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Our Daily Homily
By F.B. Meyer
3 September 2010
Isaiah 38:17
“Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.”
IT is as though from the pit’s mouth and onward there had been one long succession of loving thoughts and words. Or it may be that the love of God has loved us out of the pit of corruption. Let that pit of corruption stand for the evil of our own hearts, the abysmal depths of our selfishness, the lustings and fightings of our flesh. What could have saved us from all these, but the love of God?
The Patience of God’s love.— God’s patience has been greatly magnified in us, that He has borne with us so tenderly. If God had been less than infinite, He must long ago have renounced us in despair. Oh, the riches of His long-suffering! He has lingered near the pit of our corruption, drawing us from it with untiring solicitude, even when we have repeatedly cast ourselves back into it with ungrateful persistence.
The Sacrifices of God’s love.— How much He has borne and suffered! The cross, with its shame and spitting, seems to be but a revelation, in terms that we can understand, of the pain that lies always on His heart, and of the inestimable cost our sin involves. It is this Divine sorrow which purifies us, as we devoutly consider it.
The Purity of God’s love.— What a contrast between some fetid pool and the over-arching blue of heaven! Such is God’s love as contrasted with our hate; His sweetness with our chidings, His holiness with our corruption. But His love conquers our sin, and draws us out of the pit. Where sin abounds, His grace much more abounds, and makes us loving and lovely.
“Thou art the victor, Love!”
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Vol.
11 2010