It would be impossible to glory in tribulation were it not (1) for the knowledge of the object in view, and (2) the experience of the power of the love of God which sustains the soul while passing through the trial.
It is with us as though a gifted sculptor carried to his studio a block of marble, and began to chip away at it with mallet and chisel. If the marble were endowed with feeling and speech, we can understand it saying, “I do not like this constant chipping.”
But the artist replies “Let me show you what my intentions with regard to you are;” and setting before that rough and shapeless block the model that is in his mind, the creation of his consummate genius, he says, “See, you are to be exactly like that, that is my purpose for you, and the chipping from which you shrink is the only way in which it can be brought about.”
Then replies the marble, “I will endure the tribulation,” and at each blow is henceforth able to say “That brings me so much nearer the master’s design for me.”
Fellow Christians, this is God’s great design for us. To be like the risen Christ, like Him in thought and ways and spirit and body. Nothing less will suit the matchless love of our God.
This glorious purpose is set before our souls, and as we behold it, God would have us say “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. 8:2828And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)). We have been called according to this wonderful purpose, and the chipping of the chisel of the great Master Sculptor is to bring us into moral conformity to Christ now, as we shall be actually when He comes.
It is when this is before our souls that we can glory in tribulation, and say as we feel each blow, so unpleasant to nature, “Thank God! This is but to bring us so much nearer the perfect Model, and to free us a little further of the ways of the flesh.”
But while the hand of our God applies the chisel, He stands very close, so to speak, to the marble, and makes us realize by blessed experience what the power of His love is which can sustain us in all trial, and in this way we gain in the knowledge of God, as we could not apart from the testing: this experience is blessed compensation and fills the soul with a hope that cannot fail.
There are three ways in which we may act under the chastening hand of God our Father. We may despise it, say perhaps “Oh, such things will and must happen;” or we may faint under it — become depressed and begin to doubt the love of God. Or we may be sustained by the grace of the One whose love sees the necessity of the chastening, and in consequence glorify Him.
There are three birds, which each act differently in a rain storm. The duck, which is altogether indifferent to it — it despises it; the hen, which is then the most miserable object imaginable — it faints under it; and the robin, which sings its sweetest note when the storm rages. We are like one of the three; if like the duck or the hen, then the devil has the advantage over us, but if like the robin, then we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. It is faith — true, constant, living faith in Him, that can sing “All, all is well” even in days of storm and sorrow.