Thoughts Of The Mind In Times Of Suffering

One day, far away from home and alone, I seemed to be enshrouded in a cloud of anxiety, uncertainty, and depression. I could not pinpoint the exact source of my problem, but the feelings had to do with my real standing with God. The more I thought, the more exasperated I became. At last, I spoke to God these words, “I would really love to know what you think of me.” The Lord began to communicate with my troubled heart, urging me to go to the Word as if saying, “I have already made clear what I think of you in My word. . . read it” (Jack Taylor)!

SEIZE THE MOMENT
Francis Bacon said, “A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.”

Abraham Lincoln wrote, "I’ll study and get ready, and be prepared for my opportunity when it comes.”

2 Timothy 4:2
“Be ready”—that’s preparation

“In season”—That’s taking the opportunity when it is convenient.

“Out of season”---that’s taking the opportunity when it is not convenient.

JUNE FREEZE
This story is about a man named Bill. He had never gone to church in his life. No matter how much he was coaxed, he couldn’t be persuaded to attend even on a special day such as Christmas or Easter.” When it freezes in June,” he would say, “then I will go to church.”

One year there was an unusually cold spring, and it stayed that way into June. The first part of the month the temperature dipped to freezing for several nights. Everyone thought about Bill and what he had said. Perhaps this spell of cold weather would finally get him to attend church.

It did. One Sunday, Bill made his first appearance in the church building—while the organ played softly. Six men carried him in! Bill finally made it, but he was lying in a casket instead of sitting in a pew. Don’t be like old Bill. Those who think they don’t need church don’t think much of the One who founded it (Our Daily Bread, April 26, 1998).

WORLD PEACE
There is a sense in which the world can give peace to a man. It is when there is an absence of danger, no financial worries, and a sense of physical well-being and mental contentment.

But such peace is dependent on exterior circumstances. It is fragile and can easily be lost with the approach of difficulty and danger. But there is a peace that is the deep abiding peace within the heart, irrespective of external circumstances (John 14:27).

GOD’S WORK OF CREATION
The depths of God’s work of creation call to the depths of man’s soul. Man can manufacture, make something out of raw material, but only God can create something out of nothing.

Job’s faith in a time of trial was strengthened by his affirmation of the sovereignty of God and His marvels of creation. Beyond the commonplace, Job saw the creative handiwork of God. God’s creation is not only mighty, it is also magnificent; it is not only awesome, it is also adorned; it is not only great, it is also glorious.

“Two men looked through prison bars; one saw mud, the other saw stars.” Job looked from his scars to God’s stars and that made a difference.

WHO CAN FULLY COMPREHEND GOD?
God is infinite and mortal capacity has its limits. The finite cannot comprehend the infinite. The human cannot understand the divine. Mortality cannot grasp the eternal. As an ant, incredibly as it is created, cannot enter into an understanding of humanity, so man cannot understand the infinite, the omniscient, the omnipotent, the omnipresent God (Isaiah 55:8-9).

THE STATE OF THE CHURCH TODAY
Christians should be a foreign influence, a minority group in a pagan world. If the church is acceptable to this present age and is not stirring up trouble or suffering reproach, then it is not the true church that our Lord founded.

“We are the light of the world”---and light exposes or shows things up. If we are at peace with this world, it may be because we have sold out to it and compromised with it (Billy Graham).

IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS
O sweet exchange! O unsearchable operation! O benefits surpassing all expectation, that the wickedness of many should be hid in a single Righteous One, and that the righteousness of the One should justify many transgressors. Here is what Luther said when writing to a monk in distress about his sins. Learn to know Christ and Him crucified. Learn to sing to Him and say “Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You took on You what was mine; yet on me what was Yours. You became what you were not, that I might become what I was not (Martin Luther, Letters of Spiritual Counsel).