There must be a submission to
God in every affliction, as to the time and continuance of the
affliction. 'Perhaps I could submit and be content', says someone, 'but
this affliction has been on me a long time, three months, a year, many
years, and I do not know how to yield and submit to it, my patience is
worn out and broken.' It may even be a spiritual affliction-you could
submit to God, you say, in any outward affliction, but not in a
soul-affliction.
Or if it were the
withdrawing of God's face-'Yet if this had been but for a little time I
could submit; but to seek God for so long and still he does not appear,
Oh how shall I bear this?' We must not be our own disposers for the time
of deliverance any more than for the kind and way of deliverance.
I will give you a Scripture or two about this.
That we are to submit to God for the time as well as the kind of
affliction, see the latter end of the first chapter of Ezekiel: 'When I
saw it I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.' The
Prophet was cast down upon his face, but how long must he lie upon his
face? 'And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet and I will
speak unto thee. And the spirit entered into me, when he spake unto me,
and set me upon my feet.' Ezekiel was cast down upon his face, and there
he must lie till God should bid him to stand up; yea, and not only so,
but till God's Spirit came into him and enabled him to stand up. So when
God casts us down, we must be content to lie till God bids us stand up,
and God's Spirit enters into us to enable us to stand up.
You know how
Noah was put into the Ark-certainly he knew there was much affliction in
the Ark, with all kinds of creatures shut up with him for twelve months
together-it was a mighty thing, yet God having shut him up, even though
the waters were assuaged, Noah was not to come out of the Ark till God
bid him. So though we be shut up in great afflictions, and we may think
of this and that and the other means to come out of that affliction, yet
till God opens the door, we should be willing to stay; God has put us
in, and God will bring us out. So we read in the Acts of Paul, when they
had shut him in prison and would have sent for him out; 'No', says
Paul, 'they shut us in, let them come and fetch us out.' So in a holy,
gracious way should a soul say, 'Well, this affliction that I am brought
into, is by the hand of God, and I am content to be here till God
brings me out himself.' God requires it at our hands, that we should not
be willing to come out till he comes and fetches us out.
- Jeremiah Burroughs (The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, Chapter 1: Christian Contentment Described)
No comments:
Post a Comment