Achieving the Victory

"For this our light and transitory burden of suffering is achieving for us a weight of glory"

"Is achieving for us," mark. The question is repeatedly asked--Why is the life of man drenched with so much blood, and blistered with so many tears? The answer is to be found in the word "achieving"; these things are achieving for us something precious. They are teaching us not only the way to victory, but better still the laws of victory. There is a compensation in every sorrow, and the sorrow is working out the compensation.

It is the cry of the dear old hymn:

"Nearer my God to Thee, nearer to Thee,

E'en tho' it be a cross that raiseth me."

Joy sometimes needs pain to give it birth. Fanny Crosby could never have written her beautiful hymn, "I shall see Him face to face," were it not for the fact that she had never looked upon the green fields nor the evening sunset nor the kindly twinkle in her mother's eye. It was the loss of her own vision that helped her to gain her remarkable spiritual discernment.

It is the tree that suffers that is capable of polish. When the woodman wants some curved lines of beauty in the grain he cuts down some maple that has been gashed by the axe and twisted by the storm. In this way he secures the knots and the hardness that take the gloss.

It is comforting to know that sorrow tarries only for the night; it takes its leave in the morning. A thunderstorm is very brief when put alongside the long summer day. "Weeping may endure for the night but joy cometh in the morning." --Songs in the Night

THE LAMB IN THE MIDST OF THE THRONE

"Having then a great High Priest . . . Jesus the Son of God . . . One that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us draw near with boldness unto the Throne of Grace."¡XHEB. iv. 14-16.

Can you imagine, O child of God, any way by which the Father could have given us greater boldness of access, than by giving His only Son as a Lamb upon earth, with His godlike, gentle dis¬position, to win our hearts to Him? After Jesus had given Him¬self on the Cross, a ransom for our sins, God placed Him in the midst of the Throne, that we as sinners might have perfect boldness through His blood, to present our prayers through Him, in full assurance that He, as Intercessor, will make them acceptable to the Father.

Truly the holy God has done His utmost to draw us to Himself, and to grant us heavenly boldness to pray with the assurance that our defective prayers, through the Lamb on the Throne, the sympathizing High Priest, will be heard, and find acceptance with God the Father.

O my brother, take time, with the vision of the Lamb on the Throne before you, to give you boldness¡Xtake time in deepest humility and childlike faith, and with all the love of which your heart is capable, to worship Him as your Surety and Intercessor and great High Priest. When the Holy Spirit has given that vision of the Lamb on the Throne unto your heart, it will indeed be a Throne of Grace, and you can do nothing less than fall prostrate before Him in adoration and praise, and give Him the glory to all eternity.

Your heart will then become a true temple of God, where, day by day, yea, hour by hour, the song will arise: "Salvation be unto our God who sitteth upon the Throne, and to the Lamb."

When our hearts are filled with love for the Lamb upon the Throne, who makes our prayers acceptable to God the Father, then we shall have the joy and the faith to expect a speedy answer.

The "All" of Belief

"Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23).

Our unbelief is the greatest hindrance in our way; in fact, there is no other real difficulty as to our spiritual progress and prosperity. The LORD can do everything; but when He makes a rule that according to our faith so shall it be unto us, our unbelief ties the hands of His omnipotence.

Yes, the confederacies of evil shall be scattered if we can but believe. Despised truth shall lift its head if we will but have confidence in the God of truth. We can bear our load of trouble or pass uninjured through the waves of distress if we can gird our loins with the girdle of peace, that girdle which is buckled on by the hands of trust.

What can we not believe? Is everything possible except believing in God? Yet He is always true; why do we not believe in Him? He is always faithful to His word; why can we not trust Him? When we are in a right state of heart, faith costs no effort: it is then as natural for us to rely upon God as for a child to trust his father.

The worst of it is that we can believe God about everything except the present pressing trial. This is folly. Come, my soul, shake off such sinfulness, and trust thy God with the load, the labor, the longing of this present. This done, all is done.

Morning, December 9

¡§Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you.¡¨(Isaiah 30:18)

God often DELAYS IN ANSWERING PRAYER . We have several instances of this in sacred Scripture. Jacob did not get the blessing from the angel until near the dawn of day¡Xhe had to wrestle all night for it. The poor woman of Syrophenicia was answered not a word for a long while. Paul besought the Lord thrice that ¡§the thorn in the flesh¡¨ might be taken from him, and he received no assurance that it should be taken away, but instead thereof a promise that God's grace should be sufficient for him. If thou hast been knocking at the gate of mercy, and hast received no answer, shall I tell thee why the mighty Maker hath not opened the door and let thee in? Our Father has reasons peculiar to himself for thus keeping us waiting. Sometimes it is to show his power and his sovereignty, that men may know that Jehovah has a right to give or to withhold. More frequently the delay is for our profit. Thou art perhaps kept waiting in order that thy desires may be more fervent. God knows that delay will quicken and increase desire, and that if he keeps thee waiting thou wilt see thy necessity more clearly, and wilt seek more earnestly; and that thou wilt prize the mercy all the more for its long tarrying. There may also be something wrong in thee which has need to be removed, before the joy of the Lord is given. Perhaps thy views of the Gospel plan are confused, or thou mayest be placing some little reliance on thyself, instead of trusting simply and entirely to the Lord Jesus. Or, God makes thee tarry awhile that he may the more fully display the riches of his grace to thee at last. Thy prayers are all filed in heaven, and if not immediately answered they are certainly not forgotten, but in a little while shall be fulfilled to thy delight and satisfaction. Let not despair make thee silent, but continue instant in earnest supplication.

Evening, December 9

¡§My people shall dwell in quiet resting places.¡¨(Isaiah 32:18)

Peace and rest belong not to the unregenerate, they are the peculiar possession of the Lord's people, and of them only. The God of Peace gives perfect peace to those whose hearts are stayed upon him. When man was unfallen, his God gave him the flowery bowers of Eden as his quiet resting places; alas! how soon sin blighted the fair abode of innocence. In the day of universal wrath when the flood swept away a guilty race, the chosen family were quietly secured in the resting-place of the ark, which floated them from the old condemned world into the new earth of the rainbow and the covenant, herein typifying Jesus, the ark of our salvation. Israel rested safely beneath the blood-besprinkled habitations of Egypt when the destroying angel smote the first-born; and in the wilderness the shadow of the pillar of cloud, and the flowing rock, gave the weary pilgrims sweet repose. At this hour we rest in the promises of our faithful God, knowing that his words are full of truth and power; we rest in the doctrines of his word, which are consolation itself; we rest in the covenant of his grace, which is a haven of delight. More highly favoured are we than David in Adullam, or Jonah beneath his gourd, for none can invade or destroy our shelter. The person of Jesus is the quiet resting-place of his people, and when we draw near to him in the breaking of the bread, in the hearing of the word, the searching of the Scriptures, prayer, or praise, we find any form of approach to him to be the return of peace to our spirits.

¡§I hear the words of love, I gaze upon the blood,

I see the mighty sacrifice, and I have peace with God.

¡¦Tis everlasting peace, sure as Jehovah's name,

¡¦Tis stable as his steadfast throne, for evermore the same:

The clouds may go and come, and storms may sweep my sky,

This blood-sealed friendship changes not, the cross is ever nigh.¡¨