I loved the 30 days I spent in this book. Chang has collated readings from Spurgeon that speak about the reality of hardship and suffering in this life and the comfort we receive from Christ. The thoughtful order takes you on a journey that begins with how much Christ loves us, through honest theology and encouragement from God’s word, and ends with focusing one’s hope on the resurrection to come.
I have little more to say. Spurgeon’s words speak so powerfully that I need not add to them. Below is a selection for your encouragement (I could have included so many more!):
Day 1 - The Unchanging Christ
“Beloved, you conceive how much Christ will love you when you are in heaven? Have you ever tried to fathom that bottomless sea of affection in which you shall swim, when you shall bathe yourself in seas of heavenly rest?”… Well, pause and remember, that he loves you at this hour as much as he will love you then; for he will be the same forever as he is today, and he is the same today as he will be forever.”Day 9 - Job’s Regret and Our Own
“… it is wrong to compare the early zeal of the young Christian with the mature and mellow experience of the older believer, and make preferences. Each is beautiful according to its time. You, dear young friend, with your intense zeal, are to be commended and imitated; but very much of your fire I am afraid arises from novelty, and you are not so strong as you are earnest; like a newborn river, you are swift in current, but neither deep nor broad. And you, my more advanced friend, who are much tried and buffeted, to you it is not easy to hold on your way under great inward struggles and severe depressions, but your deeper sense of weakness, your firmer grasp of truth, your more intense fellowship with the Lord Jesus in his sufferings, your patience, and your steadfastness, are all lovely in the eyes of the Lord your God. Be thankful each of you for what you have, for by the grace of God you are what you are.”Day 11 - Jesus wept
“You and I take losses and crosses with Jesus, we share the tears of his eyes, and we shall share the diamonds of his crown. Wear the thorn crown here, and you shall wear the crown of glory hereafter.”Day 19 - For the Troubled
“Now, child of God, if you are suffering today in any way whatever, whether from the ills of poverty or bodily sickness, or depression of spirits, recollect there is not a drop of the judicial anger of God in it all. You are not being punished for your sins as a judge punishes a culprit; never believe such false doctrine, it is clean contrary to the truth as it is in Jesus. Gospel doctrine tells us that our sins were numbered on the Great Scapegoat’s head of old, and carried away once for all, never to be charged against us again (Leviticus 16:10).”Day 25 - The True Christian’s Blessedness
“We know right well that there are many things that happen to us in our lives that would be the ruin of us if we were always to continue in the same condition. Too much joy would intoxicate us, too much misery would drive us to despair: but the joy and the misery, the battle and the victory, the storm and the calm, all these compounded make that sacred elixir whereby God makes all his people perfect through suffering, and leads them to ultimate happiness. “All things work together for good.”Each reading is only 3-4 pages, making it very accessible.
A wonderful selection that explores suffering and grace, instruction and comfort, from a man who truly lived and experienced what he wrote about.
I recevied an ecopy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.
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