God -- Sermons; Jesus Christ -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 20th century
Do you find your faith failing sometimes? It is one thing to trust God
when the wages are coming in regularly, and quite another thing to trust
Him when times are bad. It is just _then_ we learn to look less at our
faith and more at God's Faithfulness.
A minister once gave a little bit of his experience about this. He said,
"It is only as we really take God's promises and plant our feet upon them
that we shall find faith abiding in times of testing. The last penny may
be gone but GOD is there. I know this to be true.
"I have often said when preaching, 'It takes real faith in God to be able
to put your head into an empty flour barrel and sing the doxology.' My
wife had heard me say this, and one morning she called me to come into the
kitchen. I said, 'What do you want me for?' She replied, 'I want you to
come out here and sing.' I thought this queer, so I went to see what it
all meant.
"In the middle of the kitchen was an empty flour barrel that she had just
dusted out. 'Now, my dear,' she said, 'I have often heard you say one
could put his head into an empty flour barrel and sing, "Praise God from
Whom all blessings flow," if he believed what God says. Now here is your
chance, practise what you preach.'
"There was the empty flour barrel staring at me with open mouth, and my
purse was empty too. I looked for my faith, but could not find it; I
looked for a way of escape, but could not find one, for my wife blocked
the doorway with the dust brush covered with flour.
"I said, 'I will put my head in and sing on one condition.'
"'What's that?' asked my wife.
"'On condition that you will put your head in and sing too. You know you
promised to share all my joys and sorrows.'
"She consented, so we put our heads in and sang the doxology, and we told
our heavenly Father 'all about our need.' Yes, we had a good time, and
when we got our heads out we were a good bit powdered up, which we took as
a token that there was more flour to follow!
"Sure enough, though no one knew of our need, the next day a barrel of
flour was sent. Where it came from or who sent it we never knew, but our
heavenly Father knew that we had 'need of these things.'"
Does not this simple testimony teach us all a lesson? I wonder how many of
us can say from our hearts--
Those who trust do not worry;
Those who worry do not trust.
Which are you doing, dear friends? Trusting or worrying? Count on God. He
never fails, and He knows just what to do. The moment a difficulty comes,
look up and say "Father," and at once the burden will roll off, He will
undertake all for you.
I had an illustration of this one day when I was going across the Common.
It was very windy, and two little girls lost their hats; they were quite
at their wits' end, till they caught sight of their father in the
distance, and at once they called to him, "Father, father." That was
enough, in a minute he ran to help them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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