Last night I woke up (again) at 3:00. I couldn’t fall back to sleep. My friends in Ukraine were heavy on my heart.
The Millers, our lovely missionary friends to a country in Asia, grieve the coup that ousted them and the stillborn child they recently buried.
The burdens of strained relationships, grieving loved ones, and uncertain futures somehow insist on parading across the stage of my mind in that early morning hour.
I find myself asking, “What are you up to, Lord?”
A word from C.H. Spurgeon encouraged me this morning.
He cited Psalm 16:10: ...you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
This word has its proper fulfillment in the Lord Jesus; but it applies also, with a variation, to all who are in Him. Our soul shall not be left in the separate state, and our body, though it see corruption, shall rise again. The general meaning, rather than the specific application, is that to which we would call our reader’s thoughts at this particular time.
We may descend in spirit very low till we seem to be plunged in the abyss of hell; but we shall not be left there. We may appear to be at death’s door in heart, and soul, and consciousness; but we cannot remain there. Our inward death as to joy and hope may proceed very far; but it cannot run on to its full consequences, so as to reach the utter corruption of black despair. We may go very low, but not lower than the Lord permits; we may stay in the lowest dungeon of doubt for a while, but we shall not perish there. The star of hope is still in the sky when the night is blackest. The Lord will not forget us and hand us over to the enemy. Let us rest in hope. We have to deal with One whose mercy endureth forever. Surely, out of death, and darkness, and despair we shall yet arise to life, light, and liberty.
Strengthen our faith and make us a believing, praying people, Lord Jesus.
