In my devotional reading a few days ago, I came across the following quote from the British preacher Charles Spurgeon:
“[T]his is the reason why he bringeth his people ofttimes into straits and difficulties, that, being made conscious of their own folly and weakness, they may be fitted to behold the majesty of God when he comes forth to work their deliverance. He whose life is one even and smooth path, will see but little of the glory of the Lord, for he has few occasions of self-emptying, and hence, but little fitness for being filled with the revelation of God. They who navigate little streams and shallow creeks, know but little of the God of tempests; but they who “do business in great waters,” these see his “wonders in the deep.” Among the huge Atlantic-waves of bereavement, poverty, temptation, and reproach, we learn the power of Jehovah, because we feel the littleness of man. Thank God, then, if you have been led by a rough road: it is this which has given you your experience of God’s greatness and lovingkindness. Your troubles have enriched you with a wealth of knowledge to be gained by no other means: your trials have been the cleft of the rock in which Jehovah has set you, as he did his servant Moses, that you might behold his glory as it passed by.”*
What an encouragement we have in the midst of our own deep waters that God is fitting us to behold his glorious deliverance. What “Atlantic-waves of bereavement” have you encountered in the past? Are you in the middle of temptation, reproach, poverty, trial? It is here that we will see great Jehovah in power and strength and love
and tenderness.
*Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, “Morning, July 19.”