[A devotional reflection originally prepared for the congregation of Horley Baptist Church during July 2024]
When Satan tempts me to despair or tells me of the guilt within …
As you look around on a Sunday morning and see all those super-saints worshipping God so confidently are you ever tempted to echo the words of a song rooted in a certain period in American history?
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen
Do you get that feeling of being left behind, that your lot has been cast onto a more stony path? Why is it that, when the Christian life is potentially so full of joy, we feel that others have it in rather more abundance than we do? Would it surprise you to know, as you envy those around you, that there may well be someone thinking the same about you.
Sooner or later there will be times when each one of us feels down, tempted to despair and wonder what is the purpose of it all. We might ask a question like that of Topol in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’: “Would it spoil some vast eternal plan, if I were a wealthy man?”
In our western high-turnover economies it is tempting to think that a bit more money would resolve our immediate problems and then we could give more time to spiritual matters. But would that really be a long-term solution? Experience shows that it rarely turns out like that.
It is ok to pray about your feelings and circumstances – not just ‘ok’ but those prayers are the next steps to a closer walk with God. In 1883 Robert Offord picked up on the words of that American song and used them as the basis for a hymn of encouragement:
Nobody knows the trouble I see, Nobody knows but Jesus,
Wonderful comfort is Christ to me, Nobody helps like Jesus.
Blacksmiths are not satisfied with their work until it has been through the fire, quenched and then tested. Without the heat the raw material cannot be made into something useful, without the quench the metal is still pliable and will not hold an edge whilst an implement that has not been tested has no credibility: it might perform as expected or it might not – we cannot trust it.
So it is with our spiritual life. There will be times of testing but the more that we experience God’s intervention and provision so the more we will be confident about trusting him. When we have our own experiences of trust rewarded then we too will be able to rejoice with those who share our faith. They too will be blessed by our experiences of answered prayers.
As for those feelings of despair, let us return to our opening couplet and complete the verse:
When Satan tempts me to despair, and tells me of the guilt within,
upward I look and see Him there, who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Saviour died, my sinful soul is counted free;
for God the Just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me.[1]
References:
[1] Before the Throne of God Above, Charitie Lees Smith, 1863
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Last week’s reflection: Does Peace Outweigh Truth?
Contributed by Steve Humphreys; © Steve Humphreys
Dear Steve, many thanks once again.
Thank you for your encouraging reflection.