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 17
Trials and Pain: God Send Us Tears
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even
weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end
is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in
their shame-who set their mind on earthly things.
--Philippians 3:18-19
The Bible was written in tears and to tears it will yield its best
treasures. God has nothing to say to the frivolous man....
The psalmists often wrote in tears, the prophets could hardly
conceal their heavyheartedness, and the apostle Paul in his
otherwise joyous epistle to the Philippians broke into tears when
he thought of the many who were enemies of the cross of Christ and
whose end was destruction. Those Christian leaders who shook the
world were one and all men of sorrows whose witness to mankind
welled out of heavy hearts. There is no power in tears per se, but
tears and power ever lie close together in the Church of the
First-born....
The whole Christian family stands desperately in need of a
restoration of penitence, humility and tears. May God send them
soon.
God Tells the Man Who Cares, pp. 2-3,6
"This being so, Lord, I pray this morning that You would break me
and send the tears. Amen."