GLORIOUS WRINKLES

March 11

Psalms 119:83 For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes.

Bottles were made of skins. When in storage, they were hung in a tent, not far from the fire pit. Smoke tanned them and they grew black and sooty. Heat dried the moisture out of them and gave them wrinkles and an old worn-out look. The dried wrinkled worn-out face of a man is testimony of his acquaintance with fiery trials of sorrow, suffering, pain, and to his familiarity with emotional turmoil.

A spy caught in enemy territory suffers torture. His enemy will stop at nothing in his attempt to get the man to yield the precious information. Because of this, spies-to-be go through intense training that also includes torture, in order to raise their threshold of pain.

God trains and tests us in very much the like manner: by allowing the devil to throw his fiery darts at us in the form of trials and tribulations. He allows the devil to send us hurt, emotional pain such as deaths, sicknesses, loss and disappointment. He allows all the things that would make us doubt the love of God. He wants to see what it would take to make us forget the statutes of the Lord, to say’“ uncle’ to Satan, and yield up our precious saved soul to rebellion, disobedience and sin. But in the end, he only hangs himself; turmoil tends to strengthen the Christian as he clings all the closer to his Lord for protection.

How much does it take for us to yield our heart? What is our threshold of pain; of hurt; of disappointment; until in disgust, we reject the statutes of our precious Lord?

Throughout the ages, so many martyrs have suffered in order to preserve the precious name and the precious doctrine of the Word of God. They have suffered until they became like a bottle in the smoke, but through all their suffering, they did not forgot His statutes.

Does our face show the wrinkles of a life troubled for the sake of our Lord? We need not try to hide them; we need not be ashamed of them. Let us show them to the world and tell their story one by one. Let each one be a testimony of the marvelous bounty of the Lord.

2 Timothy 2:12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: