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 20
Trials and Pain: The Ministry of the Night
For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; weeping may
endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
--Psalm 30:5
But there is a limit to man's ability to live without joy. Even
Christ could endure the cross only because of the joy set before
Him. The strongest steel breaks if kept too long under unrelieved
tension. God knows exactly how much pressure each one of us can
take. He knows how long we can endure the night, so He gives the
soul relief, first by welcome glimpses of the morning star and then
by the fuller light that harbingers the morning.
Slowly you will discover God's love in your suffering. Your heart
will begin to approve the whole thing. You will learn from yourself
what all the schools in the world could not teach you-the healing
action of faith without supporting pleasure. You will feel and
understand the ministry of the night; its power to purify, to
detach, to humble, to destroy the fear of death and, what is more
important to you at the moment, the fear of life. And you will
learn that sometimes pain can do what even joy cannot, such as
exposing the vanity of earth's trifles and filling your heart with
longing for the peace of heaven.
That Incredible Christian, pp. 122-124
"Thank You, Father, for the ministry of the night, for the lessons
of pain. But thank You, too, that we're not alone in the night.
Thank You for the morning star and the glimpse of the light of
morning. Amen."