I have much more to say to you
by J.R. Miller I have much more to say
to you more than you can now bear. John 16 verse 12 All learning
is slow. This is true in proportion to
the importance of the lessons. We learn some things quickly,
but they are not the things which are of the greatest value. Mere
head lessons are gotten more easily than heart lessons. We may memorize the Beatitudes
in a few minutes, but it takes many years to learn to live them. And in spiritual and moral lessons,
living is the only learning which counts. Anyone can memorize a
code of ethics by heart without much effort. But to get the faultless
code wrought into conduct, disposition, spirit, and character is the
work of a lifetime. In life teaching, the lessons
are given only as fast as they are learned. Our master will
not teach us more rapidly than we can live his lessons. It was in the midst of his most
confidential talk with his disciples that he said he had much more
to say to them, more than they could now bear. Spiritual truths
can be received only as we come to the experiences for which
they are adapted. There are many of the divine
promises which we can never claim and whose blessedness we cannot
realize until we come to the points in life for which they
were specially given. For example, he will conceal
me in his shelter in the day of adversity. He will hide me
under the cover of his tent. He will set me high on a rock. This word can mean nothing to
the child playing amid the flowers, or to the young man or woman
walking in sunny paths without a care or a trial. It can be
understood only by one who is in the depths of trouble. In the days of gladness, when
there is no trouble, no pain, there are many of God's words
which seem to have no meaning for us. We do not need them. They are for times of sorrow,
and we have no sorrow. They are lamps for the darkness,
and we are not walking in darkness. They are for days of pain and
loss. and we have no pain, and are
called to endure no loss. There is a large part of the
Bible which can be received by us only when we come into the
places for which the words were given. There are promises for
weakness, which we can never get while we are strong. There
are promises for times of danger which we can never know in the
days when we need no protection. There are consolations for sickness
whose comfort we can never get while we are in robust health.
There are promises for times of loneliness when men walk in
solitary ways which never can come with real meaning to us
while loving companions are by our side. There are words for
old age which we never can appropriate for ourselves along the years
of youth when the arm is strong, the blood warm, and the heart
brave. Christ says to us then, I have
much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. We could
not understand these lessons now, but by and by, when we come
into places of need, of sorrow, of weakness, of failure, of loneliness,
of sickness, of old age, then he will tell us these other things,
these long withheld things, and they will be full of joy for
our hearts. There are beatitudes for certain
conditions. Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted. But only those who are in sorrow
can experience the blessedness of divine comfort. Thus, all
the treasures of the Bible are ready to open to us the moment
we have the experience which the particular grace in them
is intended to supply. Hence, it is that the Bible is
never exhausted. Men read it over and over again,
and each time they find something new in it, new promises, new
comforts, new revealings of divine love. The reason is they are
growing in experience, and every new experience develops new needs
and brings them to new revealings. Thus, as life goes on, the meaning
of Christ's words come out clearer and clearer, until the child's
heedless repetition of them becomes the utterance of the faith and
trust of the strong man's very soul. This is the great law of
divine revealing. We learn Christ's teaching only
as fast as we are able to bear it. so we may wait in patient
faith when mysteries confront us, or when shadows lie on our
pathway, confident that He who knows all has in gentle love
withheld from us for the time the revealing we crave, because
we could not yet endure the knowledge. This Puritan devotional has been
brought to you by Grace Gems, a treasury of ageless Sovereign
Grace writings. Please visit our website at www.gracegems.org,
where you can browse and freely download thousands of choice
books, sermons, and quotes, along with select audio messages. No
donations accepted. Thank you. you.