Exercising Faith by Clinging to the Word

Excerpt from Streams from the Desert, George Mueller

Psalm 119:42 - ...I trust in your word.

Just in proportion in which we believe that God will do just what He has said, is our faith strong or weak? Faith has nothing to do with feelings, or with impressions, with improbabilities, or with outward appearances. If we desire to couple them with faith, then we are no longer resting on the Word of God because faith needs nothing of the kind. Faith rests on the Word of God. When we take Him at His Word the heart is at peace.

God delights to exercise faith, first for blessing in our own souls, then for blessing in the church at large, and also for those without. But this exercise we shrink from instead of welcoming. When trials come, we should say: "My heavenly Father puts this cup of trial into my hands, that I may have something sweet after wards."

Trials are the food of faith. Oh, let us leave ourselves in the hands of our heavenly Father! It is the joy of His heart to do good to all His children.

But trials and difficulties are not the only means by which faith is exercised and thereby increased. There is the reading of the Scriptures, that we may acquaint ourselves with God as He has revealed Himself in His Word.

Are you able to say, from the acquaintance you have made with God, that He is a lovely Being? If not, let me affectionately entreat you to ask God to bring you to this, that you may admire His gentleness and kindness, that you may be able to say how good He is, and what a delight it is to the heart of God to do good to His children.

Now the nearer we come to this in our inmost souls, the more ready we are to leave ourselves in His hands, satisfied with all His dealings with us. And when trials come, we shall say: "I will wait and see what good God will do to me by it, assured He will do it." So that we will bear an honorable testimony before the world and we will strengthen the hands of others.


A passage of Scripture I read this morning that ties to the above excerpt:

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca, (which means weeping)
they will make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose walk is blameless.

O Lord Almighty,
blessed is the man who trusts in you.

-Psalm 84:5-6 & 11-12