Tuesday 30 August 2011

Mistaking 'peace'...

“However, faith has its trials, as well as its answers.  It is not to be imagined that the man of faith, having pushed out from the shore of circumstances, finds it all smooth and easy sailing.  By no means.  Again and again, he is called to encounter rough sea and stormy skies; but it is all graciously designed to lead him into deeper and more matured experience of what God is to the heart that confides in Him.  Were the sky always without a cloud and the ocean without a ripple, the believer would not know so well that God with Whom he has to do; for alas, we know how prone that heart is to mistake the peace of circumstances for the peace of God.  When everything is going on smoothly and pleasantly—out property safe, our business prosperous, our children carrying themselves agreeably, our residence comfortable, our health excellent—everything in short, just to our mind, how apt we are to mistake the peace which reposes upon such circumstances for that peace which flows from the realized presence of Christ.”
C.H. Mackintosh

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