Trust in God

Edward Reynolds, 1648

A right judgment of God will help us to employ our faith in any condition. Wealthy men are apt to trust in their abundance, to stand upon their mountain, and to say, "I shall never be moved." But now in this estate, if a man conceives aright of God—that it is He who gives strength to be rich, and who gives strength to do us good—that He can blast the greatest estate with an imperceptible consumption, and in the midst of a man's sufficiency make him to be in straits, that He can embitter all with His sore displeasure, and not allow the flour nor the winepress to feed him. In great wisdom and deep counsels, if a man considers that "the counsel of the Lord shall stand," and that He can turn the wisdom of the world into foolishness, and catch the wise in their own craftiness; in great provisions of worldly strength and human combinations, if he considers that God can take off the wheels, dissipate the affections, melt the spirits, and waylay the enterprises of the largest hosts of men; that He can arm flies, and lice, and dust, and winds, and stars, and every small unexpected contingency against the strongest opposition—it must needs make him set his rest and hang his confidence and assurance upon a higher principle.

Again, in poverty and the most extreme straits which a man can be in, if he considers that God is a God of the valleys as well as of the hills; that He will be seen in the mount when His people are under the sword; that the Lord knows the days of the upright, and will satisfy them in the time of famine; that when the young lions famish for hunger (they which live not by the fruits on the earth, but by their prey; they which can feed on the dead bodies of those other creatures which a famine has devoured), yet even then He can provide abundantly for His own; that when things are marvelous unto us, then they are easy unto Him, that when they are impossible unto us, then they are possible with Him; that He can lead in a wilderness, and feed with all unknown and unsuspected bread; that when the light of the sun and moon shall fail, He can be an everlasting light and glory to His people; that as a Father so He pities, and as a heavenly Father so He knows, and can supply all our needs; that when we are without any wisdom to disappoint, or strength to withstand the confederacies of men, when they come with chariots of iron and walls of brass —even then the eyes of the Lord run too and fro to show Himself strong in the behalf of those who walk uprightly; that He can then order some Providence, produce some engine, discover some way to extricate—then will a man learn to be anxious or distracted in nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make his requests known unto Him who is at hand, and who cares for him.