October 11 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God" (Isa. 50:10).

Devotional

The believer is so prone to attach an undue importance to the mere feeling of comfort—to give place to the impression that when comfort vanishes, all other good vanishes with it—that he, in fact, makes the real standing of the soul depend upon an ever-fluctuating emotion.

But remember that the comfort of grace may be suspended, and yet the existence of grace may remain. The glory of faith may be obscured, and yet the principle of faith continue.

Consider, as an eminent example of this, our adorable Lord upon the cross. Was there ever sorrow like his sorrow? Was there ever desertion like his desertion? Every spring of consolation was dried up. Every beam of light was darkened. All perceivable joy was withdrawn. His human soul was now passing through its strange, total eclipse. And still his faith hung upon God. Hear him exclaim, "My God! my God!" My strong One! my strong One! His soul was in the storm—and oh, what a storm that was!—but it was securely anchored upon his Father. In his case there was the absence of all consolation, the suspension of every stream of comfort; and yet in this—the darkest cloud that ever enshrouded the soul and the deepest sorrow that ever broke the heart—he stayed his soul upon God.

And why should the believer, the follower of Christ, when the sense of comfort is withdrawn, "throw away [his] confidence, which has a great reward" (Heb. 10:35)? Of what use is the anchor but to keep the vessel in the storm? How foolish it would be for the mariner to weigh his anchor, or to slip his cable, when the clouds gather darkly and the waves swell high! It is then that he most needs them both. It is true that he casts his anchor into the deep and the depth hides it from his view. But even though he cannot discern it through the foaming waves, he still knows that it is firmly fastened; he still knows that it will keep his storm-tossed vessel from stranding upon a lee shore.

And, O believer, when "trouble is near" (Ps. 22:11) and the sense of comfort is withdrawn, why should you resign your heart a prey to unbelieving fears, and cherish the dark suspicion of God? Would this not be to part with the anchor of your hope at the very moment when you most need it? You may not be able to pierce the clouds and look within the veil with an eye beaming with an undimmed and assured joy, but you know that the Forerunner is there; that the Priest is upon his throne; that Jesus is alive, and is at the right hand of God. Then all is safe. Faith demands no more. Hope expects no more. And love desires no more.

Ah, holy Jesus, how have you offended
that man to judge you has in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by your own rejected,
O most afflicted.

(Johann Hermann, 1630; tr. Robert S. Bridges, 1899; mod. LEW, 2006)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2011.