Evening
Time: 9:59 PM PST
"Sing, O barren." --Isaiah 54:1
Though we have brought forth some fruit unto Christ, and have a joyful hope
that we are "plants of His own right hand planting," yet there are times when we
feel very barren. Prayer is lifeless, love is cold, faith is weak, each grace in
the garden of our heart languishes and droops. We are like flowers in the hot
sun, requiring the refreshing shower. In such a condition what are we to do? The
text is addressed to us in just such a state. "Sing, O barren, break forth
and cry aloud." But what can I sing about? I cannot talk about the present,
and even the past looks full of barrenness. Ah! I can sing of Jesus Christ. I
can talk of visits which the Redeemer has aforetimes paid to me; or if not of
these, I can magnify the great love wherewith He loved His people when He came
from the heights of heaven for their redemption. I will go to the cross again.
Come, my soul, heavy laden thou wast once, and thou didst lose thy burden there.
Go to Calvary again. Perhaps that very cross which gave thee life may give thee
fruitfulness. What is my barrenness? It is the platform for His fruit-creating
power. What is my desolation? It is the black setting for the sapphire of His
everlasting love. I will go in poverty, I will go in helplessness, I will go in
all my shame and backsliding, I will tell Him that I am still His child, and in
confidence in His faithful heart, even I, the barren one, will sing and cry
aloud.
Sing, believer, for it will cheer thine own heart, and the hearts of other
desolate ones. Sing on, for now that thou art really ashamed of being barren,
thou wilt be fruitful soon; now that God makes thee loath to be without
fruit He will soon cover thee with clusters. The experience of our barrenness is
painful, but the Lord's visitations are delightful. A sense of our own poverty
drives us to Christ, and that is where we need to be, for in Him is our fruit
found.