Dear Friends,
Some of the most comforting words the struggling person can hear are, “Yes, I have gone through that as well.” Or, “Yes, I have struggled, wrestled, and fallen prey to that too.” When the struggling person hears those words, they tend to feel they have a friend in the fight. A companion on the rough road of life. Someone who can finally understand what they are feeling and going through. They are like angels sent from God who come to us in times of despair – not to chastise us, or rebuke us, or preach to us, or tell us to get our act together – but to put their arm around our shoulder and tell us they know exactly what we are going through because they have been there themselves.
In fact, it takes a person who knows the ways of God to be that kind of person. Charles Spurgeon was this kind of person. Both in writing, in the classroom, and from the pulpit, he openly spoke of his struggles with both physical illnesses (burning kidney inflammation called Bright’s Disease, as well as debilitation gout, starting at 33 years old) and mental illness in the form of deep depression, which once kept him out of the pulpit for 3 weeks, and where, “my spirits were sunken so low," he says, "that I could weep by the hour like a child without knowing what I was weeping about.”
Yet, Spurgeon did not hide his struggles (like many do). He spoke about them openly, stating from personal experience that in doing so, “I have been able to help brothers and sisters in the same condition.” Many waste their pain, or hide their struggles, by keeping silent about them, when by sharing them they could bring hope and healing to others.
The following excerpt is from Spurgeon in his book, “Beside Still Waters.” It’s entitled, “More Than Conquerors.” Famous as he was, he was open, transparent and very real about his struggles. And the reason he was is because he believed (as with Paul in II Cor. 1:8-10 and 12:7-10) that God could use his speaking of them to help and minister to others. It’s one of the reasons I like him so much. Enjoy.
More Than Conquerors
The diamonds of divine promises glisten most brightly when placed in the setting of personal trials. I think God that I have undergone fearful depression. I know the borders of despair and the horrible brink of that dark gulf into which my feet have almost gone. Because of this, I have been able to help brothers and sisters in the same condition. I believe that the Christians’ darkest and most dreadful experiences will lead them to follow Christ and become fishers of men (Mark 1:17). Keep close to your Lord and He will make every step a blessing.
The Holy Scripture is full of narratives of trials. Your life will be garnished with trials, like a rose is with thorns, but provision is made in the Word for Satan’s assaults. Confidently believe that Scripture’s wise plan is not in vain. You will have to battle the same spiritual foes that assailed and buffeted saints in days past, but spiritual armor will be your safeguard in times of attack (Eph. 6:11).
As the Spirit sanctifies us in spirit, soul and body, we will become more like the Master. We are conformed to Him not only in holiness and spirituality, but also in our experience of conflict, sorrow, agony, and triumph. Jesus was tempted in all the ways we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). Now we are to be made like Him. The Savior’s public life begins and ends with trials. It commences in the wilderness in a contest with Satan (Matt. 4:1) and it ends in Gethsemane in a dreadful battle with the powers of darkness (John 17).
If the Lord’s victory was won on Golgotha in blood and wounds, surely our crown will not be won without wrestling and overcoming. We must fight if we would reign, and through the same conflicts that brought the Savior His crown, we will obtain the palm-branch of everlasting victory.”
I once asked God to equip me so I could be used by him. I think I was expecting extraordinary power and divine assistance. But the year following that prayer was one of the hardest of my life. Trials and temptations and failure and slander and disappointment and times of depression came my way. “Why Lord?” I asked in confusion. And the answer I felt God gave me was this: “People don’t benefit from a litany of your achievements and victories; they benefit from knowing someone has been in the scary or painful places they are at and can thereby give them hope that they too will be able to find their way out.”
Paul touches on this in II Cor. 1:8-10 where it appears he and Silas were so depressed that he can say: “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.” Yet what did he learn from his time of despair and depression? He learned that he didn’t have what it took! Only God did! According to God, that’s what such a talented and gifted man like Paul needed to learn! “But this happened so that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead” (v. 9). Only when we come to the end of ourselves are we forced to lean entirely on God.
The same was true with his, “thorn in the flesh,” which he asked the Lord to remove from him three times, before hearing the Lord answer, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ It taught him to do what he may have struggled to do before, and thus he says: “Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, that Christ’s power might rest upon me.” He sees his weaknesses and insufficiency as an advantage to ministry, not a disadvantage.
After all, self-sufficiency is counter to the Gospel and causes us to place our faith and trust in the wrong object – in us instead of Christ! The lesson Spurgeon learned through all his trials was: “As long as we have a grain of self-sufficiency, we will never trust in the All-efficient One. While there is anything of self-left, we prefer to feed on it… Oh my soul, learn to hate every thought of self-sufficiency.”
