December: Trials and Pain
The devil, things and people being what they are, it is necessary for
God to use the hammer, the file and the furnace in His holy work of
preparing a saint for true sainthood. It is doubtful whether God can
bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.
The Root of the Righteous, 157.
December 4
Trials and Pain: Good In Thy Sight
Then Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing from him. And he
said, "It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good to Him."
--1 Samuel 3:18
A determination to know what cannot be known always works harm to
the Christian heart.
Ignorance in matters on our human level is never to be excused if
there has been opportunity to correct it. But there are matters
which are obviously "too high for us." These we should meet in
trusting faith and say as Jesus said, "Even so, Father: for so it
seemed good in thy sight."...
Human curiosity and pride often combine to drive us to try to
understand acts of God which are plainly outside the field of
human understanding. We dislike to admit that we do not know what
is going on, so we torture our minds trying to fathom the
mysterious ways of the Omniscient One. It's hard to conceive of a
more fruitless task....
Under such circumstances the Christian thing to do is to say,
"That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear
when thou judgest.... Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in
thy sight." A blind confidence which trusts without seeing is far
dearer to God than any fancied knowledge that can explain
everything....
To the adoring heart, the best and most satisfying explanation
for anything always will be, "It seemed good in thy sight."
The Next Chapter After the Last, pp. 54-55
"Lord, help me today, no matter what difficult circumstances I
may face, to pray with Jesus, 'for so it seemed good in Thy
sight,' and with Eli, 'It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems
good to Him.' Amen."