For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed (Isa. 50:7).
These are prophetically the words of Christ, who would suffer as our sin-bearing substitute. The Son of God, who was also the Son of man, was treated with all the malignity of evil people and demons. In those times of terrible persecution and suffering His heart trusted in God; yet, in His humanity, at the climax of His crucifixion He cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46). But in it all He said, "I shall not be confounded." He set His face like a flint to accomplish the salvation of humanity, and in it He was not ashamed. Those who are guided by the Lord will find blessing even in calamity. "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty" (Job 5:17). Out of the evil, God can and will bring good.
A man had a very rare plant in a flowerpot, close to a pool of water. Although he tended it carefully, it barely kept alive. One day in his absence a careless boy knocked it over, breaking the pot and toppling the plant into the water. When the owner returned weeks later, he noticed the luxuriant growth of an unknown plant coming out of the water. Later he learned that the plant that had languished so in the pot was a water plant. So it is many times with starving, thirsting souls. What seems to be calamity, a great, unmitigated sorrow permitted by what seems to them to be a callous Providence, is really a blessing in disguise--something that beautifies the character and brings out strength and patience and understanding never known before.
Those who meet disaster and sorrow in true faith are able to say with the psalmist, "I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me" (Ps. 119:75).
MEDITATION PRAYER: "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statues" (Ps. 119:71).
These are prophetically the words of Christ, who would suffer as our sin-bearing substitute. The Son of God, who was also the Son of man, was treated with all the malignity of evil people and demons. In those times of terrible persecution and suffering His heart trusted in God; yet, in His humanity, at the climax of His crucifixion He cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46). But in it all He said, "I shall not be confounded." He set His face like a flint to accomplish the salvation of humanity, and in it He was not ashamed. Those who are guided by the Lord will find blessing even in calamity. "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty" (Job 5:17). Out of the evil, God can and will bring good.
A man had a very rare plant in a flowerpot, close to a pool of water. Although he tended it carefully, it barely kept alive. One day in his absence a careless boy knocked it over, breaking the pot and toppling the plant into the water. When the owner returned weeks later, he noticed the luxuriant growth of an unknown plant coming out of the water. Later he learned that the plant that had languished so in the pot was a water plant. So it is many times with starving, thirsting souls. What seems to be calamity, a great, unmitigated sorrow permitted by what seems to them to be a callous Providence, is really a blessing in disguise--something that beautifies the character and brings out strength and patience and understanding never known before.
Those who meet disaster and sorrow in true faith are able to say with the psalmist, "I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me" (Ps. 119:75).
MEDITATION PRAYER: "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statues" (Ps. 119:71).
RSS Feed
