It is no secret that my life, especially as of late, has been the subject of many an attack of the Devil and his lackeys. I have felt the sting of public reproach, the rejection of so-called friends, and the despair that can set in when one’s life is taken stock of and the future may seem bleak. But I have also been blessed by the tribulations of this world; they are the fashioning hand of my gracious Lord who works out all things for good. Not simply good for everyone, but for those who A) love Him and B) are called according to His purpose. God be praised He has seen fit to pick me up and place me into both categories by His power.

I have also been the target of evil men. Men who feign love for truth but are, in fact, miniature anti-Christs, pawns of their father the Devil who is using them until such a time when this course of action has run it’s course, and he moves on and leaves them to die still enslaved to him. I do not hate my enemy, because I can see his miserable situation. But when I look at my family and home and those I love and realize he is working to destroy those things and those people, only by God’s power can I love this enemy of mine. It is a supernatural strength which loves when hate is the natural (and perhaps deserved) response of our hearts.

It is also at these moments I wonder why I’m still here. Wouldn’t it be just as easy for Christ to take me home? What am I doing here that He couldn’t do in the blink of an eye? C.H. Spurgeon was a man well acquainted with sorrow and pain and he penned the following graphs based around his understanding of Romans 14:8, which says, “We live unto the Lord.”

May his words bring you the comfort they brought me:

If God had willed it, each of us might have entered heaven at the moment of conversion. It was not absolutely necessary for our preparation for immortality that we should tarry here. It is possible for a man to be taken to heaven, and to be found meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light, though he has but just believed in Jesus. It is true that our sanctification is a long and continued process, and we shall not be perfected till we lay aside our bodies and enter within the veil; but nevertheless, had the Lord so willed it, he might have changed us from imperfection to perfection, and have taken us to heaven at once. Why then are we here? Would God keep his children out of paradise a single moment longer than was necessary? Why is the army of the living God still on the battle-field when one charge might give them the victory? Why are his children still wandering hither and thither through a maze, when a solitary word from his lips would bring them into the centre of their hopes in heaven?

The answer is-they are here that they may “live unto the Lord,” and may bring others to know his love. We remain on earth as sowers to scatter good seed; as ploughmen to break up the fallow ground; as heralds publishing salvation. We are here as the “salt of the earth,” to be a blessing to the world. We are here to glorify Christ in our daily life. We are here as workers for him, and as “workers together with him. ” Let us see that our life answereth its end. Let us live earnest, useful, holy lives, to “the praise of the glory of his grace. ” Meanwhile we long to be with him, and daily sing-

“My heart is with him on his throne,
And ill can brook delay;
Each moment listening for the voice,
‘Rise up, and come away.'”