When you cannot take another step or take another breath because of the pain that this world has dealt you, listen closely because there is someone who knows, cares and bears your grief with you. His name is Jesus, He is by your side and will never leave nor forsake you. F. B. Meyer wrote this beautiful portion in the 1800’s about the One who bore our sorrows.  

 “YOU ARE PASSING THROUGH a time of deep sorrow. The love on which you were trusting has suddenly failed you, and dried up like a brook in the desert now a dwindling stream, then shallow pools, and at last drought. You are always listening for footsteps that do not come, waiting for a word that is not spoken, pining for a reply that tarries overdue. Perhaps the savings of your life have suddenly disappeared. Instead of helping others, you must be helped; or you are suddenly called to assume the burden of some other life, taking no rest for yourself till you have steered it through dark and difficult seas into the haven. Your health, or sight, or nervous energy is failing; you carry in yourself the sentence of death; and the anguish of anticipating the future is almost unbearable.  

At such times life seems almost unsupportable. Will every day be as long as this? Will the slow-moving hours ever again quicken their pace? Will life ever array itself in another garb than the torn autumn remnants of past summer glory? “Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies?” (Ps. 77:9). 

Jesus Christ Himself trod this difficult path, leaving traces of His blood on its flints; and apostles, prophets, confessors, and martyrs have passed by the same way. It is comforting to know that others have traversed the same dark valley, and that the great multitudes which stand before the Lamb, wearing palms of victory, came out of great tribulation. Where they were we are; and, by God’s grace, where they are we shall be. 

Sorrow is a refiner’s crucible (a cup or container where metals are melted in a furnace into a liquid).-It may be caused by the neglect or cruelty of another, by circumstances over which the sufferer has no control, or as the direct result of some dark hour in the long past; but inasmuch as God has permitted it to come, it must be accepted as His appointment, and considered as the furnace by which He is searching, testing, probing, and purifying the soul. Suffering searches us as fire does metals. We think we are fully for God, until we are exposed to the cleansing fire of pain. Then we discover, as Job did, how much dross there is in us, and how little real patience, resignation, and faith. Nothing so detaches us from the things of this world, the life of our five senses, and of earthly affections. There is probably no other way by which the power of the self-life can be arrested, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.                                                                                   

But God always keeps the discipline of sorrow in His own hands.-Our Lord said, “My Father is the husbandman.” His hand holds the pruning-knife. His eye watches the crucible. His gentle touch is on the pulse while the operation is in progress. He will not allow even the devil to have his own way with us. As in the case of Job, so always, the moments are carefully allotted. The severity of the test is exactly determined by the reserves of grace and strength which are lying unrecognized within, but will be sought for and used beneath the severe pressure of pain. He holds the winds in His fist, and the waters in the hollow of His hand. He dares not risk the loss of that which has cost Him the blood of His Son. “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tried above that ye are able” (1 Cor. 10:13).  

  In sorrow the Comforter is near. very present in time of trouble. He sits by the crucible, as a Refiner of silver, regulating the heat, marking every change, waiting patiently for the scum to float away, and His own face to be mirrored in clear, translucent metal. No earthly friend may tread the winepress with you, but the Saviour is there, His garments stained with the blood of the grapes of your sorrow. Dare to repeat it often, though you do not feel it, and though Satan insists that God has left you, ‘Thou art with me.’ Mention His name again and again, ‘Jesus, Jesus, Thou art with me’. So you will become conscious that He is there.” 

-‘A Very Present Help in the Time of Trouble’ F.B Meyer

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 11:18 am and is filed under Devotionals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.