“In the darkest of all human sorrows…”

I know that God’s children are not long without tribulation. As long as the wheat is on the threshin-floor, it must expect to feel the flail. Perhaps you have had a bereavement, or you may have had losses in business, or crosses in your family, or you have been sorely afflicted in your own body, and now you are crying to God for deliverance out of your temporal trouble. That deliverance will surely come. “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.” “I have been young,” said David, “and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken.” The Lord will yet light your candle, and surround your path with brightness. Only patiently hope and quietly wait, and you shall yet see the salvation of the Lord. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” Hark that; you know that part of the verse is true, and so is the rest of it: “but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.” Clutch at that, for it is equally true. “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” You know that is true. “Be of good cheer,” says Christ, “I have overcome the world.” Therefore, expect that you also will overcome it through your conquering Lord. Yes, in the darkest of all human sorrows, there is the glad prospect that the day will break, and the shadows will flee away.

Charles H. Spurgeon from his sermon Darkness Before the Dawn
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Todd Pruitt

Todd Pruitt (MDiv, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) currently serves as lead pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Harrisonburg, VA. He is also co-host with Carl Trueman for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals’ podcast Mortification of Spin. Todd and his wife, Karen, have been married since 1990 and have three children: Kate, Ryan, and Matthew.

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