Path Proximity
Through suffering and trial, we learn faith and discover more of God's love and resources in Christ.
Miles J. Stanford preaches about the deepening knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ being essential for believers to find strength and blessing. He emphasizes the importance of personal fellowship with Christ rather than just having doctrinal knowledge. Stanford highlights the need for divine power in quietly enduring suffering, as it requires a closer communion with God. He explains that God's discipline is meant to reveal His love and the resources available through faith in Him. The sermon underscores that trials are opportunities for the heart to learn more about God's love and to trust Him above all else.
Text
"God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency, may abound to every good work " (2 Corinthians 9:8).
Suffering takes us in condition where truth has us in position.
"We will never learn any truth in experience excepting in the deepening knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the lack of this which is the cause of weakness among believers; bare doctrine is not personal fellowship with Him. We have that which is lovely and full of blessing in Him; but if we are to know it as such; to prove its truth, to enjoy it always, it must be in taking these things as connected with Him." -J.N.D.
"The passive power of faith needs for its sustenance closer communion with the Father than its active energy. Action, as it were, nerves us to the conflict; but quiet endurance of wrong, or suffering of any kind, which neither friend nor foe sees, but only God, this indeed needs divine power, and without God's support none would bear the strain. Many a saint has shown the courage of faith before his enemies, as Elijah when he faced Ahab, but who, like him, quails and flees, where there is nothing to do, but quietly trust in God."
"There is but one thought with our Father in disciplining us, namely, to make our trials an opportunity for our heart to learn and discover more of His love, and the resources which are in Him as He has revealed them to us in His Son." -J.B.S.
"There is no way of learning faith except by trial. It is God's school of faith, and it is far better for us to learn to trust our Father than to enjoy life."
"As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things " (2 Corinthians 6:10).
Sermon Outline
- The Importance of Suffering
- The Nature of Faith
- The Father's Purpose in Discipline
- Learning Faith Through Trial
- Making trials an opportunity to learn of God's love
- Discovering resources in Christ
Key Quotes
“We will never learn any truth in experience excepting in the deepening knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.” — Miles J. Stanford
“There is but one thought with our Father in disciplining us, namely, to make our trials an opportunity for our heart to learn and discover more of His love, and the resources which are in Him as He has revealed them to us in His Son.” — Miles J. Stanford
“It is God's school of faith, and it is far better for us to learn to trust our Father than to enjoy life.” — Miles J. Stanford
Application Points
- We must learn to trust our Father in all circumstances, even in quiet endurance.
- Suffering can be an opportunity for us to learn and discover more of God's love and resources in Christ.
- Faith is learned through trial, and it is far better to learn to trust our Father than to enjoy life without it.