Living in His All-sufficient Grace, Pastor Jeff
Some of the most comforting words the struggling person can hear are, “Yes, I have gone through that as well.” Or, “Yes, I have struggled, wrestled, and fallen prey to that too.” When the struggling person hears those words, they tend to feel they have a friend in the fight. A companion on the rough road of life. Someone who can finally understand what they are feeling and going through. They are like angels sent from God who come to us in times of despair – not to chastise us, or rebuke us, or preach to us, or tell us to get our act together – but to put their arm around our shoulder and tell us they know exactly what we are going through because they have been there themselves.
In fact, it takes a person who knows the ways of God to be that kind of person. Charles Spurgeon was this kind of person. Both in writing, in the classroom, and from the pulpit, he openly spoke of his struggles with both physical illnesses (burning kidney inflammation called Bright’s Disease, as well as debilitation gout, starting at 33 years old) and mental illness in the form of deep depression, which once kept him out of the pulpit for 3 weeks, and where, “my spirits were sunken so low," he says, "that I could weep by the hour like a child without knowing what I was weeping about.”
Yet, Spurgeon did not hide his struggles (like many do). He spoke about them openly, stating from personal experience that in doing so, “I have been able to help brothers and sisters in the same condition.” Many waste their pain, or hide their struggles, by keeping silent about them, when by sharing them they could bring hope and healing to others.
The following excerpt is from Spurgeon in his book, “Beside Still Waters.” It’s entitled, “More Than Conquerors.” Famous as he was, he was open, transparent and very real about his struggles. And the reason he was is because he believed (as with Paul in II Cor. 1:8-10 and 12:7-10) that God could use his speaking of them to help and minister to others. It’s one of the reasons I like him so much. Enjoy.
More Than Conquerors
The diamonds of divine promises glisten most brightly when placed in the setting of personal trials. I think God that I have undergone fearful depression. I know the borders of despair and the horrible brink of that dark gulf into which my feet have almost gone. Because of this, I have been able to help brothers and sisters in the same condition. I believe that the Christians’ darkest and most dreadful experiences will lead them to follow Christ and become fishers of men (Mark 1:17). Keep close to your Lord and He will make every step a blessing.
The Holy Scripture is full of narratives of trials. Your life will be garnished with trials, like a rose is with thorns, but provision is made in the Word for Satan’s assaults. Confidently believe that Scripture’s wise plan is not in vain. You will have to battle the same spiritual foes that assailed and buffeted saints in days past, but spiritual armor will be your safeguard in times of attack (Eph. 6:11).
As the Spirit sanctifies us in spirit, soul and body, we will become more like the Master. We are conformed to Him not only in holiness and spirituality, but also in our experience of conflict, sorrow, agony, and triumph. Jesus was tempted in all the ways we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). Now we are to be made like Him. The Savior’s public life begins and ends with trials. It commences in the wilderness in a contest with Satan (Matt. 4:1) and it ends in Gethsemane in a dreadful battle with the powers of darkness (John 17).
If the Lord’s victory was won on Golgotha in blood and wounds, surely our crown will not be won without wrestling and overcoming. We must fight if we would reign, and through the same conflicts that brought the Savior His crown, we will obtain the palm-branch of everlasting victory.”
I once asked God to equip me so I could be used by him. I think I was expecting extraordinary power and divine assistance. But the year following that prayer was one of the hardest of my life. Trials and temptations and failure and slander and disappointment and times of depression came my way. “Why Lord?” I asked in confusion. And the answer I felt God gave me was this: “People don’t benefit from a litany of your achievements and victories; they benefit from knowing someone has been in the scary or painful places they are at and can thereby give them hope that they too will be able to find their way out.”
Paul touches on this in II Cor. 1:8-10 where it appears he and Silas were so depressed that he can say: “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.” Yet what did he learn from his time of despair and depression? He learned that he didn’t have what it took! Only God did! According to God, that’s what such a talented and gifted man like Paul needed to learn! “But this happened so that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead” (v. 9). Only when we come to the end of ourselves are we forced to lean entirely on God.
The same was true with his, “thorn in the flesh,” which he asked the Lord to remove from him three times, before hearing the Lord answer, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ It taught him to do what he may have struggled to do before, and thus he says: “Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, that Christ’s power might rest upon me.” He sees his weaknesses and insufficiency as an advantage to ministry, not a disadvantage.
After all, self-sufficiency is counter to the Gospel and causes us to place our faith and trust in the wrong object – in us instead of Christ! The lesson Spurgeon learned through all his trials was: “As long as we have a grain of self-sufficiency, we will never trust in the All-efficient One. While there is anything of self-left, we prefer to feed on it… Oh my soul, learn to hate every thought of self-sufficiency.”
Living in His All-sufficient Grace, Pastor Jeff
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