“And he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?’” Luke 24:38
“Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God’?” The Lord cares for all things, and the meanest creatures share in his universal providence, but his particular providence is over his saints. “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him.” “Precious is their blood in his sight.” “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Let the fact that, while he is the Savior of all men, he is specially the Savior of them that believe, cheer and comfort you. You are his peculiar care; his regal treasure which he guards as the apple of his eye; his vineyard over which he watches day and night. “Even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” Let the thought of his special love to you be a spiritual pain-killer, a dear quietus to your woe: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” God says that as much to you as to any saint of old. “Fear not . . . I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”
We lose much consolation by the habit of reading his promises for the whole church, instead of taking them directly home to ourselves. Believer, grasp the divine word with a personal, appropriating faith. Think that you hear Jesus say, “I have prayed for you that your faith fail not.” Think you see him walking on the waters of your trouble, for he is there, and he is saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
Oh, those sweet words of Christ! May the Holy Ghost make you feel them as spoken to you; forget others for awhile—accept the voice of Jesus as addressed to you, and say, “Jesus whispers consolation; I cannot refuse it; I will sit under his shadow with great delight.”
Adapted from Morning and Evening.
