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TOPIC: MacDuff, John - The Rainbow in the Clouds (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 24. STRENGTH FOR THE DAY
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24. STRENGTH FOR THE DAY
"As your days so shall your strength be." Deu_23:25
Believer! have you not felt it so? Have you not found plants distilling balm, growing beside sorrow's path? supports vouchsafed, which were undreamed of until the dreaded cloud had burst, and the day of trial had come? Trouble not yourself regarding an unknown and veiled future; but cast all your cares on God. "Our sandals," says a saint now in glory, "are a proof against the roughest path." He whose name is "the God of all grace" is better than His word. He will be found equal to all the emergencies of His people; enough for each moment and each hour as they come. He never takes us to the bitter Marah streams, but He reveals also the hidden branch. Paul was hurled down from the third heavens to endure the smarting of the "thorn", but he rises like a giant from his fall, exulting in the sustaining grace of an "all-sufficient God."
The beautiful peculiarity in this promise is, that God proportions His grace to the nature and season of the trial. He does not give an 'advance supply of grace', but when the needed season and exigency comes, then the appropriate strength and support are imparted. He does not send the rainbow before the cloud, but when the cloud appears, the rainbow is seen in it! He gives sustaining grace for a trying day, and dying grace for a dying day.
Reader! do not morbidly brood on the future. Live on the promise! When tomorrow comes with its trials, Jesus will come with tomorrow and with its trials too. Present grace is enough for present necessity. Trust God for the future. We honor Him, not by anticipating trial, but by confiding in His faithfulness, and crediting His assurances, that no temptation will He send greater than we are able to bear. Even if you should see fresh storm-clouds returning after the rain, be ready to say, "I will fear no evil, for You are with me!" Insufficient you are of yourself for any trial, but "your sufficiency is of God." The promise is not "Your grace," but "My grace is sufficient." Oh, trust His all-sufficiency in all things. Jehovah Jireh, "the Lord will provide." See written over every trying hour of the future, "So shall your strength be!"
"As your days so shall your strength be." Deu_23:25
Believer! have you not felt it so? Have you not found plants distilling balm, growing beside sorrow's path? supports vouchsafed, which were undreamed of until the dreaded cloud had burst, and the day of trial had come? Trouble not yourself regarding an unknown and veiled future; but cast all your cares on God. "Our sandals," says a saint now in glory, "are a proof against the roughest path." He whose name is "the God of all grace" is better than His word. He will be found equal to all the emergencies of His people; enough for each moment and each hour as they come. He never takes us to the bitter Marah streams, but He reveals also the hidden branch. Paul was hurled down from the third heavens to endure the smarting of the "thorn", but he rises like a giant from his fall, exulting in the sustaining grace of an "all-sufficient God."
The beautiful peculiarity in this promise is, that God proportions His grace to the nature and season of the trial. He does not give an 'advance supply of grace', but when the needed season and exigency comes, then the appropriate strength and support are imparted. He does not send the rainbow before the cloud, but when the cloud appears, the rainbow is seen in it! He gives sustaining grace for a trying day, and dying grace for a dying day.
Reader! do not morbidly brood on the future. Live on the promise! When tomorrow comes with its trials, Jesus will come with tomorrow and with its trials too. Present grace is enough for present necessity. Trust God for the future. We honor Him, not by anticipating trial, but by confiding in His faithfulness, and crediting His assurances, that no temptation will He send greater than we are able to bear. Even if you should see fresh storm-clouds returning after the rain, be ready to say, "I will fear no evil, for You are with me!" Insufficient you are of yourself for any trial, but "your sufficiency is of God." The promise is not "Your grace," but "My grace is sufficient." Oh, trust His all-sufficiency in all things. Jehovah Jireh, "the Lord will provide." See written over every trying hour of the future, "So shall your strength be!"