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Things
may be stumbling-stones or stepping-stones to
us. They may be hindrances or helps--trials or
blessings. What they prove to be depends not so
much on their nature as upon our attitude toward
them. It is not our opportunities that count,
but the use that we make of them. It is not how
much money we possess, but the wisdom we display
in its expenditure. It is not how many obstacles
we meet in life, but the manner in which we meet
them. It is not the soul who has the fewest
trials and difficulties that prospers most, but
the one who meets them with courage and
confident trust. Some are crushed down and made
to despair by the very things that stir others
to renewed effort and courage.
What our trials are to us depends
on what we are to them. This is well illustrated
in Elijah's experience. The king and queen were
his bitter enemies. He feared them and fled away
and lived in hiding. (Elijah was in hiding
because God instructed him to do so. 1 Kings
17:3). He was afraid lest he should be betrayed
to them. He looked to his enemies; he saw their
power; he looked at himself and saw his own
impotence. And so he dwelt in fear. But the time
came when God spoke to him, and as he looked to
God he began to see His greatness and his soul
was lifted up with courage. His own weakness and
the might of his enemies faded away from his
gaze. He came out boldly and challenged the
idolatrous party to a test of strength.
Single-handed and alone, we see him walk out
before the assembled multitude, superior to them
all. There is no fear in his heart now. He is
not in the least daunted by his adversaries. He
can look them squarely in the eyes without
shrinking. His heart is full of confidence. He
knows whom he is trusting. Throughout the long
day while the priests of Baal are calling so
earnestly upon their powerless god, the prophet
is the calmest man of all the many witnesses. He
is looking on God's side now, and he is
conscious master of the whole situation. He even
grows ironical toward his enemies.
The outcome does not surprise us,
for we know the God he served. He was victorious
now, but let us look at him a few days later.
Under a juniper-tree in the wilderness sits a
man, weary and dejected. He has fled for his
life, but now even his life has lost its value,
and he says, "I is enough: now, O lord, take
away my life." Elijah has fallen from the summit
of victory to the depths of despair. What
occasioned this great change? Things did not
turn out as he had expected them to. Instead of
the queen being humbled by the display of God's
power, she was only made harder and anger became
more fierce. And when Elijah heard her threat to
kill him, he lost sight of God and saw only the
anger of the queen and his own weakness and
danger; so his heart was filled with fear, and
he fled, as does a hunted animal to the depths
of the wilderness. So long as he looked to God,
he was victorious over his enemies and fearless
as a lion; they could not harm him. But when he
looked upon the strength of his foes and his own
weakness and lost sight of God, he was overcome
with fear and fled terror-stricken.
What made the difference in his
conduct? Were not his enemies the same? Was not
their wrath to be feared as much on time as
another? Was not God protecting and keeping him
all the time? Had he need to fear them more at
one time than at another? The secret of his
different behavior was his attitude toward them.
When he feared them, they were stumbling-stones
to him. When he feared them not, their enmity
became the stepping-stone by which he was raised
to the lofty height of victory.
The same principle is true in our
lives. If we approach a conflict or trial with
fear and trembling and shrinking, it will very
likely prove a stumbling-stone to us; but if we
approach it with calm confidence in God and a
settled determination to overcome, we may make
it a stepping-stone upon which we may mount to
higher and better things.
Sometimes things that are at
first very discouraging to us, afterwards become
sources of help and encouragement; not that the
things themselves change, but because we see
them from a different angle. This is well
illustrated by the effect of my long affliction.
One of the worst things that I had to face in
the first two or three years was the
consciousness of the depressing and discouraging
influence that it was having upon others, not
only upon those about me, but upon many persons
here and there, as evidenced by numerous letters
showing that the effect was wide-spread. It
seemed to be a hindrance to the faith of many
people. But in the last two or three years I
have received many letters telling me how
greatly the writers had been encouraged and
helped by my affliction. The affliction itself
was the same; the change was in them; for that
which was once a source of discouragement would
have continued so had they continued to look at
it as they had formerly done. The fact that the
changed point of view, or changed attitude,
changed the effect, shows that it is not so much
the thing itself as our attitude toward it that
affects us.
It is so in regard to all things.
We have need to learn the lesson that one sister
learned. Speaking of the early months of my
affliction, she writes, "At that time it was a
hindrance to my faith; but it has ceased to be
so, for I have learned not to ask why, but to
have faith in God and wait and trust."
Learning to wait and trust is the
secret. This gives God the opportunity to bring
out that, which is best. How could we know the
virtue of patience if no one had a trial of his
patience? If we looked only at the trial, where
would be the blessing? We must often look at
"the things, which are not seen" that we may
have courage to meet the things that are seen.
It is when we do this that our trials become
blessings: our stumbling-stones,
stepping-stones.
When we face things courageously
and hold to our course steadily through the
storm, or when we bear opposition and trials
patiently and hold fast our integrity through
temptation, it is then that we mount up by means
of these very things to a loftier height and a
broader outlook. When we try to lift up
ourselves by expending our forces upon
ourselves, we make but little progress. How hard
it is to keep good resolutions! How hard it is
to make ourselves better or stronger by the
study of abstract goodness or by wishing
ourselves something else than we are! We may
look to the heights above us and long to be
there; we may think of the noble outlook were we
there, but there is but one way to attain those
heights--by the slow, laborious, and wearisome
process of climbing; and the things upon which
we must set our feet are the difficulties that
we have overcome.
It is easy to go down toward the
valley of discouragement. It takes no effort to
let a thing weigh us down. We can easily let our
courage and our confidence slip if we will. It
is sometimes easier to go downhill than it is to
stop in our going. But in life it is the up-hill
going that counts. Every time you overcome or
trust clear through to victory you have made
progress upward. If you see a trial coming, do
not shrink and do not fear. Do not say, "Oh, how
shall I bear it!"
God designs trials to help,
rather than hinder. He could keep you from
having them if it were wise; but he sees that
you need them, yes, that you must have them, or
you will never rise above your present level.
Look for the good in them; count them blessings.
Meet them bravely, and you will find them in
truth, stepping-stones, not stumbling-stones.
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