Spurgeon again

I've been listening over and over
again to Tim Keller on Hebrews 12.
Then read in a devotional our Pastor
wrote for the 50 Days of Prayer ( PCA)
about all these struggles, difficulties , etc..
being a means of grace. Hmmm.....then
this MORNING from Spurgeon:


"Yesterday I could climb to Pisgah's top, and
view the landscape o'er, and rejoice with
confidence in my future inheritance; today,
my spirit has no hopes, but many fears; no
joys, but much distress. Is this part of God's
plan with me? Yes, it is even so. The elipse
of your faith, the darkness of your mind, the
fainting of your hope, all these are part of
God's method ( means of grace) of making you
ripe for the great inheritance......These trials
are the testing and strengthening of your faith--
they are waves that wash you further upon the
rock--they are winds which waft your ship the
more swiftly towards the desired haven......

By honor and dishonor, by evil report and good
report, by plenty and by poverty, by joy and
distress , by persecution and by peace, by all
these things is the life of your souls
maintained, and by each of these are
you helped on your way. OH, think NOT,
believer, that your sorrows are not out
of God's plan; they are necessary
parts of it."



Winslow Homer
Breezing Up