If trouble and care will try to force themselves upon us, we have nothing to do or say to them, but cast them all upon Him who "careth" for us, and is the master of them. Our only business here, for God, is to glorify Him in every step of the path His grace has marked out for us. Christ is for us in heaven (Heb. 9:24), and we are for Him down here (John 17:18); so that come what may, we should rejoice, and be able to say, "Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight." Matt. 11:26.
"Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out." S. of Sol. 4:16. Blow hot or blow cold, "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine "
"Clouds may seem to pass between us,
There's no change in Him above."
Why, then, art thou cast down,
O afflicted and tried one? "Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?" Luke 24:38. Jesus knows and feels your smallest woe. So very precious are you to Him that even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. What affects you, affects Him, for you are bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh.
"Sorrow overmuch is suicide of the heart, and buries a man with his head downward." Over anxiety about one trouble is as the grave to bury hundreds of mercies. Rise up then, O dearly beloved, from your despondency, emerge from the dark shadow, do no more dishonor to your Lord, and let your heart be as the glad welling fount in the midst of the desert, that the weary traveler may be refreshed even at the sight of you. We are responsible to God to refresh and cheer each other, and to comfort one another with the comfort we have of God; it is a work and a witness for Him in the midst of a joyless and thankless world.
As one has said, "If the east wind will blow, put up another button on your coat"; brave the wave of trial as one who, in the strength of the Lord, is more than a match for it. "Be strong, yea, be strong." God is for you, with you, and in you. You may be in the furnace, and the only loss you will sustain will be your bands, and in company with you will be the "Son of God." You may not be able to say, much less do, anything. Weakness has a special claim upon God, and God has a special blessing for it. "Them that honor Me I will honor." We honor God by patiently enduring. "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God." Give place to care, and it will soon prove to be your master, and you its slave.
It has been remarked that "like the disagreeable saint, the gloomy saint is an anomaly in grace." What a sad spectacle, a child of God, who makes the young feel old, the old feel older, and the sad feel sadder. Some hearts are full of false sentiment and morbid feeling; they appear to shrink from being happy, and prefer being miserable; others are afraid of being happy, as if God grudged His children happiness. Instead of leaving all things in the keeping of their loving God, they darken the present with the shadows of the future, and suffer the many sorrows of unbelief. They forget that the more they "joy in God," the more cause for joy He will give them; that the more they praise Him, the more they glorify Him.
"Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice." Phil. 4:4. "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:6, 7.
While we retain God in our hearts, there is room for nothing else but His peace. A heart full of Christ is a heart full of joy, not my own, but His. "These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." John 15:11. Let His joy rule in your hearts, and be
"A sunshine in the shady place."
A wise man has said, "Be we what we may, and we cannot be worse than we are, nothing in or about us ought to be allowed to interrupt the calmness of conscious victory, or to hinder our power of enjoyment of what Christ is made of God unto us (1 Cor. 1:30), and of what God has made us to be in Him" (Colossians 2:10; Eph. 1:6). The enemy may accuse, and conscience charge, but nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God: we are what we are as created in Christ Jesus, so "that neither death, nor life" need cause one moment's dismay (read Rom. 8:31-39). Everything may appear to be against us, but God is for us, and we are here for Him. "Ye are of God, little children" (1 John 4:4), and He has created and filled our hearts to beat for and to Himself, that His own joy might flow into and out of them. "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Cor. 6:19, 20. God has created our bodies to place His treasure in, to show to men and angels what His power in, as well as for, us is. "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Phil. 2:13. And His only pleasure is to see us occupied with and enjoying the Son of His love. If we suffer, it is for Him; if we rejoice, it is for Him; if we bear pain, it is for Him; all we do and say is for Him, because we are for Him, as well as of Him, and He is for us. Christ in you, you in Christ, and Christ in God; so that come what may, we can afford to lift up the head as those who have a right to be happy, and sing:
"My Shepherd is the Lamb,
The living Lord who died;
With all things good I ever am
By Him supplied.
He richly feeds my soul
With blessings from above,
And leads me where the rivers roll
Of endless love.