We can learn a lot from a man's letters. Robert Murray M'Cheyne was a Preacher of the gospel who lived from May 1813 to March of 1843. Many of his letters were recorded and still prove to be a blessing today. "He being dead yet speaketh." The following letter was written to a sick friend.
Dear ......., I may not see you for a little while, as I am not
strong myself; and therefore I send you a line in answer to your letter. I like to hear from you, especially when God is revealing Himself to your soul. All His doings are wonderful. It is, indeed, amazing how He makes use of affliction to make us feel His love more. Your house is, I trust, in some measure like that house in Bethany of which it is said, "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus." One had more faith, and another more love, still Jesus loved them all. Martha was more inclined to be worldly than Mary, yet Jesus loved them both. It is a happy house when Jesus loves all that dwell in it. Surely it is next door to heaven.
The message of Martha and Mary to Christ (John 11:3) teaches you to carry all your temporal as well as your spiritual troubles to His feet. Leave them there. Is it not a wonderful grace in God to have given you peace in Christ before laying you down on your long sickbed? Do you feel Romans 5:3 to be true to your experience? You cannot love trouble for its own sake; bitter must always be bitter, and pain must always be pain. God knows you cannot love trouble. Yet for the blessings it brings, He can make you pray for it. Does trouble work patience in you? Does it lead you to cling closer to the Lord Jesus – to hide deeper in the Rock? Does it make you "be still and know that He is God?' Does it make you lie passive in His hand, and know no will but His? Thus does patience work experience – an experimental acquaintance with Jesus. Does it bring you a fuller taste of His sweetness, so that you know Whom you have believed? Ah, then you have got the improvemnet of trouble, if it has led you thus. Pray for me that I may get the good of all God's dealings with me. Lean all on Jesus.