Dear Young Christians, do our hearts indeed say,
“We are on our way to God?”
Do we believe that with the innumerable throng of the redeemed, we shall soon sing the everlasting anthem of praise to the Lamb? It is astonishing what simplicity of heart there is when we believe that “we are on our way to God.” Whenever the soul really gets hold of this, believing in God, knowing His love, that He has brought us out of Egypt, (picture of the world,) and that we are on our way to Canaan, (picture of heaven,) there is a spring of heart that surmounts everything. A great many things by the way may exercise our hearts and thoughts, but if this is before our hearts, they only come in by the way.
If my mind is fixed on present circumstances and present difficulties, and on God’s helping me in them, there will not be at all the same spring of joy. For then I make God to be simply the servant of my necessities. The heart rests and centers there, and God sinks down into a mere help in time of trouble. It is quite true that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble;” (Psa. 46:11<<To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth.>> God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1)), but to bring Him down to be only this, changes the whole aspect of things. Himself, as our portion, is infallibly ours. If our hearts are fixed on being with Jesus in His rest and glory, on being in the “Father’s house,” our own present difficulties have the character of difficulties by the way; and we can then rise over trouble, however felt.