Devotions Archive Archive: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 Search Archive Print This Article Collapse Friday, April 1, 2011 Hosea 14:2-4 Thus says the Lord, "Return O Israel, to the Lord your God; you have collapsed through your guilt." Say to the Lord, "Assyria will not save us, nor shall we have horses to mount; we shall say no more 'Our God' to the work of our hands." About this last chapter of Hosea, Charles Spurgeon wrote: "No chapter in the Bible can be more rich in mercy than this, and yet no chapter in the Bible might, in the natural order of things, have been more terrible in judgment. Where we looked for the blackness of darkness, behold a noontide of light!" * Spurgeon spent his life (1834-1892) preaching (38 years, 10,000,000 listeners, up to 10 times a week all over England). But he suffered his whole life from depression and anxiety. And his wife was often too ill to hear him preach. Spurgeon was a compelling speaker at age 22. His congregation grew so large they had to rent the music hall in Surrey Gardens. While he was preaching, someone yelled "Fire!" The panicked crowd trampled seven to death. Spurgeon collapsed. Inconsolable. How could he ever forget? Like many before and after him, Spurgeon strove to let God transform him through his depression. His success was uneven, at best. Anti-depressant meds would have made his life much richer. On the other hand, his personal "collapse" did allow him to drop on his face before God. He could not idolize the work of his hands. Not when people were trampled, not while he was dying by depression and his wife just would not get healed. What his hands touched too often seemed to turn to dust. An older Spurgeon talked about this part of his life, putting on it the best construction: Depression has now become to me as a prophet in rough clothing, a John the Baptist heralding the nearer coming of my Lord's richer benison. So have far better men found it. The scouring of the vessel has fitted it for the Master's use. Glory be to God for the furnace, the hammer and the file. Heaven shall be all the fuller of bliss because we have been filled with anguish here below; and earth shall be better tilled because of our training in the school of adversity. Be content to be nothing, for that is what you are. When your own emptiness is painfully forced upon your consciousness, chide yourself that you ever dreamed of being full, except in the Lord. Any simpleton can follow the narrow path in the light: faith's rare wisdom enables us to march on in the dark with infallible accuracy, since she places her hand in that of her Great Guide. Between this and Heaven there may be rougher weather yet, but it is all provided for by our Covenant Head. ** Lord, you will turn even my agonies into joy, if I let you, if I retouch my definition of joy and let you show me your ways. Not mine. Yours. Not my path. Yours. Not even my thoughts. Especially not my thoughts. Yours. * http://www.thesermonscribe.com/2010/the-joyous-return-hosea-141-3/ ** http://www.epm.org/blog/2007/Sep/17/third-and-final-on-spurgeon-ministry-and-depressio "; Add      Edit    Delete