JOY ABOVE SORROW
F.G.Suckling
Matthew 11: 20, 21, 25-30; Romans 9: 1-5; 10: 1
I have been thinking the last few days, beloved, of the sorrows of the testimony and the tests of the pathway, and whether in these matters we can rise and be like the Lord Jesus with a note of worship. He says here "I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth". We sang in our hymn about the living character of love of the Lord Jesus lifting our hearts above this earth to Him. We are reminded in a special way every Lord's day of the Lord's present love to us, and there should be that with each one and with all of us, in carrying the sorrows of the testimony, to be able at the same time to have the experience of this wonderful matter of rejoicing and saying "I praise thee, Father". What a spirit the Lord Jesus shows in this chapter, as we think of His public service coming to a close and the small result outwardly as well as the rejection by His own brethren and Israel! Yet in the midst of it all He could rise above it in His constant communion with the Father and speak as He does. He includes us in what He says; and have we not all received great encouragement from what the Lord said here?
In the same way, we find this spirit in the apostle. He speaks of "great grief and uninterrupted pain", and we should feel the same in regard to the testimony as we see the breakdown all around and feel how it has come so near to us; and we each have to test ourselves as to how faithful or how unfaithful we have been. He then goes on in the next chapter and says "the delight of my own heart". So while he has this uninterrupted pain, and while I know he is speaking particularly of his own race, nevertheless we can see it woven into all his ministry. He says at the end of Timothy that all had forsaken him and that Luke alone was with him, and that at his first defence no man stood by him, but the Lord stood with him and gave him power. There is always in the apostle's ministry those encouraging and substantial features of carrying the burdens of the testimony and yet inwardly maintaining this rejoicing in his heart. And I would say that the uninterrupted pain and the delight of his heart was always related to his links with the person of Christ. How wonderful that the Lord has given us the Supper when we can be together and have the Lord personally before us, and be led on to the great matter of the service of God.
Well, it is just those few thoughts, beloved, that we may be with God in the exercises He may pass us through, and seek to carry the burdens of the testimony and the sorrow over the breakdown that we are in the midst of. There is to be that inward joy with us, and for us it is the Lord's present love that will sustain us. May we each and all be maintained in the experience of it, that individually, in our households, and in our localities, we seek to maintain right conduct in the house of God. The Lord loves always to feed us with His own present love. May we all experience it in a day by day way, so that when we come together there is food for us and we are encouraged and kept here in the testimony. Christ is always the issue and it is to be this testimony that we are to render here in all that we say and do. The question I constantly remind myself of is. Am I rightly representing God here? That is what the Lord always did and we have it with the apostle as well as those who have followed and maintain ed the apostle's ministry. May the Lord help us each one in it, for His Name's sake.
LONDON
13 July 1983