March 16

Independent of circumstances

“I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.  I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need” (Phil. 4:11-12).
 
The other word is in Way’s translation of Phil. 4:11, where he says, “I have learned in all things to be independent of circumstances.”  The last clause struck me forcibly.  God can bring us on and on to that place where we are independent of circumstances—they will neither change us nor cause us to fret, nor will we be unduly elated when they are good, nor downcast when they are bad—these are the very days to try this thing out.  Let us ask Him to make us just that— “independent of circumstances,” because so dependent on Him.—John Harrison.


 
When winds are raging o’er the upper ocean,
And billows wild contend with angry roar,
’Tis said, far down beneath the wild commotion,
That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore.
 
Far, far beneath, the noise of tempest dieth,
And silver waves chime ever peacefully;
And no rude storm, how fierce soe’er he flieth,
Disturbs the Sabbath of that deeper sea.
 
So, to the soul that knows Thy love, O Purest,
There is a temple peaceful evermore,
And all the babble of life’s angry voices
Dies hushed in stillness at its sacred door.
—Harriet Beecher Stowe.
 
Peace does not dwell in outward things, but within the soul.  We may preserve it in the midst of the bitterest pain, if our will remains firm and submissive. Peace in this life springs from acquiescence even in disagreeable things, not in an exemption from bearing them.—Fénelon.
Read full article...