You felt you were Christ’s companion; that He was using you, and there was a constant interchange of holy fellowship between Him and you. But for some reason which you cannot understand the morning light has died out of your life, and instead of your sitting with Christ upon the throne, in the conscious enjoyment of fellowship with Him, you have been brought down into the very dust of neglect and forsakenness; and for a long time now you have been saying, “My God, my God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?” You cannot imagine why. The probability is, that in your case it is not the result of any sin on your part, or of any neglect of your duties, but because God is desirous of ascertaining whether you love Him for the light of His face or for Himself.
The Gift of Suffering
by F.B. Meyer
Category: SUFFERING & TRIBULATION
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“Be the day dreary, be the day long; at last it ringeth to evensong.” The watcher knows that presently the darkest night will thin into the grey dawn. There is always an end to things. Pain is limited. At last there comes the swooning, when we can suffer no more, and we fall into a gentle sleep, and forget ourselves. There is always a limit, always a “thus far, and no further.”
The Gift of Suffering
by F.B. Meyer -
Perhaps you look too much inwards on self, instead of outwards on the Lord Jesus.—The healthiest people do not think about their health; the weak induce disease by morbid introspection. If you begin to count your heartbeats, you will disturb the rhythmic action of the heart. If you continually imagine a pain anywhere, you will produce it. And there are some true children of God who induce their own darkness by morbid self-scrutiny. They are always going back on themselves, analyzing their motives, re-considering past acts of consecration, or comparing themselves with themselves. In one form or another self is the pivot of their life, albeit that it is undoubtedly a religious life. What but darkness can result from such a course? There are certainly times in our lives when we must look within, and judge ourselves, that we may not be judged. But this is only done that we may turn with fuller purpose of heart to the Lord. And when once done, it needs not to be repeated. “Leaving the things behind” is the only safe motto. The question is, not whether we did as well as we might, but whether we did as well as we could at the time.
We must not spend all our lives in cleaning our windows, or in considering whether they are clean, but in sunning ourselves in God’s blessed light. That light will soon show us what still needs to be cleansed away, and will enable us to cleanse it with unerring accuracy.
The Gift of Suffering
by F.B. Meyer -
Sometimes it looks as if we are bound to act. Every one says we must do something; and indeed things seem to have reached so desperate a pitch that we must…It is not easy at such times to stand still and see the salvation of God; but we must. God may delay to come in the guise of His Providence…He stays long enough to test patience of faith, but not a moment behind the extreme hour of need. “The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and shall not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come; it will not tarry.”
The Gift of Suffering
by F.B. Meyer -
Many times when we are approached by someone at times when we are fatigued or preoccupied, we are annoyed and discomforted and say, ‘I have no time for you now, come back later, wait for a while’. But Christ the Lord, even on the cross, did not say such phrases. In spite of His pains, He gave due attention to the thief, and answered his request to gladden his heart. He showed us that even on the cross, we can still serve others.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Father, Forgive Them
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There are some who, if they meet with any reverse, or are slandered by any one, or if they fall into any bodily malady, any pain in the foot or head, or any other disease, immediately blaspheme. In this way they endure the affliction, but are deprived of the benefit.
On Wealth and Poverty
St. John Chrysostom -
A person who has no longsuffering falls in anxiety, annoyance and disturbance. He becomes worried and loses his inner peace.
Such a person will be always anxious, looking at his watch every minute and every moment. He may also be rash and do himself much harm. Such an impatient person may in his rashness take decisions or actions haphazardly, like one who thinks God has not responded to his prayers and so swears never to enter the church, as if protesting against God!
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Fruits of the Spirit -
God forms character in obscurity. Right now you might feel forgotten. Do not despise the hidden season. Hidden years are not wasted years.
