|
|
by L B Cowman
Make a Way
February 4
"I will make all my mountains a way" (Isa.49:11).
God will make obstacles serve His purpose. We all have mountains in our lives. There are people and things that threaten to bar our progress in the Divine life. Those heavy claims, that uncongenial occupation, that thorn in the flesh, that daily cross--we think that if only these were removed we might live purer, tenderer, holier lives; and often we pray for their removal.
"Oh, fools, and slow of heart!" These are the very conditions of achievement; they have been put into our lives as the means to the very graces and virtues for which we have been praying so long. Thou hast prayed for patience through long years, but there is something that tries thee beyond endurance; thou hast fled from it, evaded it, accounted it an unsurmountable obstacle to the desired attainment, and supposed that its removal would secure thy immediate deliverance and victory.
Not so! Thou wouldest gain only the cessation of temptations to impatience. But
this would not be patience. Patience can be acquired only through just such
trials as now seem unbearable. Go back; submit thyself. Claim to be a partaker
in the patience of Jesus. Meet thy trials in Him. There is nothing in life which
harasses and annoys that may not become subservient to the highest ends. They
are His mountains. He puts them there. We know that God will not fail to keep
His promise. "God understandeth the way thereof and knoweth the place thereof.
For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven"; and
when we come to the foot of the mountains, we shall find the way.
--Christ in Isaiah, by Meyer
***
"The meaning of trial is not only to test worthiness, but to increase it; as the oak is not only tested by the storm, but toughened by them."
Yesterday | Archives | Tomorrow
See Also:
Wisdom from Desert Devotionals Archives
Daily Morning and Evening Devotionals by Spurgeon
Daily Devotional: Today With Jesus
Scripture | Daily Devotionals | Weekly Devotionals | Lectionary | Prayers | Church Fathers | Faith | History | Inspirational | Sermons | Qurbana Videos | Devotional Songs | Poems | Humor | Health | General Interest | Library - Home
-------
Malankara World
A service of St. Basil's Syriac Orthodox
Church, Ohio
Copyright © 2009-2020 - ICBS Group. All Rights Reserved.
Disclaimer
Website designed, built, and hosted by
International Cyber Business Services, Inc., Hudson, Ohio
