expect trouble but do not despair because of it, for God is with you to help and to strengthen you. He has said, “I will be with [you] in trouble, I will deliver [you] and honor [you]” (Ps. 91:15).

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

David got it right! He knew his sinfulness, for he wrote, “I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me” (Ps. 51:3). Yet he trusted God to “create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10).

And when it came to trouble, he got it right once again. Here is what he said:

One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD…For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling…Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the LORD. Hear my voice when I call, O LORD; be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, LORD, I will seek.

Psalm 27:4 – 8

Dear Father, I know “some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God” (Ps. 20:7).