Skip to main content

God’s Wisdom in our Suffering

God exercises wisdom in permitting afflictions  and in removing afflictions. He is wise to suit his medicine to the condition of our disease. He cannot mistake the nature of our disease, or the  virtue of his remedy. Like a skilful Doctor, God sometimes prescribes bitter potions, and sometimes cheering cordials, according to the strength of the malady, and necessity of the patient, to bring him to health. Everything that comes from God is for our good. He does not do anything in a rash and reckless way. His wisdom is as infinite as his goodness, and as exact in managing as his goodness is plentiful in streaming out to us. God understands our griefs, weighs our necessities, and no remedies are beyond the reach of his skilful planning. When our feeble intelligences are bewildered in a maze, and at the end of their line for a rescue, the remedies unknown to us are not unknown to God. When we do not know how to prevent a danger, the wise God has a thousand blocks to lay in the way. When we do not know how to free ourselves from an oppressive evil, God has a thousand ways of relief. He knows how to time our afflictions, and his own blessings…How comforting it is to know that our distresses, as well as our deliverances are the fruits of infinite wisdom! Nothing is done by him too soon or too slow, but in the true point of time, with all its due circumstances, most conveniently for his glory and our good. How wise is God, to bring the glory of our salvation out of the depths of a seeming ruin, and make the evils of affliction subservient to the good of the afflicted!

STEPHEN CHARNOCK 

(Source: Works of Stephen Charnock, Volume II)


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What is the best preparation for preaching?

The best preparation is not to be too anxious about it. Anxious care hinders liveliness and efficacy. It leads to too little dependence on the Spirit. Be not didactic. Aim at the conscience as soldiers aim at the faces. Consider I may be preaching my last sermon. This leads to setting forth Christ as The Way, the Truth and the Life . .. Make Christ the prominent figure…Pay less attention to dear self. JOHN NEWTON

I am what I am by Gloria Gaynor

Beverly Knight closed the opening ceremony of the Paralympics with what has been dubbed the signature tune of the Paralympics. I had no idea Ms Knight is still in the singing business. And clearly going by the raving reviews she will continue to be around. One media source says her performance was so electric that "there wasn’t a dry eye to be seen as she sang the lyrics to the song and people even watching at home felt the passion in her words" . The song was Gloria Gaynor's I am what I am . Clearly not written by Gloria Gaynor but certainly musically owned and popularized by her. It opens triumphantly: I am what I am / I am my own special creation / So come take a look / Give me the hook or the ovation / It's my world that I want to have a little pride in / My world and it's not a place I have to hide in / Life's not worth a damn till you can say I am what I am The words “I am what I am” echo over ten times in the song. A bold declaration that she

The Security of the Church

All the powers of hell shall never overthrow the Church. It shall continue, and stand, in spite of every assault. It shall never be overcome. All other created things perish and pass away, but not the Church of Christ. The hand of outward violence, or the moth of inward decay, prevail over everything else, but not over the temple that Christ builds. Empires have risen and fallen in rapid succession. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Tyre, Carthage, Rome, Greece, Venice - where are all these now? They were all the creations of man's hand, and have passed away. But the Church of Christ lives on. The mightiest cities have become heaps of ruins. The broad walls of Babylon are sunk to the ground. The palaces of Nineveh are mounds of dust. The hundred gates of Thebes are only matters of history. Tyre is a place where fishermen hang their nets. Carthage is a desolation. Yet all this time the true Church stands. The gates of hell do not prevail against it….Has the true Church been oppressed