An average view of the Christian life is that it means deliverance from trouble. It is deliverance in trouble, which is very different.

"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High... there shall no evil befal thee" - no plague can come nigh the place where you are at one with God.

If you are a child of God, there certainly will be troubles to meet, but Jesus says do not be surprised when they come. "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world, there is nothing for you to fear." Men who before they were saved would scorn to talk about troubles, often become "fushionless" after being born again because they have a wrong idea of a saint.

God does not give us overcoming life: He gives us life as we overcome. The strain is the strength. If there is no strain, there is no strength. Are you asking God to give you life and liberty and joy? He cannot, unless you will accept the strain. Immediately you face the strain, you will get the strength. Overcome your own timidity and take the step, and God will give you to eat of the tree of life and you will get nourishment.

If you spend yourself out physically, you become exhausted; but spend yourself spiritually, and you get more strength. God never gives strength for tomorrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the minute. The temptation is to face difficulties from a common-sense standpoint. The saint is hilarious when he is crushed with difficulties because the thing is so ludicrously impossible to anyone but God.

There is a vast difference between pleasure and blessedness. Paul experienced imprisonment, pain, sacrifice, and suffering to their very limits, yet through it all he was blessed. All the beatitudes became real in his heart and life, in the midst of his difficult circumstances.

Paganini, the great Italian violinist, once stepped onstage only to discover there was something wrong with his violin, just as the audience was ending their applause. He looked at the instrument for a moment and suddenly realized it was not his best and most valuable one. In fact, the violin was not his at all. Momentarily he felt paralyzed, but he quickly turned to his audience, telling them there had been some mistake and he did not have his own violin. He stepped back behind the curtain, thinking he must have left it backstage, but discovered that someone had stolen his and left the inferior one in its place.

After remaining behind the curtain for a moment, Paganini stepped onstage again to speak to the audience. He said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I will now demonstrate to you that the music is not in the instrument but in the soul.” Then he played as never before, and beautiful music flowed from that inferior instrument until the audience was so enraptured that their enthusiastic applause nearly lifted the ceiling of the concert hall. He had indeed revealed to them that the music was not in his instrument but in his own soul!

Dear tested and tried believer, it is your mission to walk onto the stage of this world in order to reveal to all of heaven and earth that the music of life lies not in your circumstances or external things but in your own soul.

If peace be in your heart, The wildest winter storm is full of solemn beauty, The midnight flash but shows your path of duty, Each living creature tells some new and joyous story, The very trees and stones all catch a ray of glory, If peace be in your heart.

CHARLES FRANCIS RICHARDSON

We read in 2 Samuel 5:17, “When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, they went up in full force to search for him.”

The moment we receive anything from the Lord worth fighting for, the Devil comes seeking to destroy us.

When the Enemy confronts us at the threshold of any great work for God, we should accept it as evidence of our salvation, and claim double the blessing, victory, and power. Power is developed through resistance.

The force and the amount of damage created by an exploding artillery shell appear to be greater because of the resistance at the point of impact.

A power plant produces additional electricity by using the friction of the rotating turbines.

And one day, we too will understand that even Satan has been used as one of God’s instruments of blessing.

DAYS OF HEAVEN UPON EARTH

A hero is not fed on sweets, Daily his own heart he eats; Chambers of the great are jails, And head winds right for royal sails. RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Tribulation is the door to triumph. The valley leads to the open highway, and tribulation’s imprint is on every great accomplishment.

Crowns are cast in crucibles, and the chains of character found at the feet of God are forged in earthly flames.

No one wins the greatest victory until he has walked the winepress of woe.

With deep furrows of anguish on His brow, the “man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3 NASB) said, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33).

But immediately comes the psalm of promise, “Take heart! I have overcome the world.”

The footprints are visible everywhere. The steps that lead to thrones are stained with spattered blood, and scars are the price for scepters.

We will wrestle our crowns from the giants we conquer.

It is no secret that grief has always fallen to people of greatness.

The mark of rank in nature Is capacity for pain; And the anguish of the singer Makes the sweetest of the strain.

Tribulation has always marked the trail of the true reformer.

It was true in the story of Paul, Luther, Savonarola, Knox, Wesley, and the rest of God’s mighty army.

