HH Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div
“ But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10).
Believer! What a glorious assurance! This way of thine–this, it may be, a crooked, mysterious, tangled way–this way of trial and tears. “He knoweth it.” The furnace seven times heated–He lighted it. There is an Almighty Guide knowing and directing our footsteps, whether it be to the bitter Marah pool, or to the joy and refreshment of Elim. Hallelujah
That way, dark to the Egyptians, has its pillar of cloud and fire for His own Israel. The furnace is hot; but not only can we trust the hand that kindles it, but we have the assurance that the fires are lighted not to consume, but to refine; and that when the refining process is completed (no sooner–no later) He brings His people forth as gold. So no matter what others think about you, it is what the Lord thinks of you and how He sees you in His sight.
When they think Him least near, He is often nearest. “When my spirit was overwhelmed, then thou knewest my path.” I have never lost hope, but sometimes looking back I felt that I seldom lost my way because I decided to fight my own battles. The only way for me to get back on that pathway is to acknowledge that I erred from the truth. He knows me more than anyone else.
Do we know of ONE brighter than the brightest radiance of the visible sun, visiting our chamber with the first waking beam of the morning; an eye of infinite tenderness and compassion following us throughout the day, knowing the way that we take?
The world, in its cold vocabulary in the hour of adversity, speaks of “Providence”–“the will of Providence”–“the strokes of Providence.” PROVIDENCE! what is that?
Why dethrone a living, directing God from the sovereignty of His own earth? Why substitute an inanimate, death-like abstraction, in place of an action, controlling, personal Jehovah?
How it would take the sting from many a goading trial, to see what Job saw (in his hour of aggravated woe, when every earthly hope lay prostrate at his feet)–no hand but the Divine. He saw that hand behind the gleaming swords of the Sabeans–he saw it behind the lightning flash–he saw it giving wings to the careening tempest–he saw it in the awful silence of his rifled home.
“The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!” At some time in our life, we lost a loved one and Oh, how we cry or weep without a hope to face the tomb. Yes, we lost a friend, a family member, brother, sister, child, husband or a wife. Brethren He knows us and what we are going through. Can we say it like Job “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!”
Thus seeing God in everything, his faith reached its climax when this once powerful prince of the desert, seated on his bed of ashes, could say, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.”
Brethren I write these words to comfort the heart of someone that is grieving, and I pray that you will find some comfort in the words of Job and say “Blessed be the Name of the Lord.”
God bless and keep you my brothers and sisters.
