Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

Written by: April J. Buchanan

The beauty and grace of God, known and felt, understood and embraced, are a comfort to the soul in every age and every stage of life. Yet such tenderness and compassion, such peace and comfort, are not known merely when we see that all is working well according to God’s kind providence. He rules and reigns no less over those seasons in which His providence feels like abandonment.

The soul cries, “O God, my God, where are You? Do You not see my troubles or hear my cries?” Yet, like the psalmist, it is called to remember the Lord and find comfort, not first in changing circumstances, but in who He is.

I can think of nothing sweeter, more wonderful, or more steadfast as a foundation and a comfort to the soul than the truth known and believed concerning the character of God. Nothing.

When all is well with our soul, and it seems God is working all things according to His wise and kind providence, while trials appear but distant memories, the heart rightly rejoices in His mercies and delights in His goodness. But when those sorrows become familiar once again, and a new day dawns with troubles of its own, known to God though unforeseen by His children, we often discover remaining weakness within ourselves. The soul sinks beneath the weight of fresh burdens. Yet it is then that truth proves itself an unshakable foundation.

The remembrance of the God who is ever faithful steadies the heart. No trial may touch our lives apart from His sovereign hand. If He has permitted it, then it is subject to Him. Though the soul may feel such heaviness that continuing seems more than it can bear, and though God may seem distant, only the foolish man makes his feelings the measure of reality. The saint has learned the folly of resting upon feelings, for his God is faithful.
Whatever God does is right and good. Whatever He permits, He governs. He hears the cries of His people. These truths remain true whether we feel them to be true or not.

O despairing soul, remember the Lord. Go to the psalms and hear the cries of the saints who poured out their hearts before God. Open the Holy Scriptures and behold His unwavering faithfulness throughout every generation. Remember the Lord.

And in your days of peace and blessing, do not take His mercies for granted. Do not imagine them to be your own earning. Tomorrow may dawn with troubles, yet your God remains sovereign still. He is worthy of your praise in the daylight as in the night, in the cold as in the warmth, in seasons of longing as in seasons of rejoicing, in days of want as in days of abundance.

Look to Him. He is your great reward. If you belong to Christ, He has redeemed your soul. He rules and reigns over all things. Call upon Him when you are confident He hears you, and call upon Him still when your soul is cast down and you cannot sense His nearness. Cast yourself upon His mercy even when you cannot feel His kindness, for He can do you no evil.

Look to Christ. When the new day finally dawns and the troubles have passed away, you will discover that He was faithful all along. Though you could not always perceive His hand, He was accomplishing in you something far greater than anything you endured.

Trust Him, dear one. He is faithful, and He is worthy.