Praise Him

I checked out a new Bible study at my church this week and my pastor's wife was talking about praising God in pain. She had spent other trials resisting pain and praying it away, and though she did learn some valuable lessons, it was nothing compared to 10 years later. She was struck with physical pain, once again, that left her bed ridden and this time she praised God in response to her pain and was transformed in the process. Then I came across this today:

“Why yield to gloomy anticipations? Who told you that the night would never end in day?.... Who told you that the winter of your discontent would proceed from frost to frost, from snow and ice and hail to deeper snow and yet more heavy tempest of despair? Don’t you know that day follows night, that flood comes after ebb, that spring and summer succeed winter? Be full of hope! Hope forever! For God does not fail you. Do you know that God loves you in the midst of all this?.... You will yet, midst the splendors of eternity, forget the trials of time, or only remember them to bless the God who led you through them and works your lasting good by them. Come, sing in the midst of tribulation. Rejoice even while passing through the furnace. Cause the desert to ring with your exulting joys, for these light afflictions will soon be over, and then forever with the Lord, your bliss shall never wane.”

~Charles Spurgeon, Morning & Evening revised and edited by Alistair Begg, July 21, evening.