Sufferers Make Strong Believers

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. (Lamentations 3:27)

This is as good as a promise. It has been good, it is good, and it will be good for me to bear the yoke.

Early in life I had to feel the weight of conviction, and ever since it has proved a soul-enriching burden. Should I have loved the gospel so well had I not learned by deep experience the need of salvation by grace? Jabez was more honorable than his brethren because his mother bare him with sorrow, and those who suffer much in being born unto God make strong believers in sovereign grace.

The yoke of censure is an irksome one, but it prepares a man for future honor. He is not fit to be a leader who has not run the gauntlet of contempt. Praise intoxicates if it be not preceded by abuse. Men who rise to eminence without struggle usually fall into dishonor.

The yoke of affliction, disappointment, and excessive labor is by no means to be sought for; but when the Lord lays it on us in our youth, it frequently develops a character which glorifies God and blesses the church.

Come, my soul, bow thy neck; take up thy cross. It was good for thee when young; it will not harm thee now. For Jesus' sake, shoulder it carefully.

Charles Spurgeon

He has filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich. . . . As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Blessed [are] they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.--[When] the poor and needy seek water, and [there is] none, [and] their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.--I [am] the LORD thy God, . . . open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.

Wherefore do ye spend money for [that which is] not bread? and your labour for [that which] satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye [that which is] good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.--I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Lu 1:53 Re 3:17-19 Mt 5:6 Isa 41:17 Ps 81:10 Isa 55:2 Joh 6:35


http://bible.christiansunite.com/devotionals.shtml