They came through great tribulation to their point of power.

Every great book has been written with the author’s blood.

“These are they who have come out of the great tribulation” (Revelation 7:14).

In spite of his blindness, wasn’t Homer the unparalleled poet of the Greeks?

And who wrote the timeless dream of Pilgrim’s Progress?

Was it a prince in royal robes seated on a couch of comfort and ease?

No! The lingering splendor of John Bunyan’s vision gilded the dingy walls of an old English jail in Bedford, while he, a princely prisoner and a glorious genius, made a faithful transcript of the scene.

Great is the easy conqueror; Yet the one who is wounded sore, Breathless, all covered o’er with blood and sweat, Sinks fainting, but fighting evermore— Is greater yet.

Jesus said, “Ye shall have tribu lation” (v. 33 KJV)—not difficulties, but tribulation. But “tribulation worketh patience” (Romans 5:3 KJV).

Millstones are used to grind the corn to powder , and they typify the sacredness of the discipline of life.

“No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man’ s life to pledge” (Deuteronomy 24:6 KJV).

You have been having a snug time in the granary; then God brings you out and puts you under the mills tones, and the first thing that happens is the grinding separat ion of which our Lord spoke: “Blessed are you when people . . . exclude you and . . . reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man” (Luke 6:22). Crushed forever is any resemblance to the other crowd.

Hands off! when God is putting His saints through the experience of the millstones. We are apt to want to interfere in the discipline of another saint.

Do not hinder the production of the bread that is to feed the world!

In the East the women sing as they grind the corn betw een the millstones. “The sound of the millstones is music in the ears of God.” It is not music to the worldling, but the saint understands that His Father has a purpose in it all.

Ill-tempered persons, hard circumstances, poverty , willful misunderstandings, and estrangements are all millstones. Had Jesus any of these things in His life? Had He not! He had a devil in His company for three years! He was continua lly thwarted and misundersto od by the Pharisees. And is the disciple above his Master?

When these experiences come, remember that God has His eye on every detail.

But beware! lest the tiniest elem ent of self-pity keeps God from putting us anywhere near the millstones. O SWALD CHAMBERS

My Lord's words are true as to the tribulation. I have my share of it beyond all doubt. The flail is not hung up out of the way, nor can I hope that it will be laid aside so long as I lie upon the threshing floor, How can I look to be at home in the enemy's country, joyful while in exile, or comfortable in a wilderness? This is not my rest. This is the place of the furnace, and the forge, and the hammer. My experience tallies with my Lord's words.

I note how He bids me "be of good cheer." Alas! I am far too apt to be downcast. My spirit soon sinks when I am sorely tried. But I must not give way to this feeling. When my Lord bids me cheer up I must not dare to be cast down.

What is the argument which He uses to encourage me? Why, it is His own victory. He says, "I have overcome the world." His battle was much more severe than mine. I have not yet resisted unto blood. Why do I despair of overcoming? See, my soul, the enemy has been once overcome. I fight with a beaten foe. O world, Jesus has already vanquished thee; and in me, by His grace, He will overcome thee again. Therefore am I of good cheer and sing unto my conquering Lord.

It is the Lord : let him do what seemeth him good.—Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge.—The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord .—What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?

Jesus wept.—A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.

Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.—Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.—In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.

In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.

Your life is hid with Christ in God.

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting the Lord.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.

In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

In the world ye shall have tribulation.

Because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

I looked for some to take pity, but there was none.

At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me.

The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

Here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.—Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

The God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.—In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.

Jesus of Nazareth . . . went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness.

He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass; as showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.—Glory to God . . . on earth peace, good will toward men.

Through the tender mercy of our God; . . . the dayspring from on high hath visited us.

To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace;—peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all).

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.—Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you.—The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

In the world ye shall have tribulation.—The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.—We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

The world passeth away, and the lust thereof.—Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches. and knoweth not who shall gather them.

What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

Martha, Martha, thou are careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.—I would have you without carefulness.

These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.—The Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means.—The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

No man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.

For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation.

In me ye . . . have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

The night is far spent, the day is at hand.

He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.

He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces.

There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.

Wherefore comfort one another with these words.