7th December
“But the God of all grace, who hath called us
unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
after that ye have suffered a while,
make you perfect, stablish,
strengthen, settle you.”
1 Peter 5:10
If “the God of all grace” has indeed “called you unto his eternal glory,”—if he has indeed touched your heart with his blessed finger,—remember you will have to walk, from beginning to end, in a path of suffering; for the whole path, more or less, is a path of tribulation. And, while walking in this path, and suffering from sin, Satan, the world, and the evil of your own heart, it is only to lead you up more unto “the God of all grace;” it is only that God may, in his own time, “make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, and settle you.” And when your soul has passed through these trials, you will see God’s hand in all, praise him for all, and will perceive how good it was for you to have been afflicted, and to have walked in this painful path; that having suffered with Christ Jesus, you might sit down with him in his eternal glory!
J. C. Philpot 1802-1869
