When we be in any dark condition, limit not God.
He is an independent worker. Question not how this may be and that may be. We must not bring God within the compass of our conceits and reasons. God is not as man; and therefore whatsoever our condition be, let us never limit God.
God’s people should never be better, the times were never worse.
Where we be bad, God is good. Times are bad, God is good. He can alter all. When there is no hope of escaping, no likely issue, God can make it good.
In the hardships, the exigencies of the soul, God takes occasion to shew the glory of his power, as Isa. 4:5, God, saith he, ‘created a pillar of fire, to go before the Israelites out of Egypt into Canaan.’ If we want any comfort in any condition, being in covenant with such a God, if we be his children, he can create light, and can make a pillar of fire to go before his people to bring them to Canaan.
See what the apostle saith, 2 Cor. 1:3, ‘He is the God of all consolations;’ not of this or that consolation, but the God of all consolations; that if we want he can work good out of the contrary, light out of darkness; he can draw matter of comfort out of discomfort; he can make every condition serve to his own ends; he can make ‘all things work together for the good of his children,’ Rom. 8:28.
The greater the power of this great God is, the greater is our comfort.
We serve a God that can ‘command light to shine out of darkness,’ and shall we despair in any condition whatsoever? He can give rest without sleep, and strength without meat. He cannot be limited. Therefore let us not limit him.
—Richard Sibbes
The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, 4:317.
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