Morning, March 8

Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings

"We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God."

  Acts 14:22

   God's people have their trials. It was never designed by God, when he
   chose his people, that they should be an untried people. They were
   chosen in the furnace of affliction; they were never chosen to worldly
   peace and earthly joy. Freedom from sickness and the pains of mortality
   was never promised them; but when their Lord drew up the charter of
   privileges, he included chastisements amongst the things to which they
   should inevitably be heirs. Trials are a part of our lot; they were
   predestinated for us in Christ's last legacy. So surely as the stars
   are fashioned by his hands, and their orbits fixed by him, so surely
   are our trials allotted to us: he has ordained their season and their
   place, their intensity and the effect they shall have upon us. Good men
   must never expect to escape troubles; if they do, they will be
   disappointed, for none of their predecessors have been without them.
   Mark the patience of Job; remember Abraham, for he had his trials, and
   by his faith under them, he became the "Father of the faithful." Note
   well the biographies of all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and
   martyrs, and you shall discover none of those whom God made vessels of
   mercy, who were not made to pass through the fire of affliction. It is
   ordained of old that the cross of trouble should be engraved on every
   vessel of mercy, as the royal mark whereby the King's vessels of honour
   are distinguished. But although tribulation is thus the path of God's
   children, they have the comfort of knowing that their Master has
   traversed it before them; they have his presence and sympathy to cheer
   them, his grace to support them, and his example to teach them how to
   endure; and when they reach "the kingdom," it will more than make
   amends for the "much tribulation" through which they passed to enter
   it.