Lifting the Load

What is to be done for this man? Is he to be left to perish on the battlefield? No! He may be forsaken of men, but God has not turned against him. The Holy Spirit is alongside (the word comforter means “one called alongside to help”) to cool the fevered brain, to calm the troubled breast, and to make the wounded spirit whole.

How weary he is, none but he and God really know; and how unspeakably gracious are the ministrations of the Most High at such a time! What infinite patience, what tender compassion, what amazing love! Not for a week, nor for a month, but for years will the Spirit of God brood over the darkness and chaos if haply He may again see the unsheathed sword brandished in the bruised hand, the flash of victory in the tear-red eye, and the foe impotent at the trembling feet! Hallelujah! It can be so. Though the soul may have descended to depths unspeakable while floundering and groping in the underworld of darkness, there can come a moment when the sky overhead is cleared, and he will see that God is well able to rescue him from his plight.

But what happened in this case? The greatest part of the battle was to get the man to will as well as to want to get free. We may want a thing without willing it. When that point was reached, then was real progress made, though at first it was slow. He said, “I will that God shall free me from this state, and I trust Him to do so.” That position was affirmed again and again, especially when the dawn of breaking day became obscured by angry clouds on an ever-changing sky. All the details cannot be given, but I know that the Spirit of God directed to things in his life that needed adjustment. The chief point, however, was that he refused to lose hope and kept his will set for deliverance. Slowly the sluice gates opened, and the waters of life again began to run into the dry-dock. What a work to have a hand with God in re-floating these broken but mended craft!

Are you in dry-dock? Have waters in which you once swam receded until you can scarcely see a trickle? Do not lose hope. God does not. Ask God for strength to reassert your will; set the rudder, count on God, and surely, if slowly, you will again sail on the waters of His ocean, as did he of whom I have written.