| Aug.24.01: Light For The Day - "Nothing Impossible" -- Matthew 17:20 (RSV) "He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ’Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." -- Luke 1:37 (RSV) "For with God nothing will be impossible." ------------------- Your faith prospers when everything is against you. Your faith increases with every trial. No water is sweeter than that which springs in a desert oasis. No faith is so precious as that which lives and triumphs in adversity. Tested faith brings experience, and experience makes religion real. You will never know the bitterness of sin or the sweetness of pardon until you have felt both. You will never know your own weakness until you have been compelled to go through the rivers. You will never know God’s strength until He has supported you in deep waters. All the talk about religion that has not been personally experienced is just talk. If we have little experience, we cannot speak so positively as those whose experience has been deep and profound. Once in the early days of my ministry, I was preaching on God’s faithfulness in trials, and my venerable grandfather was sitting in the pulpit behind me. He suddenly stood up, came to the pulpit, and said, “My grandson can preach this as a matter of theory. But I can tell it to you from experience because I have done business on great waters. I have seen the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep” (Ps. 107:23–24). There is an accumulation of force in the testimony of one who has passed through great trials. Faith increases in firmness, assurance, and intensity when it is exercised with trials. Praise Him for your trials, and you will have more and more of God’s blessings until your faith will move mountains and nothing will be impossible -- C.H.Spurgeon ---------------------------- -- Mark 10:27 (RSV) "But Jesus looked at them and said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible." -- James 1:12 "Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him." |