July 16

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the way everlasting. — Ps 139:23-24 BSB

God’s people cannot take their religion on trust or credit; they cannot be satisfied with the approval of even a good man. They need their religion to be worked out by God himself. They are often troubled about the source of their faith. Do you not find this to be true, that it causes you many struggles? If you are feeling low, you may wonder whether your sorrow comes from a godly grief over sin. If you are comforted, you can’t simply take that comfort at face value; you need to weigh it in the balance of the gospel. When you experience providential deliverance, you don’t automatically take it as proof that everything is right with your soul. Every step you take, you feel the need to examine and weigh whether it is truly from God.

Dead professors and hypocrites in the church never examine their faith in this way. They know nothing of these inward struggles. They take things for granted, find security in the approval of a good man or minister, and are satisfied with that.

But God’s people need direct testimony from the Lord himself. They are often deeply troubled, wondering whether their faith will hold up in times of trial. Yet when, in response to their prayers, the Lord shines his light into their souls and gives them clear evidence that their faith is from heaven, it fills their hearts with gratitude. This experience makes the things of this world fade away and lifts their affections toward the heavenly source of their hope. What seems to be against them often ends up working for their good, and they find their greatest consolations in their heaviest afflictions. They would not trade their path of trials and suffering, with all its bitterness, for the smooth and easy way that many others seem to walk, knowing that a religion without trials and temptations will only lead to eternal destruction.

At times, they can see the good that springs from their trials and would rather be a tempted and tried people, bearing whatever God inflicts, than walk a path that seems right to men but ends in eternal death. They would rather endure the chastisements that prove they are God’s children than walk in a way that pleases the flesh but ends in eternal damnation.