"Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees" (Heb. 12:12).
There are still hands which hang down, there are still feeble knees. We have met those who have thus suffered. It may be we ourselves have been among them. Discouragement is a real "illness." It is not to be treated lightly, but those who have it are to be treated lovingly, for the family tie between children of God is a fact, and not a theory. Every discouraged believer is Satan's asset. False encouragement is not the remedy. Inflation is more serious in spiritual things than even in the business world, and equally a lie. But there is a remedy, and the Holy Spirit gives us a clear indication of our Heavenly Father's
will.
The tendency among the Hebrews was to be "wearied and faint" (Heb. 12:3):there is a blessed contrast in Isaiah 40:31. The inspired message was tender, yet withal firm, "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children" (lit., sons). "Forgotten;" ah, how often we too forget! God is not unkind in permitting that broken purpose, or that disappointed hope. The shut door is not a chance, nor it is because His love has faltered. It is all a precious part of His unchanging love. "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord"-that is one extreme:"Nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him"-that is the other. Both attitudes are wrong; the right condition is lowly and loving exercise of soul. The blessing is sure "unto them which are exercised thereby." Words beginning with the same letter will help our memories and our hearts. It is not for His pleasure, or in accord with an experiment that He chastens, but for our profit, and our partaking of His holiness. Look beyond the present to "the peaceable fruit," and make "straight paths." The road is not a cul-de-sac, but there shall be a rich encouragement to living faith.
Do not look down on those saints whose hands are hanging down. If you do thus grieve the Holy Spirit, you may be like to such tomorrow. We are all weaker than we think, and pride of our spiritual strength is deadly. Do not look down on the saints with feeble knees, but lift them up. Help them to realize that God has not forgotten. The forgetfulness is all on our side. If you have been comforted in any tribulation it is that you may be able to comfort others by the very comfort you have received (2 Cor. 1:4), for that comfort was Divine. Satan aims at hands hanging down, for we are bidden to lift them up in prayer (1 Tim. 2:8), and he seeks for feeble knees that we may be unable to kneel in prayer. If he can stab us in our prayer-life he has a victory:if he cannot gain the battle there, he is defeated. The devil dreads powerful prayer (James 4:7, 8). "Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray" (James 5:13). All the references to the whole armor in Ephesians 6:10-17 lead up to the holy climax, "Praying always."
The times are heavy (2 Tim. 3:1). After years of comparative ease when we have all become unused to the pilgrim life and losing all things for Christ, some dear children of God have been removed from their situations. And the economic situation awakens their alarm-unless they depend simply on God. The broader path would sometimes seem to remove the problem, and the enemy is not slow to set forth its advantages. But faith counts "the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt" (Heb. 11:26). Yet it is easier to sing about this in the meeting than to feel it when every door seems shut in one's face. It does not need much faith to sing in a meeting:it does need faith to "bear when alone," and rejoice. But God "giveth more grace," to meet more need. He knoweth our frame, and it is a joy to encourage ourselves, and one another, in the Lord our God. Empty the Bible of the trial of faith of God's people, and how many of its biographies will be largely gone, how much of its refreshing stimulus will be ruthlessly taken away? "Faith" is not an easy-chair doctrine, not the title of an academic thesis, it is a reality for today whatever today brings. For faith is not something of mine resting on something of man, but a precious reality of His, whereby I rest on HIM and His unbroken Word.
From "Thoughts from the Word of God."