Desires Regarded # 2

Desires Regarded # 2

The Lord's Loving-kindness. "He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him." His Spirit kindled it, and His grace will fulfill it. This led the Psalmist to exclaim, "How excellent is your loving-kindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of your house; and You shall make them drink of the river of Your pleasures." Not only satisfied - but filled with pleasure - drinking, as the thirsty traveler, of the river of pleasure.

O the sweet satisfaction felt, the intense pleasure experienced, when the Spirit seals home a sense of our saving interest in Jesus, unfolds the glory of His person and work, sheds abroad His love in our hearts, and seals us to the day of redemption! He gives freely, without any inducement on our parts, as it is written, "He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away." There was nothing in the party but hunger, poverty, and helplessness - and the Lord filled the soul, satisfying it fully. "He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness."

Poor tired soul, the Lord will fulfill your desires, He may delay to do so for a time - but He will make good His word, and you shall rejoice in Him, and bless His name.

"He also will hear their cry, and will save them." Pray they cannot, according to their own apprehension - but cry they do, they must. As Peter, when sinking in the water, cried, "Lord, save me!" And the poor woman, overwhelmed with distress about her daughter, cried, "Lord, help me!"

So this poor soul cries, and cries often, and from the depths of the soul, "Lord, save me!" They cry - as the young ravens for food, or the young lions for prey. Their brief prayers are the language of the new nature - the cry of the regenerated soul.

They cry, because burdened with sin, and terrified with a sense of wrath.

They cry for deliverance from their fetters, and the bondage in which they are held.

They cry against temptations, especially temptations to sin and despair.

They cry because of enemies, especially the enemy which would condemn their souls.

They cry for help in troubles, and deliverance from sin and hell.

They cry for strength and direction, under a sense of weakness and perplexity.

They cry, and as the mother hears the infant, and flies to its relief; as the father hears his son, and runs to meet and forgive him, so the Lord hears the cry of a quickened soul, and saves it.

God-fearing souls are blessed. They hunger and thirst after righteousness, and they shall be filled. They want to be right, internally and externally, before God and before man, in state and in experience; for this they hunger and thirst - and with this they shall be blessed. They desire - for what God intends to bestow; they cry - for what God delights to give. He therefore will fulfill their desire, He also will hear their cry and will save them.

Is my reader, a poor, doubting, fearing soul? If so, let me say for your encouragement, that if you can trace out within your heart - a desire for Christ and His salvation, and if that desire is the abiding, ruling desire of your soul - it is a proof of the work of the Holy Spirit of God in your heart; it is the smoking flax which Jesus will never quench - but will raise it to aflame. If you have a cry put into your heart for deliverance from sin, satan, and hell - then God has put it there, and He who put it there, intends to answer it. It may be a feeble cry, a pitiful cry, a painful cry - but the Lord will hear and answer it. Cry on then as the woman of Canaan did - cry so much the more, as discouragements increase, as the poor blind man in the gospel did - and Jesus will soon hear you, and answer you to the joy and rejoicing of your soul.

God notices desires and looks. He hears the desires of the humble, and satisfies the desire of every living soul - that is, of every one made alive by the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, comfort the heart of the poor, depressed, and sorrowful soul, whose desire is toward You, and who longs to enjoy the salvation of God!

~James Smith~

(The End)