MUSINGS

“THIS WOMAN, WHO IS A DAUGHTER OF ABRAHAM”—The woman in Luke 13 did not look like a daughter of Abraham. For eighteen years she had been “bent together and wholly unable to lift her head up”. But the Lord held for her the dignity which belonged to her. How cheering! If Satan has bound any of us, perhaps for a long time, and we look back wistfully to days of freedom and joy, the Lord holds for us our early committals and the dignity which, in one sense, we have relinquished. In Him is full resource to restore us. This woman was “made straight, and glorified God”. She was manifestly now a daughter of Abraham, to whom Jehovah said, “Walk before my face, and be perfect”, Genesis 17: l.

“THE FURY OF MAN SHALL PRAISE THEE”—(Psalm 76: 10)—How often has this occurred! Paul is imprisoned in Rome—thence flows out his richest, choicest ministry. John is banished to the isle of Patmos—he receives the wondrous Revelation of the ways of God. To take a much later, less exalted example, John Bunyan is thrown into Bedford jail for 12 years—and we get the “Pilgrim’s Progress”.

“FAITH’S EYES ARE ON THE GOAL”—No doubt this line of the hymn is based on Philippians 3: 14. There is a great need for this to mark us. Troubles arise, and it is easy to be absorbed with them. Let us keep our eyes on the goal. The divine end is that we are to be “conformed to the image of his Son”, (Romans 8: 29), while the assembly will come down “out of the heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned, for her husband”, (Revelation 21: 2). Present pressures in the testimony, and in our circumstances, are divinely intended for our education and formation—not to divert us from the goal, but to form us for it. As going through the difficulties with God we can look beyond them and get a clearer view of the assured end to which, in all His ways with His people, God is working.

FCM

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