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(Arthur Pink)
"I delight to do Your will, O my God!" Psalm 40:8
Faith endures the disappointments, the hardships, and the heart-aches of life--by recognizing that all comes from the hand of Him who is too wise to err--and too loving to be unkind.
There is no higher aspect of faith, than that which brings the heart to patiently submit unto whatever God sends us, to meekly acquiesce unto His sovereign will, to say, "Shall I not drink the cup of suffering which my Father has given me?" Faith when it reaches the pinnacle of attainment declares, "though He slays me, yet will I trust in Him!"
When we receive all that enters our lives as from God's hand, then, no matter what may be our circumstances or surroundings--whether in a hovel, a prison-dungeon, or a martyr's stake--we shall be enabled to say, "The lines have fallen unto me in pleasant place!" But that is the language of faith, not of sight or sense.
"Father, if You are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from Me. Yet I want Your will to be done, not Mine!" Luke 22:42
"It is a genuine evidence of true godliness when, although plunged into the deepest afflictions, we yet humbly submit ourselves to God. It is the height of piety to be submissive to the sovereign will of God." John Calvin
"It is not enough to bear the cross, but we must take it up, we must accommodate ourselves to it, and acquiesce in the will of God in it. Not, "this is an evil, and I must bear it, because I cannot help it;" but "this is an evil, and I will bear it, because it is the will of God." Matthew Henry
"Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition." Jeremy Burroughs
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