God is a thousand times more meticulous with us than even an artist is with his canvas. Using many brush strokes of sorrow, and circumstances of various colors, He paints us into the highest and best image He visualizes, if we will only receive His bitter gifts of myrrh in the right spirit.

Yet when our cup of sorrows is taken away and the lessons in it are suppressed or go unheeded, we do more damage to our soul than could ever be repaired. No human heart can imagine the incomparable love God expresses in His gift of myrrh. However, this great gift that our soul should receive is allowed to pass by us because of our sleepy indifference, and ultimately nothing comes of it.

Then, in our barrenness we come and complain, saying, “O Lord, I feel so dry, and there is so much darkness within me!” My advice to you, dear child, is to open your heart to the pain and suffering, and it will accomplish more good than being full of emotion and sincerity. TAULER

The cry of man’s anguish went up to God, “Lord, take away pain: The shadow that darkens the world You have made, The close, choking chain That strangles the heart, the burden that weighs On the wings that would soar, Lord, take away pain from the world You have made, That it love You the more.”

Then answered the Lord to the cry of His world: “Shall I take away pain, And with it the power of the soul to endure, Made strong by the strain? Shall I take away pity, that knits heart to heart And sacrifice high? Will you lose all your heroes that lift from the fire Wisdom toward the sky? Shall I take away love that redeems with a price And smiles at the loss? Can you spare from your lives that would climb unto Me The Christ on His cross?”

Nothing that is not part of God’s will is allowed to come into the life of someone who trusts and obeys Him. This truth should be enough to make our life one of ceaseless thanks giving and joy, because God’s will is the most hopeful, pleasant, and glorious thing in the world. It is the continuous working of His omnipotent power for our benefit, with nothing to prevent it, if we remain surrendered and believing.

Someone who was passing through the deep water of affliction wrote a friend:

Isn’t it glorious to know that no matter how unjust something may be, even when it seems to have come from Satan himself, by the time it reaches us it is God’s will for us and will ultimately work to our good?

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28). Think of what Christ said even as He was betrayed: “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (John 18:11).

We live fascinating lives if we are living in the center of God’s will. All the attacks that Satan hurls at us through the sins of others are not only powerless to harm us but are transformed into blessings along the way.

HANNAH WHITALL SMITH

In the center of the circle Of the will of God I stand: There can come no second causes, All must come from His dear hand. All is well! for it’s my Father Who my life has planned.

Shall I pass through waves of sorrow? Then I know it will be best; Though I cannot tell the reason, I can trust, and so am blest.

God is Love, and God is faithful. So in perfect Peace I rest.

With the shade and with the sunshine, With the joy and with the pain, Lord, I trust You! both are needed, Each Your wayward child to train, Earthly loss, if we will know it, Often means our heavenly gain.

I. G. W.

To “drink the cup” was a greater thing than calming the seas or raising the dead. The prophets and apostles could do amazing miracles, but they did not always do the will of God and thereby suffered as a result. Doing God’s will and thus experiencing suffering is still the highest form of faith, and the most glorious Christian achievement.

Having your brightest aspirations as a young person forever crushed; bearing burdens daily that are always difficult, and never seeing relief; finding yourself worn down by poverty while simply desiring to do good for others and provide a comfortable living for those you love; being shackled by an incurable physical disability; being completely alone, separated from all those you love, to face the trauma of life alone; yet in all these, still being able to say through such a difficult school of discipline, “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”—this is faith at its highest, and spiritual success at its crowning point.

Great faith is exhibited not so much in doing as in suffering. CHARLES PARKHURST

In order to have a sympathetic God, we must have a suffering Savior, for true sympathy comes from understanding another person’s hurt by suffering the same affliction. Therefore we cannot help others who suffer without paying a price ourselves, because afflictions are the cost we pay for our ability to sympathize. Those who wish to help others must first suffer. If we wish to rescue others, we must be willing to face the cross; experiencing the greatest happiness in life through ministering to others is impossible without drinking the cup Jesus drank and without submitting to the baptism He endured.

The most comforting of David’s psalms were squeezed from his life by suffering, and if Paul had not been given “a thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7 KJV), we would have missed much of the heartbeat of tenderness that resonates through so many of his letters.

If you have surrendered yourself to Christ, your present circumstances that seem to be pressing so hard against you are the perfect tool in the Father’s hand to chisel you into shape for eternity. So trust Him and never push away the instrument He is using, or you will miss the result of His work in your life.

Strange and difficult indeed We may find it, But the blessing that we need Is behind it. The school of suffering graduates exceptional scholars.

Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.

Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.

Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.

For I came down from heaven, not to do mine will, but the will of him that sent me.

The cup which my father hath given me, shall I not drink it?

The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,

Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth.