August 30

Morning

Wait on the Lord. — Ps 27:14

It may seem an easy thing to wait but it is one of the postures which a Christian soldier cannot learn, without years of teaching. Marching and fighting are much easier to God’s warriors—than standing still. There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not which part to take. Then what shall it do? Vex itself by despair? Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption? No but simply WAIT.

Wait in prayer, however. Call upon God, and spread the case before Him; tell Him your difficulty, and plead His promise of aid. In dilemmas between one duty and another, it is sweet to be humble as a child, and wait with simplicity of soul upon the Lord. It is sure to be well with us—when we feel and know our own folly, and are heartily willing to be guided by the will of God.

But wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in Him; for unfaithful, untrusting waiting, is but an insult to the Lord. Believe that if He keeps you tarrying even until midnight—yet He will come at the right time; the vision shall come and shall not tarry.

Wait in quiet patience, not rebelling because you are under the affliction but blessing your God for it. Never murmur against the second cause, as the children of Israel did against Moses; never wish you could go back to the world again but accept the case as it is, and put it as it stands, simply and with your whole heart, without any self-will, into the hand of your covenant God, saying, “Now, Lord, not my will but Yours be done. I know not what to do; I am brought to extremities but I will wait until You shall cleave the floods, or drive back my foes. I will wait, if You delay many a day—for my heart is fixed upon You alone, O God, and my spirit waits for You in the full conviction that You will yet be my joy and my salvation, my refuge and my strong tower!”

Evening

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. — Jer 17:14

I have seen his ways, and will heal him. — Isa 57:18

“I have seen His ways and I will heal him.” Isaiah 57:18

It is the sole prerogative of God to remove spiritual disease. Natural disease may be instrumentally healed by men but even then the honor is to be given to God who gives virtue unto medicine, and bestows power unto the human frame to cast off disease.

As for spiritual sicknesses, these remain with the great Physician alone; He claims it as His prerogative, “I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal.” One of the Lord’s choice titles is Jehovah-Rophi, the Lord that heals you.

“I will heal you of your wounds,” is a promise which could not come from the lip of man but only from the mouth of the eternal God. On this account the psalmist cried unto the Lord, “O Lord, heal me—for my bones are sorely vexed,” and again, “Heal my soul—for I have sinned against you.”

For this, also, the godly praise the name of the Lord, saying, “He heals all our diseases!” He alone who made man—can restore man! He who was at first the creator of our nature—can new create it. What a transcendent comfort it is—that in the person of Jesus “dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily!” My soul, whatever your disease may be, this great Physician can heal you! If He is God, there can be no limit to His power. Come then with the blind eye of darkened understanding, come with the limping foot of wasted energy, come with the maimed hand of weak faith, come with the fever of an angry temper, or with the plague of shivering despondency, come just as you are, for He who is God can certainly restore you of your plague!

None shall restrain the healing virtue which proceeds from Jesus our Lord. Legions of devils have been made to own the power of the beloved Physician, and never once has He been baffled! All His patients have been cured in the past and shall be in the future, and you shall be one among them, my friend, if you will but rest yourself in Him this night!