Tried With Fire

Sometimes it's easy to be overwhelmed with sin and guilt. We get a glimpse of how rotten we are even as believers and despair that God could ever forgive and restore. On the one hand, we can treat sin too lightly and demean the incalculable cost of Christ's death. But conversely, sin can loom so large that what Christ has done doesn't seem to be enough. Either way we get it wrong because we're looking at ourselves and not at Him. All the more reason to believe what God has said about Himself and what He has promised to His children. Here are a few quotes from Williams Spurstowe regarding God's promises in times of sin and temptation What, then, is true humiliation? What is godly sorrow that leads to repentance (2 Cor. 7:10)? True sorrow for sin drives a sinner utterly out of himself. It stirs up a vehement thirst for Christ and a settled resolution to cleave wholly to Him as Lord, Savior, King, and Priest. Can you attest to such sorrow? Then believe it to be tru...

Praying the promises is the most important element in the right use of the promises. This is because, despite all our striving to believe and apply the promises of God, we sometimes still find ourselves "Troubled on every side; without [are] fightings, within [are] fears" (2 Cor. 7:5) and "pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we [despair] even of life," feeling that "we [have] the sentence of death in ourselves" (2 Cor. 1:8-9). Are we without hope? When we find ourselves in such straits, are we destined to be tossed on the waves of life's storms without the anchor of divine promises? Not at all. As distant and out of reach as the promises of God may seem to us in such straits, a mighty means of comfort is still available to us. That means is prayer. Even when everything seems to have failed and the very bottom of life seems to have fallen out, if we but cry out to God in prayer, even if we merely utter groans before the throne of G...