GOD-DESERTION
Sometimes the
clearest evidence that God has not deserted you is not that you are
successfully past your trial but that you are still on your feet in the middle
of it.
1 Samuel, Focus, 1988, p. 200. Used by
Permission.
I know that,
as night and shadows are good for flowers, and moonlight and dews are better
than a continual sun, so is Christ’s absence of special use, and that it hath
some nourishing virtue in it, and giveth sap to
humility, and putteth an edge on hunger, and funisheth a fairfield to faith to
put forth itself, and to exercise its fingers in gripping it seeth not what.
Samuel Rutherford
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 74.
Did God
really forsake Jesus Christ upon the cross?
Then from the desertion of Christ singular consolation springs up to the
people of God… (1) Christ’s desertion is
preventive of your final desertion.
Because He was forsaken for a time you shall not be forsaken
forever. For He was
forsaken for you… (2)…Though God deserted Christ, yet at the same time
He powerfully supported Him. His
omnipotent arms were under Him, though His pleased face was hid from Him. He had not indeed His smiles, but He had His supportations. So
Christian, just so shall it be with thee.
Thy God may turn away His face, He will not
pluck away His arm.
John Flavel
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 75.
God being a
Father, if He hide His face from His child, it is in
love. Desertion is sad in itself, a
short hell (Job 6:9). When the light is
withdrawn, dew falls. Yet we may see a
rainbow in the cloud, the love of a Father in all this.
Thomas Watson
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 74.
I have never
met a man so religious and devout that he has not experienced at some time a
withdrawal of grace and felt a lessening of fervor.
Thomas a Kempis
Why does the
Lord Christ sometimes hide Himself and His glory from the faith of believers?
There are many reasons but I will mention only one. He does it to stir us up to
search for Him with all our heart. Our wretched laziness so often makes us
neglect meditation on heavenly things. But Christ is patient with us. He knows
that those who have seen something of His glory, although they have not valued
it as they ought, cannot bear His absence for long.
John Owen
Meditation on the Glory of Christ, 1684, ch. 13.
Do I learn
through dark providences, or simply seem relieved when they are over?
Sinclair B. Ferguson
Healthy Christian Growth, by Permission of the Banner of
Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. 1991, p. 25.
When God
seems absent from us He is often doing His most important work in us.
Author Unknown
When clouds
of darkness, atheism, and unbelief come to me, I see Thy purpose of love in
withdrawing the Spirit that I might prize Him more, in chastening me for my
confidence in past successes, that my wound of secret godlessness might be
cured.
Author Unknown
The Valley of Vision, ed. Arthur
Bennett, 1975, p. 79, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.