When You Must Believe to See

Sometimes we are left in the dark. Whether you are, or not, I know that I have been where I could not see sun, or moon, or stars, or even get so much as a look from my Master to cheer my sad heart, or a word from His mouth to make my spirit glad. At such times we must remember that ancient message, “Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.” If you cannot see, you must believe to see. And if your heart feels like a stone, still believe that Christ is your life. And if, instead of holy meditations, your soul is racked with blasphemous temptations and evil thoughts, still hold on to Jesus, sink or swim! If, instead of clear evidences of salvation, you are half afraid that the Lord has forsaken you, and given you up—and you fall into an unbelieving frame of mind—go again to the Fountain filled with blood, that this sin, like all others, may be washed away! Trust Christ all the more “when the enemy shall come in like a flood,” for then, “the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” Those must be strange Christians who never have any conflict raging within their souls. If that is true Christian experience, I wish I could get it—to be always at peace and at rest and never again have to wrestle with sins, doubts and fears! But, Beloved, if we cannot attain to that position—and I believe that the most of us cannot—let us still walk by faith, for, so we shall walk triumphantly even under the discouragements of our inward spiritual conflicts!

~C. H. Spurgeon