You cry out against the heat that is foretold, dreading its stroke upon your frail frame. Yet consider this: there is no attribute more comforting to His children than the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty. He who ordains the sun’s flaming course holds likewise the bounds of your habitation and the measure of your days. Shall the high tree, confident in its greenness, escape the axe of judgment while the low and dry tree, by grace, is made to flourish? Walk through the earth and you will find some superior in vigour, others your inferiors, let the hand of God be traced in all. If He stays His rescue for a season, think: calamity itself bears marks of His displeasure against sin, and yet His interpositions, though not miraculous, are full of wonder. How many have health suddenly restored! His gentleness has often restrained the blow, and Divine love has raked a dunghill to find a diamond.
You plead the healing blood of Jesus and claim wholeness from head to toe. That is a blessed plea; His vicarious suffering is the Divine prescription for all our ills. Yet remember, His perfect will may sometimes dissolve our comforts to teach us dependence, as the eagle stirs its nest to make the young fly. What seems a feverish fetter may be His discipline, making you bless the hand that tears away earthly ease, seeing infinite affection in it all. His presence is the one hope, dissolving difficulties like glaciers in summer’s sun, and our humble expectation looks for open doors only as He, in His own time, says, “Let My people go.” The objects of Divine choice are often those whom the world deems unlikely, and mercy comes to the ungodly not through miracles we demand, but through the quiet, effectual call that draws out steel filings from the ash heap.
Lay hold upon this: Jesus still cries, “Come unto Me,” not you pleading with Him, but He with you. That voice, at once human and Divine, carries the pardon of sin and peace that passes understanding. Are you incensed against His delays? All who come will be ashamed of their former opposition when they see what Divine Grace has done. Your soul secure in His hands, all sin gone simply through believing, surely you shall feel the glory within, even if now you groan under threatened heat. The protecting blood covers you, not to exempt from trial, but to carry you through deep waters without drowning. As David in his folly scrabbled on the wall, yet Divine gentleness made him great, so your weakness shall be the platform for His strength. Plead fervently for the dew of heaven upon your dry tree; commit your body and this weekend’s concerns to Him who rides upon the heavens for your help. His Divine Spirit will display power over the most unlikely flesh, and you shall yet praise Him as the One who delivers your soul from death, your eyes from tears, and your feet from falling. Amen.