Asthmatic Atlas on Nostr: “But someone may say, ‘I have reason to be discouraged, for I have no sense and ...
“But someone may say, ‘I have reason to be discouraged, for I have no sense and feeling of God’s love.’
We do not live by feeling, but by faith. It is the duty of a Christian to begin with faith, and so to rise up to feeling. You would begin with feeling, and so come down to faith; but you must begin with faith, and so rise up to feeling. And I pray tell me, is it not sufficient to be as our Master was? Did not Christ lack the sense of God’s love when he said, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46). Yea, had not Christ the sense of God’s anger upon him when he did perform the greatest act of obedience that ever the sun saw? Did he then say, ‘I am not the child of God, because I lack the sense of God’s love, because I am under the sense of God’s anger’? No, but with the same breath that he said he was forsaken, he said, “My God, my God”; and at the same time he called God Father, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). So may you do; though God has forsaken you, though you lack the sense of his love, yea, and are under the sense of God’s anger; yet at the same time you may say, ‘The Lord is my Father,’ and you may go to him as your Father. And if you can say, ‘God is my Father,’ have you any reason for your discouragements? Yet how often are God’s own people discouraged and cast down? Oh, you that are the disciples of Christ, labour more and more to follow your Master; and as David says here, so should you often say, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?”
Excerpt From:
A Lifting Up for the Downcast
William Bridge
We do not live by feeling, but by faith. It is the duty of a Christian to begin with faith, and so to rise up to feeling. You would begin with feeling, and so come down to faith; but you must begin with faith, and so rise up to feeling. And I pray tell me, is it not sufficient to be as our Master was? Did not Christ lack the sense of God’s love when he said, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46). Yea, had not Christ the sense of God’s anger upon him when he did perform the greatest act of obedience that ever the sun saw? Did he then say, ‘I am not the child of God, because I lack the sense of God’s love, because I am under the sense of God’s anger’? No, but with the same breath that he said he was forsaken, he said, “My God, my God”; and at the same time he called God Father, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). So may you do; though God has forsaken you, though you lack the sense of his love, yea, and are under the sense of God’s anger; yet at the same time you may say, ‘The Lord is my Father,’ and you may go to him as your Father. And if you can say, ‘God is my Father,’ have you any reason for your discouragements? Yet how often are God’s own people discouraged and cast down? Oh, you that are the disciples of Christ, labour more and more to follow your Master; and as David says here, so should you often say, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?”
Excerpt From:
A Lifting Up for the Downcast
William Bridge