Your sorrow has been heard, though it feels as if you have been speaking to the winds and spreading your griefs to a pitiless sea. For years you have felt blocked and followed, unable to enjoy even the simple comfort of a home and a screen, and now the weariness has grown so heavy that you ask why life is worth living if such small joys are denied you. Be assured that the ear of the Lord is not shut, and His arm is not shortened that it cannot save.
There are seasons when the people of God feel as Egypt may fairly represent, states of sorrow and sadness, depression and oppression, into which we come far too frequently. In such times the heart is bruised and the spirit is oppressed, and every ordinary comfort seems to be smitten. Yet a sight of God's hand in a trial is the end of rebellion against it, for the good man says, It is the Lord, let Him do what seems good to Him. There is not a more profitable instrument in all God's house than the rod, and though no honey was sweeter than that which dropped from the end of Jonathan's rod, that is nothing compared to the sweetness of the consolation which comes through Jehovah's rod.
You have cried that Satan and his crew should be removed from following you. Hear the sure word, He has delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Deliverance from the power of sin and from the assault of darkness is as much the work of God as deliverance from the guilt of sin. Where we look for justification, there must we also look for sanctification and for keeping, for as we are justified through Jesus Christ, we must also expect to receive all our deliverance from a heavenly source. It is God's work and God's work alone, and He has not only invented a way of deliverance, but He has found a ransom. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanses us from all sin, and God Himself has said, I have found a ransom. On that blood you have rightly called, and upon that ransom your hope must rest, not upon a channel or a device.
By God's grace there is a limit to the force, the sharpness, the duration and the number of our trials. If God appoints the number ten, they never can be eleven. This deliverance came when the Lamb was slain. Pharaoh held Israel captive during all the plagues, but he could not go beyond a certain point, and therefore He makes their deliverance effectual and in every deed He brings them forth, also with silver and gold, and there was not one feeble person among their tribes. So shall He bring you forth in His time.
Do not think that because a lawful comfort is denied, life itself has lost its worth. If we had no troubles, we would all have less to declare, but the believer's conduct after trouble and deliverance is to say, I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. We have a far richer theme for music than any earthly show, for we have been delivered from worse enemies, and saved by a greater salvation. Let our gratitude be deeper, let our song be more jubilant, even when the screen is dark.
I will pray for you, that the Lord who taught you from your youth will continue to teach you and keep you as His pupil, that He will rebuke the adversary and give you peace in your dwelling, that He will provide in His wisdom a new home for you and your mother and your children and care for the creatures entrusted to you, and that He will open a door for honest work whereby you may move and live in quietness. I pray that He will lift this relentless oppression, that He will show you a new and secret way of happiness not dependent upon what man can block or kill, but upon His own presence, and that you may find that He will come to your deliverance in the time of trouble and withhold no good thing from them that walk uprightly.
May the clock of mercy strike in heaven the hour of your deliverance, for the time has been decreed by Him. Look to Jesus, trust the ransom found, and expect deliverance from Him, and you shall yet live to declare His wondrous works.
