“There may be real submission to the will of God while we can’t help wishing things were otherwise. God does not ask us to feel that everything is for the best, but He does ask us to believe it. “
– Andrew Bonar, Heavenly Springs
Heavenly Springs
Holding Fast The Doctrines of Grace
Thanks for dropping by to let me know your Heavenly Springs blog title was inspired by Mr. Bonar. A friend asked me why there was great revival in Dundee through McCheyne’s ministry and “business as usual” through Andrew Bonar’s. I told him that revival comes only by God’s grace and His good pleasure; and it has nothing to do with what we do or have done. The seeming “lack” of conversions through Bonar’s minsitry allowed him to write several memoirs, including McCheyne’s and Nettleton’s, giving the church since then, a blessed testimony of the awesome grace of God upon men He uses.
Thank you for the encouraging quote, dear sister.
Jon,
Thank you for the background. I had no idea & it’s very helpful.
Based upon what you just shared it seems clear to me that:
1. Bonar had ideas about serving God. God had others. Bonar probably knew, better than most saints, what a breaking of the will felt like.
2. Bonar’s blessings to the church were birthed in great sorrow and disappointment. (In-keeping with the post you shared today on the Cup of Wrath.)
3. God had Bonar’s sanctification in mind. While Bonar probably stirred inside to serve the Lord in various ways, God was interested in breaking a man for the purpose of holiness.
Much to think about…Thank you!
Your insights are absolutely correct, Christina.
I did it long ago, and it took some time to do it (plus I think my mind was a bit sharper then); but if you read the Memoir of McCheyne, compiled and edited by Bonar, and Bonar’s own memoir, compiled by his daughter, you can see some parallels and differences. Yet, what is most significant is the Holy Spirit’s echoing brokenness in both lives. God was merciful in bringing brokenness to both men, by His own means, and by very different ways in and through both men. God’s providence in one may not be the same providential blessing in another, yet the result is the same: conforming each into the image of Christ for God’s ultimate glory.
Many times we aren’t allowed to see why the difficult things are used by God to shape us. The rotten things feel ruinous and we can’t fathom how they could ever amount to anything worth while. We know that Job felt, not only, abandoned by God, but cursed. God didn’t let Job understand the conversation taking place in the heavenlies; God was not only, not angry with Job, He was bestowing praise for His wonderful creation to satan. In the midst of the horror, satan was permitted to inflict, Job couldn’t possibly understand, who could? Job just had to keep trusting.
That’s what I’ve learned that I must do…In the midst of the horror, just keep trusting that God is truly working all things for good. It’s not easy, it hurts like crazy, many times suicide seemed like a legitimate option, but God makes those who truly serve Him, broken bread and poured out wine. We are responsible for our obedience, not to hold a front of: “everything’s peachy” in the midst of the pain, in fact, that’s lying. Job cried out to God, he was honest and he was obedient.
Just think of how petrified and meddling we would be, if God explained everything He was going to allow and why He was allowing it. We are such a wonderful creation, however, our understanding of all things spiritual, is only as good as God allows us to grasp. He can’t trust many of His saints with His plans, because we would stick our meddling selves smack dab in the middle of somewhere we aren’t supposed to be.
Just be obedient, that’s all. Jesus went through so much for our reconciliation to God, we could surely take a few stripes to show our gratitude.
“…our understanding of all things spiritual, is only as good as God allows us to grasp.”
How true. I’ve been thinking lately about the fact that revelation is progressive, or gradual. As we walk in the light of the Truth that He gives us we must trust that He is in fact working out all things to the conformity of His will.
And, if we look to Job as the example, well, all we have to do is the read the last two chapters and listen to what he has to say about everything he went through!
Much love to you my dear sister!
Christina,
This is definitely one of those statements were less is more. Bonar’s words speak to us at many levels.
Obedience to Christ’s Word reigns supreme – ALWAYS.
This statement is naturally counter to all worldly thinking.
It is counter to most teaching in the modern evangelical church.
I’ve never read Heavenly Springs, but I MUST put it on my book list.
Thank you for sharing this!
With love,