Chapter 13
Whom Do You Trust, Yourself Or Christ?
I have had experience enough to know that feelings do not count for much, and I do know that deep down in my heart there is a peace and sense of security that were not there when I was at your meetings last week. But I feel that my sense of security and faith are waiting to be tried before I can be quite sure of myself.’
So wrote an exceptionally bright young comrade to me in a recent letter, and in those words are revealed a halting and mixed faith and a subtle temptation of the ‘old Accuser’!
Of course, our ‘faith and sense of security ‘ are always being tried, and we should not ignore, but should quietly and confidently welcome such trial, for it is by the trial of faith that patience with the long, and often, stern disciplines of life is wrought in us and our character is perfected. James in the very second verse of his epistle begins with this common experience, and says: ‘My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations (trials): knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. . . . Blessed is the man that endureth temptation (trial): for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.’
James gets happy over this and exhorts his brethren to ‘count it all joy’ to be tried. Not that the trial itself is pleasant, but the result is glorious. And Peter tells us that in the midst of our rejoicing over present Salvation through faith, we may, ‘for a season, if need be, be in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried by fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ’ (I Peter i. 6, 7).
So this young comrade’s feeling that her ‘ faith and sense of security ‘ will be tried is reasonable and normal, but her phrase — ‘before I can be quite sure of myself’ — reveals the halting and mixed faith and the subtle Tempter. He is slyly turning her eyes and her faith from Jesus to herself. ‘You can’t be sure of yourself,’ he whispers, and imperceptibly almost she looks at self instead of ‘unto Jesus.’
We are never to be sure of self, but quietly, unwaveringly sure of our Redeemer and Lord. We shall be tried, but we shall not be left alone. As He was with the three Hebrew boys in Nebuchadnezzar’s seven-fold heated furnace, so He will be with us (Daniel iii. 25). ‘I am with thee . . I am thy God; I will strengthen thee . . I will uphold thee ‘ (Isaiah xli. 10), is his ringing assurance. ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee’ (Hebrews xiii. 5). ‘There hath no temptation (trial) taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it’ (I Corinthians x. 13).
Our blessed Lord Himself in the days of His flesh was ‘in all points tempted as we are,’ He is ‘touched with the feelings of our infirmities’ and He is ‘able to succor us,’ and He will succor us, if instead of looking unto self and trembling in the presence of the mocking enemy, with his army of fears and doubts, we look courageously and humbly, in the name of Jesus, unto our Father who is ‘the Lord God of hosts.’
We are to face our fears in His name, and rout our enemy by an appeal to the all-sufficient merits of the Blood shed for us, by glad testimony, and by a consecration that welcomes death rather than doubt and denial (Revelation xii. 10, 11).
‘Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us,’ said Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ‘but if He does not, we will not deny Him, we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image, O king.’ We will burn, but we will not bow. ‘They loved not their lives unto the death.’ That is consecration, and that is a firm basis for unwavering faith. They were not trusting in themselves, but in the living God, and deliverance came. Hallelujah!
It is the enemy of all souls who tempts us to look forward fearfully to some wholly indefinite trial that may never come, before we can walk in confident peace. Trials may come, they will come, but our Lord will be there with abundant grace when they do come, if, moment by moment looking unto Him, we go forward in His strength.
It is one of the ‘wiles of the Devil ‘ (Ephesians vi. 11) to haunt us with nameless, shadowy fears of tomorrow. It is his way to weaken faith and turn our eyes from our Lord.
They may come, and they may not, but whether they come or not, we are not alone, and we must not fear, though the temptation to fear may be present.
‘Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field,’ said battle-hardened, mocking Goliath to little David.
‘Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield,’ said David; ‘but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee,’ said David. The Lord was David’s shield. He kept the Lord in front of him. ‘I have set the Lord always before me ‘ (Psalm xvi. 8), he wrote long years after, and Goliath could not reach him without first encountering the Lord. And when the Philistine champion drew nigh to meet David, the lad ran to meet him, and slew him in the name of the Lord.
That is the way to face fears and spiritual enemies and doubts and temptations. Face them ‘in the name of the Lord of hosts.’ Run to meet them, but put no confidence in yourself, only as you are ‘strong in the Lord and the power of His might.’
Paul knew, as few men do, what trouble and danger are. He said, ‘the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions wait for me. But,’ he added, ‘none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus’ (Acts xx. 23, 24). And again he wrote, ‘I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus’ (Romans viii. 38, 39).
His confidence was wholly in the changeless character and love of his Lord, therefore he trembled in the presence of no man, nor any combination of trials that might overtake him. Hallelujah!