John Owen – Ways the Spirit Comforts Us

23 Jun

It is not with an increase of corn, and wine, and oil, but with the shining of the countenance of God upon us, that he comforts our souls (Ps. 4:6–7). “The world hates me,” may such a soul as has the Spirit say; “but my Father loves me. Men despise me as a hypocrite; but my Father loves me as a child. I am poor in this world; but I have a rich inheritance in the love of my Father. I am straitened in all things; but there is bread enough in my Father’s house. I mourn in secret under the power of my lusts and sin, where no eyes see me; but the Father sees me, and is full of compassion. With a sense of his kindness, which is better than life, I rejoice in tribulation, glory in afﬂiction, triumph as a conqueror. Though I am killed all the day long, all my sorrows have a bottom that may be fathomed—my trials, bounds that may be compassed; but the breadth, and depth, and height of the love of the Father, who can express?” I might render glorious this way of the Spirit’s comforting us with the love of the Father, by comparing it with all other causes and means of joy and consolation whatever; and so discover their emptiness, its fullness—their nothingness, its being all;

~John Owen~

Communion With The Triune God (Wheaton, IL; Crossway Books; 2007) p. 409

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