May 11 – Humble Submission to His Will

Hope for Today: A Daily Devotion from Reasons for Hope*Jesus

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“How long will You hide Your face from me?” Psalm 13:1

“‘For a mere moment I have forsaken you — but with great mercies, I will gather you. With a little wrath, I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness, I will have mercy on you,’ says the LORD, your Redeemer. For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.'” Isaiah 54:7-9

When the Lord is pleased to quicken us in our prayers with a lively impression of one or more promises, we are apt to think that the hour of His help is come. But afterward, it may be, He not only hides Himself for a great while again but things take such a strange and contrary course, as if all had been nothing, or as if nothing was more uncertain than the word of God; nay, even God himself. But Christians must then be prudently upon their guard, with the pleasing expectation that God is going to do some glorious things for them. For, if they first be more convinced of their utter unworthiness, and act with faith and patience, and be more earnest in prayer, they will afterward receive more abundant favor.

God, as a Sovereign, will give measures of consolation at such seasons and to such persons as He pleases. And the only right spirit of the believer is that of humble submission to His will.

Lord, give me the grace to acquiesce in Your wise, holy, and loving will, always, and in all places.

Devotion by Karl Heinrich von Bogatzky (1690—1774)