In our course here we have to pass through a twofold discipline—the first on ourselves, and the other on that which we value. And each has, or produces, an effect very peculiar and distinct in itself. The one is to cast me on God for help, the other, to cast me on Him for comfort and rest. in the one, it is His power rather that I turn to; in the other, it is more to abide in His rest.
When saints are suffering because of their bodily afflictions, they are taught how powerless they are. All flesh is as grass; there is a sense of the impotence of man when one is languishing under a painful illness, and then it is that the saint turns to God and values His power, because all human power is felt to be at an end; and this is a great lesson. Job learned it: "I know [he says] that Thou canst do everything"-there is no power in me, all is in God. Now this removes the great impediment to faith; because if I am so reduced and helpless, I cannot do aught but turn to God, as Jonah did when in the bottom of the sea. "Twice [it needs to be repeated] have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God." This is the great groundwork of dependence; it is the only ground the widow can take in going to the unjust judge (Luke 18); he had power; she had none. The pressure on her was so complete that she was driven to appeal to the only one that had power, though he was otherwise most repulsive.
The second kind of discipline is that which I value being removed, and for this I need comfort. If I am friendless, or like Jonah, gourdless, I have no one to comfort me but God. Thus you see whether your suffering is confined only to yourself, or whether it is from the breakup of things around; what you have to learn is the sufficiency of God. There is but the one thought with God in disciplining you; namely, to make your trials an opportunity for your heart to learn and discover more of His love, and the resources which are in Him, as He has revealed them to us in His Son, who has come near to us to acquaint our hearts with both the help and the comfort; and therefore He not only rests us, but gives us rest. In the one it is His power relieving us; in the other it is Himself imparting the state of rest-the thing itself to us.
May we each learn more fully what He can do, or, rather, that He can do all things; and may we know, to the exceeding comfort and unspeakable joy of our hearts, that all our springs are in Him.