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Under God’s Discipline, September 15
Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise
not thou the chastening of the Almighty: for he maketh sore, and
bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.
Job 5:17, 18
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Our heavenly Father does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of
men. He has His purpose in the whirlwind and in the storm, in the fire and
in the flood. The Lord permits calamities to come to His people to save
them from greater dangers. He desires everyone to examine his own heart
closely and carefully, and then draw near to God, that God may draw near
to him.
Our life is in the hands of God. He sees dangers threatening us that
we cannot see. He is the giver of all our blessings; the provider of all
our mercies; the orderer of all our experiences. He sees the perils that
we cannot see. He may permit to come upon His people that which fills
their hearts with sadness, because He sees that they need to make straight
paths for their feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way. He knows
our frame, and remembers that we are dust. Even the very hairs of our
head are numbered. He works through natural causes to lead His people
to remember that He has not forgotten them, but that He desires them to
forsake the way which, if they were permitted to follow unchecked and
unreproved, would lead them into great peril. Trials come to us all to lead
us to investigate our hearts, to see if they are purified from all that defiles.
Constantly the Lord is working to our present and eternal good....
Every soul that is saved must be a partaker with Christ of His suffer-
ings, that he may be a partaker with Him of His glory. How few understand
why God subjects them to trial. It is by the trial of our faith that we gain
spiritual strength. The Lord seeks to educate His people to lean wholly
upon Him....
Let everyone examine his own course of action. Let everyone ask
himself whether he is meeting the standard that God has placed before
him. Can we say from the heart, I lay aside my own will? “I delight to do
thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart”? Do we ask daily,
“Lord, what is thy will concerning me?”
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