Some years ago I occasionally visited an old man who occupied a single room in a country inn. He had at one time been in comfortable circumstances, but had lost nearly all his money, and had out-lived all his relations and friends.
Before he became too feeble he had been a regular churchgoer. He considered himself, and was considered by others, a very religious man. He read his Bible daily because he thought it was right to do so. In talking to him I found that he had not peace with God, although he tried to persuade himself that he had nothing to fear.
After a time he became bedridden, and was so deaf that it was hard to talk to him. The best one could do was to find various verses of Scripture, and show them to him in his own large Bible. Saying a word or two now and then, one could look to God to speak to him through His own blessed Book.
After a time it became evident that the Word of God was sweeping away his "refuge" of lies. He became more and more uneasy. One day a message came to me that he was very troubled, and would like a visit. On the way to his lodging I looked to the Lord for a message from Himself to the poor distressed heart. I needed His help especially because of his deafness. When I went into the old man's room he was sitting up in bed, turning the pages of his large Bible, and looking very unhappy.
"Oh," he said, "I am so glad you have come. I have been reading, and thinking, and praying; but I can't be satisfied with myself.”
I put my lips to his ear and said, "God does not ask you to be satisfied with yourself! He is satisfied with Christ, and He wants you to be too.”
He looked at me and said slowly, "Satisfied with Christ! I couldn't be dissatisfied with Him." He kept repeating, "I couldn't be dissatisfied with Him.”
The trouble was gone, and it never returned. He was content to be satisfied with Christ, instead of with his thoughts, his reading and his prayers.
Dear reader, are you trying to be satisfied with yourself, your prayers, your doings—perhaps your reading the Bible regularly—instead of resting simply in Christ? Will you not hear His Word when it tells you that Christ is all? Rest, then, in Him alone.
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee." Isa. 26:3.
The name of the LORD is a
strong tower: the righteous
runneth into it, and is safe.”
Proverbs 18:10