The Christian's Privileged Position

Do not lose any measure of the comfort that is found in the sweet privilege that whatsoever is in God is mine. If I am in a perplexed condition, his wisdom is mine; if in great danger, his power is mine; if I be sighing under the burden of sin, his grace is mine; if in any want, his all-sufficiency is mine. 'My God,’ said Paul, ‘will supply all your wants' (Phil. 4:19). What is religion but a spiritual bond whereby the soul is tied to God as its own. 'Lord, you have made yourself to be mine, therefore show yourself and be exalted in your goodness and power, for my defence. I need wisdom to go in and out innocently before others, furnish me with your Spirit. You who are the God of all consolation, bestow it on me.' In time of desertion put Christ between God and your soul and learn to appeal to God in Christ. 'Lord, look upon my Saviour, your Son who is near you and near to me as my brother, and who now intercedes at your right hand for me.' When we are in any trouble, let us wait on him, and never let him go until he casts a gracious look upon us.
Further, when we can say, God is our God, it is more than if we could say, heaven is mine; or whatever good this world can give is mine. If God be ours, goodness itself is ours. If he be not ours, though we had all things else, yet before long nothing would be ours. What a wondrous comfort is this, that God has made it possible for him to be ours! A believing soul may say with greater confidence that God is his than he can say his house is his, his treasure is his, or his friends are his! Nothing is so much ours as God is ours, because by his being ours in covenant; and if God be once ours, well may we trust in him that he will always be. God and us, being united by grace, makes up the full comfort of a Christian.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
The Soul's Conflict with Itself, Works, vol. 1, pp. 271-72
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