In The Fire?

Friends, each morning I receive an e-mail devotional written, in the past of course, by A. W.
Tozer. I think this morning's thought will be an encouragement to you.

"But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold." - Job 23:10

God has said He will exalt you in due time, but remember, He is referring to His time and not yours!

Some of you are actually in a fiery furnace right now. You are in a special kind of spiritual testing. The pastor may not know it and others may not know it, but you have been praying and asking the Lord: "Why don't you get me out of this?" In God's plan it is not yet "due time."

When you have come through the fire, God will get you out and there will not be any smell of smoke on your garment and you will not have been harmed. The only harm that can come will be from your insistence that God must get you out sooner than He plans. The Lord has promised to exalt you in due time and He has always kept His promises to His people. As children, we can always afford to wait.

A saint of God does not have to be concerned about time when he is in the will of God.

A. W. Tozer from his book, I Call It Heresy

Deep Despondency

The following quote, taken from Elizabeth Skoglund's book, Bright Days, Dark Nights, was a blessing to me. If the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, battled depression, we shouldn't think it unjust that God would allow us to go through similar trials. The sorrows we experience are not wasted. A sovereign God will use these dark times in our lives to equip us to minister to others who tread the same path. Be encouraged today! He knows the path that you take!

Spurgeon wrote:

“I often feel very grateful to God that I have undergone fearful depression of spirits. I know the borders of despair, and the horrible brink of that gulf of darkness into which my feet have almost gone; but hundreds of times I have been able to give a helpful grip to brethren and sisters who have come into that same condition, which grip I could never have given if I had not know their deep despondency. So I believe that the darkest and most dreadful experience of a child of God will help him to be a fisher of men if he will but follow Christ. Keep close to your Lord and He will make every step a blessing to you.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, from The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit 32 (1886)

Click HERE to check out Elizabeth Skoglund's site!