I needed these beautiful, powerful little reminders today, and thought I would share them with you.
Emphases mine.
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and therefore it is better to rest on God than sink or fall;
and we weak souls must have a bottom and being place,
for we cannot stand out alone.
Let us then be wise in our choice and choose and wail our own blessedness,
which is to trust in the Lord.
Why should I start at the plough of my Lord, that makest deep furrows on my soul?
I know He is no idle husbandman, He purposeth a crop.
How sweet a thing were it for us to learn to make our burdens light
by framing our hearts to the burden, and making our Lord’s will a law.
It is not the sunny side of Christ that we must look to, and we must not forsake Him for want of that;
but must set our face against what may befall us,
in following on till He and we be through the briers and bushes on the dry ground.
Our soft nature would be borne through the troubles of this miserable life in Christ’s arms.
And it is His wisdom, who knoweth our mould, that His bairns go wet-shod and cold-footed to heaven.
My shallow and ebb thoughts are not the compass Christ saileth by.
I leave His ways to Himself, for they are far, far above me…
There are windings and to’s and fro’s in His ways, which blind bodies like us cannot see.
He taketh the bairns in His arms when they come to a deep water;
at least, when they lose ground, and are put to swim, then His hand is under their chin.