When Christians Find No Peace Within (4)

(7) We should therefore labour to bring our souls to a firm and peremptory resolution, and not remain wavering, as if it were equally balanced between God and other things. We must enforce our souls. We will get little ground over infidelity in no other way. Drive your souls to this issue, either to rely upon God, or else to yield up itself to the present grievance. If by yielding, it resolves to be miserable, there's an end, but if it desires rest, then let it resolve upon this only way, to trust in God. Well may the soul so resolve, because in God there are grounds of quieting the soul, above all that may unsettle it; in him there is for the soul both worth to satisfy, and strength to support. The best way to maintain inward peace is to settle and fix our thoughts upon that which will make us better, until we find our hearts warmed and wrought upon. Then, 'God will keep us in perfect peace' (Isa. 26:3). Come to this point once, trust God I ought, therefore, trust God I will, come what may. It is good to renew that resolution again and again: for every renewal brings the soul closer to God and brings fresh strength from him. If we neglect our resolution, our corruption, joining with outward hindrances, will carry us further backward, and this will multiply our trouble and grief. We have both wind and tide against us, we are going up hill, therefore, we need to arm ourselves with resolution. Since the fall, the motion of the soul upward is violent, because of our corruption which weighs it downward. If we resolve in God's power and not our own, and be ‘strong in the Lord' (Eph. 6:10), and not in ourselves, then it matters not what our troubles or temptations are either from within or without, for trust in God at length will triumph. 'Turn us again,' said the psalmist, 'cause your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved' (Psa. 80:19).

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
The Soul's Conflict with Itself, Works, vol. 1, pp. 201-02
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