April 17

“Do not your doubts come trooping to your door like a company of sympathizing friends who appreciate your hard case and have come to console you?  Is it no luxury to sit down with them, entertain them, listen to their arguments, and join in with their condolences?”  Hannah Whitall Smith, God is Enough, 4/17

Hannah is making the point that we encourage our doubts rather than shutting the door to them.  She says it produces “an interesting sort of wretchedness that you cannot easily give up.”  Then she really nails me when she says, “Things have gone wrong with you in your experience.”  It was then I realized how subtle my doubts are.  I don’t rail against God or accuse Him of being unloving.  Instead I’m “just” discontented.  I’m getting a picture of myself lying on a chaise lounge with the back of my hand to my forehead bemoaning “woe is me” with one eye open to see if God is feeling guilty yet.  I’m seeing God in Heaven looking down with a chuckle at just how overly dramatic his little children can be, yet reaching down and patting us on the head with a “there, there....you’ll see....my will for you is perfect.”  God’s patience is beyond me!  But He has also warned us that the time will come when it will be too late to repent.  Let us heed this warning!

“For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.”  Hebrews 12:17