“I have loved thee with an everlasting love”
Jeremiah 31:3

     “Only by faith can a person interpret the complexities of life. Only a heart rich in faith can find answers to the enigma of pain and suffering. By patiently bearing the trials which come upon all, there is developed in the individual heart a likeness to Jesus who accepted his bitter experiences as he would a cup poured by His Father’s Hand. These trials may be grievous, they may be sore, but faith can see purpose in them. If the cup be painful, then a submissive faith can look beyond the trial to visualize the eternal ages of glory to follow—“after we have suffered a while.” When trials are viewed in this manner, the unseen realities beyond the veil are made tangible to the mind. In this manner “faith becomes an affirmation that sees eternal truth as present fact.”

     This full assurance of faith comprehends much! To really know the One whom we have believed is to have full confidence in Him at all times and under all circumstances. We need such a faith in our times of trial even though we may accept that these trials represent God’s chastening love. We need such faith in meditation too, so that we can appreciate His gracious provisions when we realize that we cannot attain the perfect ideals He sets before us as the true ideals of life. We know that God will hold His heavenly reward in reservation for those who truly love and who hold fast in faith, and press on in prayer, hope, and love, following after the Lord and the power of His resurrection. He can keep all that we have committed to Him. He knows the roughness of our experiences because He is leading us, step by step, through the pathway Himself. He will judge according to the trials we have endured and according to the weaknesses which we have faithfully striven against, and according to the unquenchable yearning we have had in our heart for His perfection.

     God understands! He knows our longing to empty ourselves into His Hand, letting Him mold our life into His will. He knows the thoughts which wander away from the heavenly things, drifting, flowing back into the track of mundane earthly life. He knows, too, of our desire to have every thought and act brought into subjection to His perfect mind. This is our joy, our rest, and peace. Since God understands us altogether, it is ours to believe that He accepts us in the Beloved One as we are. He loves us, thus, with a constant, everlasting love.

     On the strength of His promise we believe that He holds us in His own right Hand (Psa. 18:35). From that Hand no one may pluck us, neither will He let us go. It follows then, that the larger our vision of His grace becomes, the wider reaches to which our faith extends. The greater the measure of our love, then the deeper can be our gratitude, and the more blessed can be our comfort and joy in God’s understanding love. Every lesson learned through the obedience of faith will be another preparation for the happy hour of heaven’s unfolding illuminations by which all life’s mysterious ways will be made plain and all our present perplexities disappear. Faith will be lost in sight and prayer give place to praise.

     Though the eternal realities are only to be seen by the eye of faith, how full the power of that partial vision can become! Visions of glory to follow come in various ways. These become to us as beckoning hands, enabling us to endure as seeing Him who is invisible. They come to us like the voice of Jesus, saying, “…it is I, be not afraid,” even though we may be crushed amid the waves and the winds of life. Only believe! These assurances are for our strengthening. We find the words of our Lord evermore true: “My yoke is easy…my burden is light.”

     Before long we will look with full, clear vision through heaven’s cloudless, night less glories. The occasional fleeting glimpses of today will be gone. So 3 will be the overhanging clouds of life. If we will learn to let patience have her perfect work, we will find the tokens of God’s overruling work in all our life. The hope we have will grow ever more glorious. The cloudy intervals between the sunshine will become less frequent as our faith is strengthened. The days of heaven on earth will be a greater foretaste of that which is yet to be ours when we reach the end of the way. On our Father’s face there is an unfading smile… (and) we have assurance that He knows, loves and cares for us all the while we take delight in His will. He always understands.

J. J. Blackburn
© CDMI