TESTING CONFIRMS FAITH AND ENSURES REST
TESTING CONFIRMS FAITH AND ENSURES REST
I am glad to be able in some measure to be in company with you in your exercises before the Lord. I believe we have very little idea of the gain of an exercise. It is the trying of faith: faith must be put to the test, for the rest of faith which is obtained in His presence - instead of being confirmed by circumstances, and things around us - is checked by our own conjectures about [p. 68] them, until the faith has been tested; and then everything confirms it, and assures us of God’s hand ordering for us. The gain of this exercise is that I make God my single object. When I am not walking in faith, I am in some way making myself my object; but faith casts me on Him, and it is only as I make sure of Him, for this is faith, that I am assured in heart that He careth for me, and am consequently restful. The gain is not that I eventually get helped and delivered, but that I have learned the deep, the never-to-be-forgotten lesson that I may trust Him and cast all my care upon Him.
You will find that it is the truth you give your fullest assent to which is the one most tested. The truth is the unfolding of God’s grace to me in His Son. It tells me what He has done for and with me, and faith through the Spirit leads me to accept it. To make this acceptance sure and unmixed is the end of the testing. The more I am tested, the more established am I in the truth. It is “much more precious than of gold that perisheth” (1 Peter 1: 7). If I really believe the truth, I ought not to fear the testing. If I fear the testing, it is evident that I do not set very great value on the truth. Moses is more tried about the possibility of bringing the people of Israel out of Egypt, than about any other thing in his history that we know of. David was more tried about the kingdom; Paul about the church: and surely no truth had each accepted with more assurance and purpose than the one about which each respectively was most tried and tested. When I have faith, the Lord is before me and not myself. I see what suits Him in the circumstances in which I am placed; and I always determine for Him, not thinking how my determination may affect myself. This is the action of faith; and I find in the end that I have done wisely even for myself, for He cares for me; and if I seek Him really, it could not be any loss to me. On the contrary, all things are added unto me. It would be impossible to care for and [p. 69] determine everything for the good and benefit of the head of a house, and not to find that in doing so I had secured the best for every member of the family. Thus it is when I walk in faith and make Him paramount; for really I have no rest or support elsewhere; and as I do, I choose in every instance for Him, and this ultimately is sure to be the best for myself, because I am of Him, and nothing can be done for Him to my injury or loss, but entirely the reverse. Thus by the testing the truth is confirmed; and I am, because of faith, more faithful - more closely and simply walking with Him, and accepting and pursuing that which He, my only confidence, would accept and acknowledge. If I accepted any other, I should throw myself out of the rest which I have in Him.