Good morning,
Peter’s fish!
Charles Spurgeon, “All Joy in All Trials“
(Be sure to LISTEN to the Audio, as you READ the text below.)
James 1:2-4, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But patience must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.“
“Various trials.” The trials and temptations of each Christian, are distinct from those of every other Christian. That which would most severely test me, would perhaps be no trial to you; and that temptation which tries you, might be no temptation to me. We are not to try ourselves, nor to desire other men’s trials; it will be well if we endure those trials which the Lord Himself appoints for us, for they are wisely chosen.
God’s rod of affliction is not a toy to play with. His furnace of affliction, believe me, is no mere place of extra warmth to which you may soon accustom yourself. When God puts His redeemed children into His furnace, He takes care that we shall not stay there too little, nor be burned up; but He intends that we should be purified.
Trials are like a fire; they burn up nothing in us but the dross, and they make the gold all the purer.
The spiritual benefit that I have received from my sorrows, and pains, and griefs is altogether incalculable. What blessings I would have missed, but for my trials and afflictions! I owe more than I can tell, to God’s hammer and anvil, His fire and furnace. The greatest blessings that God has given us, have come to us through the instrumentality of our trials. There is no teacher like sanctified affliction. It is a great schoolmaster, and we learn much more under its rod, than we do anywhere else. Affliction is the stone which our Lord Jesus throws at the brow of our giant pride; and patience is the sword which cuts off its head.
As Peter’s fish had money in its mouth, so sanctified trials have spiritual riches for those who endure them patiently.
Tried Christians are the most grateful people. I have known what it is to praise God for the power to move one leg in bed. It may not seem much to you, but it was a great blessing to me.
Those Christians who are heavily afflicted, often come to thank God for everything. I am sure that woman who only had a piece of bread and a cup of water for her meal, must have been a tried woman, or she would not have exhibited so much gratitude: “What! All this, and Jesus too!” Yes, greatly troubled Christians often become the most grateful of men, and that is no small thing.
Sanctified trials also ripen our graces. No flower of grace ever blossomed in this wretched climate, without being tried with frost or blight! A certain amount of trouble appears to be needful to Christians, to create a certain sugar of graciousness in them, so that they may contain the rich, ripe juice of a gracious character.
Ah, that sick chamber ripened the grace of sympathy. That loss, that cross, that bereavement–these softened the natural roughness, and made the man meek and humble, like his Savior.
Those Christians who are heavily afflicted, often become unworldly men. They have had too much trouble to think that they can ever build their nest in this dark and tangled valley of tears. There are too many thorns in their nest, for them to reckon that this poor world can be their eternal home. These birds of paradise take to their wings, and are ready to fly away to the land of unfading flowers!
“We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that:
suffering produces perseverance;
perseverance, character;
and character, hope!” Romans 5:3-4
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Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001 chaplain@alaskaseniors.com
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