Guess there HAS to be something good out of all this madness. It has ratcheted up again, and I'm holding on. Just the right time to get this gem from Charles Spurgeon in my email box courtesy of Heartlight (it's public domain so you can go download it yourself to your heart's content)...
"This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope."
-- Lamentations 3:21
"Memory is frequently the bond slave of despondency. Dispairing minds
call to remembrance every dark foreboding in the past, and dilate upon
every gloomy feature in the present; thus memory, clothed in sackcloth,
presents to the mind a cup of mingled gall and wormwood. There is,
however, no necessity for this. Wisdom can readily transform memory
into an angel of comfort. That same recollection which in its left hand
brings so many gloomy omens, may be trained to bear in its right a
wealth of hopeful signs. She need not wear a crown of iron, she may
encircle her brow with a fillet of gold, all spangled with stars. Thus
it was in Jeremiah's experience: in the previous verse memory had
brought him to deep humiliation of soul: "My soul hath them still in
remembrance, and is humbled in me;" and now this same memory restored
him to life and comfort. "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I
hope." Like a two-edged sword, his memory first killed his pride with
one edge, and then slew his despair with the other. As a general
principle, if we would exercise our memories more wisely, we might, in
our very darkest distress, strike a match which would instantaneously
kindle the lamp of comfort. There is no need for God to create a new
thing upon the earth in order to restore believers to joy; if they
would prayerfully rake the ashes of the past, they would find light for
the present; and if they would turn to the book of truth and the throne
of grace, their candle would soon shine as aforetime. Be it ours to
remember the lovingkindness of the Lord, and to rehearse his deeds of
grace. Let us open the volume of recollection which is so richly
illuminated with memorials of mercy, and we shall soon be happy. Thus
memory may be, as Coleridge calls it, "the bosom-spring of joy," and
when the Divine Comforter bends it to his service, it may be chief
among earthly comforters."
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing. That's beautiful.
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