Morning
Time: 9:07 AM PST
"The trial of your faith." --1 Peter 1:7
Faith untried may be true faith, but it is sure to be little faith, and it is
likely to remain dwarfish so long as it is without trials. Faith never prospers
so well as when all things are against her: tempests are her trainers, and
lightnings are her illuminators. When a calm reigns on the sea, spread the sails
as you will, the ship moves not to its harbour; for on a slumbering ocean the
keel sleeps too. Let the winds rush howling forth, and let the waters lift up
themselves, then, though the vessel may rock, and her deck may be washed with
waves, and her mast may creak under the pressure of the full and swelling sail,
it is then that she makes headway towards her desired haven. No flowers wear so
lovely a blue as those which grow at the foot of the frozen glacier; no stars
gleam so brightly as those which glisten in the polar sky; no water tastes so
sweet as that which springs amid the desert sand; and no faith is so precious as
that which lives and triumphs in adversity. Tried faith brings experience. You
could not have believed your own weakness had you not been compelled to pass
through the rivers; and you would never have known God's strength had you not
been supported amid the water-floods. Faith increases in solidity, assurance,
and intensity, the more it is exercised with tribulation. Faith is precious, and
its trial is precious too.
Let not this, however, discourage those who are young in faith. You will have
trials enough without seeking them: the full portion will be measured out to you
in due season. Meanwhile, if you cannot yet claim the result of long experience,
thank God for what grace you have; praise Him for that degree of holy confidence
whereunto you have attained: walk according to that rule, and you shall yet have
more and more of the blessing of God, till your faith shall remove mountains and
conquer impossibilities.