Leaning Upon Christ
"Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved ?" Song of Solomon 8:5
Ah, me, I'm never well But when I on my Best Beloved lean,
And then I'm never ill:
Crosses and trials all are right, And pain is sweet and trouble light,
When Christ my heart doth fill.
ANON
(pp. 25-28, Footprints for Pilgrims)
God sends rain and fruitful seasons, but though they come, they never come in the same way in any one year, and I find that, as a rule, when I need anything, that it comes from a quarter that I never expected, and that from the quarter where it had come before it does not now. Thus God keeps the eye on Himself and not on the donor.
The tendency is to lose dependence when we are enjoying the results of dependence.
I consider self-vindication unworthy of any one standing for the Lord and for His truth, and I never saw a case of it where the one in the right did not suffer loss.
You ought to begin your day with this confidence, that you have enough in Christ to meet every difficulty that may befall you.
I have One who loves me ten thousand times better than I love myself, and I am in His sphere. I belong to His house, and He cares for me.
How little we realize the magnitude of the fact that God is our Father. If a man had an emperor for his father he would not go to a peasant to ask for help. We cannot naturally bear the delay and suspense to which we are subjected in turning to God. But the delay is simply to test our faith. He that believeth shall not make haste.
The soul once truly habituated to wait on God learns so to value it that it never can again do without it.
Every hour is an hour of difficulty with us while we are here, and if we do not keep our eye on Him in the little difficulties we shall not be able to find Him in the great ones.
I do not think your timidity is a real hindrance. I believe that it will only make you have more sense of dependence and the need of it.
I am interested in seeing that it is no doing of mine, but of God's, to fit me to be a witness !
It is not wickedness to be harassed by bad thoughts if you resist them. It is Satan's effort to get you to adopt them, and thus you are sifted. You will find, if you keep near the Lord, that you are more established after an assault of the kind than you were before; and the only way to combat Satan's attacks is by the word ... If Satan can lead you to become indifferent to these assaults, then they will lead you to great damage; but if, on, the contrary, they urge you to be more dependent on the Lord Himself and on His word, they will eventually cease, and you will be "settled". "After you have suffered awhile make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you."
There is a depth of love which we cannot easily take in the Lord's desire that we should know His support. Blessed be His name ! He likes to be indispensable to us. It is a marvelous time ... when one has nothing to cling to, no support, but His mighty hand reaching down from "higher than the heavens."
--- J.B.S.
