Afterward—Hebrews 12:11
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Greetings, and welcome to Meditation Moments. God bless you and make you a blessing.
Recently when speaking in the little town of Ontario a couple of weeks ago, I was asked to pray for a young woman who was just graduating from the university. On her way to the very last time that she would be in the school there, and she was to deliver the baccalaureate, there was a car crash, an automobile crash and such an awful accident. She was paralyzed from the neck down, and unconscious. She has not yet gained consciousness, although it does seem there’s a little evidence of God hearing our prayers for her. And that mother said, “I’ve cried from the depths of my heart, and I just don’t understand.”
I thought perhaps this would help some of you, I want to read you something that Mrs. Cowman wrote. You know, Mrs. Cowman was the one who wrote Streams in the Desert. That was one of the best sellers of her very well-known books, and it’s gone all over the world and sold some million copies.
She said one time that she just felt seemingly forsaken of God. It was as if she was walking through a desert waste, but comfort and healing reached her own broken heart through hearing of a vision that was given to a friend, to whom God had spoken in her hour of deepest need. And she goes on to say this:
“I want to share with you this that happened to my friend. She had been praying for friends in trouble, when the Lord said to her, ‘Come with Me. I wish to show you something. I have been setting aside the reward for faithful service to Me.’ So she drew near to Him and saw that He had before Him one special prize. There were no words adequate to describe its dazzling beauty. He called it ‘a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory’ (2 Corinthians 4:17). And as He looked upon it with such satisfaction, He said, ‘This is one of My best gifts, one of My rarest. It can only be bestowed upon one who has been sorely tested. This is for you. I prepared it especially for you. But you are not prepared for it, and you must not see it as it is, never fully on earth, perhaps not even a glimpse of it. In this will lie the severest part of your testing, the greatest part of your preparation. I must disguise the glory that’s in store that you may learn to walk by faith and not by sight; to serve for love only, and not for reward.’
“Then he took a piece of plain coarse sacking and in it He carefully wrapped the treasure, tying it securely with a thick, strong cord. So many, so tight, and so intricate were the knots that no human ingenuity could ever succeed in untying them. Then He said, ‘Take it up.’ It was so heavy, I could only lay it down with a sigh. She said, ‘Surely this burden is greater than I can bear.’ His answer was, ‘I have carefully tested its weight, and My grace is sufficient, and My strength is made perfect in weakness’ (2 Corinthians 12:9).
“Then He called me by my name, and I came to Him, and He said, ‘I have a work I want you to do for me. Are you ready?’ And I said, ‘Oh yes! I’ve been longing for some special service, and shall be so glad, Lord. What can I do?’ And then I watched as He put this burden upon her. Utterly unattractive in its plainness and ugliness, He handed it to my friend, and said in a tone of infinite tenderness, ‘This is My love gift to you, My special love test. There are only a few that I can trust with it. I want you to carry it everywhere you go for My sake, and when I call you to bring it to Me, we’ll open it together. Then you’ll see what I have prepared for one who trusted Me. Till then you must not lay it down. Will you do this for Me?’ She answered, ’Yes.’
“She took up the burden with difficulty. ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘I thought He was going to let me work for Him, but it’s all burden. How can I go on day after day dragging this weight with me, how long?’ And He said, ‘Fear not; I am with thee. I will help thee, I’ll deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.’
“Then the final day came, the day of explanation about this heavy burden she was carrying. I saw my friend bring her burden and lay it before the Lord with such a look of relief—the burden-bearing days were over. He took the burden from her and as I watched, I saw that with one touch of His hand, all the knots were untied and the wrappings fell off, and the riches of glory prepared for her stood all revealed before her astonished gaze.
“I heard the Lord say, ‘This is your eternal portion which I had prepared for you. My gift to you in appreciation for what you have been and done and suffered for Me.’ There was a delightful amazement on her face. I saw tears in her eyes. She fell at His feet and said, ‘Oh Lord, forgive me that I have misunderstood that burden. If I had only trusted Thee, and not doubted and questioned. If I’d only believed that it was all glory, if I could only have seen.
“‘But I saw only the ugly wrappings and the knotty cord. I couldn’t see beyond. It was such a heavy weight, and I was not able to count it joy. I fretted over it. I did not trust. I did not walk by faith, because I could not see. I could not understand why You put such a heavy burden upon me.’
“I saw that He wiped the tears from her face. Then He made her sit beside Him with the glory full in view, for all worlds even to see, and I heard her say, ‘Is this the outcome of all those days of faith without any sight?’ And He replied softly, ‘The trial of thy faith has been much more precious than gold which perisheth, though it has been tried by fire’” (1 Peter 1:7).
May it be that way with you and your burden, that “afterward it worketh the peaceable fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:11). God bless you. Amen.