Thankful Thursday

I find myself experiencing a bit of unexpected blues and need to work through it. It's like I'm scrambling on the edge of one of those pits of soul depth that hits sometimes when you just have to anchor your thinking in truth even when you feel really low.

Then one of my long-awaited books came in the mail today. This evening I began reading the first chapter of Soul Depths and Soul Heights by Octavius Winslow. I am so thankful I was encouraged to order it a while back and very thankful it came today. I was so encouraged to see that experiencing momentary ‘depths’ is not singular to me. It is not even something that I, as a Christian, should think I am alone in experiencing at times. But there is encouragement! After being careful to state that the experience he was about to discuss applied only to the believer in Christ, not the unregenerate, there followed a very encouraging passage. Allow me to quote what was very encouraging to me this evening:

“However profound these ‘depths’, they are not the depths of hell, draped with its mist of darkness, and lurid wrath, nor condemnation. Sink as the gracious soul may, it ever finds the Rock of Ages beneath, upon which faith firmly and securely stands. Whatever may be the depressions of the believer, it is important to keep in mind his real standing before God. From this no chequered spiritual history can move him. There is not an angel in heaven so divinely related, so beauteously attired, or who stands so near and is so dear to God, as the accepted believer in Christ, though earth is still his abode, and a body of sin his dwelling.

A practical lesson grows out of this truth. Let it be your aim to know your present standing as in the sight of God. Upon so vital a question not the shadow of a doubt should rest. ‘We believe and are sure.’ Faith brings assurance, and assurance is faith. The measure of our assured interest in Christ, will be the measure of our faith in Christ. This is the true definition of assurance, the nature of which is a question of much perplexity to sincere Christians. Assurance in not something audible, tangible, or visionary - a revelation to the mind, or a voice in the air. Assurance is believing. Faith is the cause, assurance is the effect. Assurance of personal salvation springs from looking to, and dealing only with Jesus. It comes not from believing that I am saved, but from believing that Christ is my Saviour. The object of my salvation is not my faith, but Christ. Faith is but the instrument by which I receive Christ as a sinner.” - Octavius Winslow in Soul Depths and Soul Heights

There is more, but that should whet the appetite, I think. I am thankful that no matter how far my soul may sink in momentary blues, it ever finds the Rock of Ages beneath, upon which faith firmly and securely stands. Hallelujah, what a Savior!