Strength for the Day by John R. Macduff

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 6, 1874

Strength for the Day.

By John R. Macduff

“As thy days, so shall thy strength be,” Deut. 33:25.

Believer, hast thou not felt it so? Hast thou not found plants distilling balm growing beside sorrow’s path—succors and supports vouchsafed, which were undreamed of until the dreaded cloud had burst, and the day of trial had come? Trouble not thyself regarding an unknown and vailed future, but cast all thy cares on God. Our sandals are proof against the roughest path. He who is “the God of all grace,” is better than his word. He will be found equal to all the emergencies of his people, enough for each moment and each hour as they come.

He never takes us to the bitter Marah streams, but he reveals also the hidden branch. Paul was hurled down from the third heavens to endure the smarting of his “thorn,” but he rises like a giant from his fall, exulting in the sustaining grace of an “all-sufficient God.”

The beautiful peculiarity of this promise is, that God proportions his grace to the nature and the season of trial. He does not forestall or advance a supply of grace, but when the needed season and exigency comes, then the appropriate strength and support are imparted. He does not send the bow before the cloud, but when the cloud appears, the bow is seen in it! He gives sustaining grace for a trying day, and dying grace for a dying day.

Reader, do not morbidly brood on the future. Live on the promise! When the morrow comes with its trials, Jesus will come with the morrow, and with its trials too. Present grace is enough for present necessity. Trust God for the future. We honor him, not by anticipating trial, but by confiding in his faithfulness, and crediting his assurance, that no temptation will be sent greater than we are able to bear. Even if you should see fresh clouds returning after the rain, be ready to say, “I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” Insufficient you are of yourself for any trial, but “your sufficiency is of God.” The promise is not, “thy grace,” but “my grace is sufficient.” Oh! trust his all-sufficiency in all things. See written over every trying hour of the future, “So shall thy strength be!”—John R. Macduff.