The Master Key Which Fits the
Locks Susanna Spurgeon, Words of Cheer and Comfort for Sick
and Sorrowful Souls, 1898. The LORD did not set His love
on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than
any other people. For you were the least of all
peoples, but because the LORD loved you." Deuteronomy 7, 7
and 8. My gracious God, there is a honeycomb
of delight and sweetness in these words. Will you put the rod of
faith into my hand this morning, and enable me to dip the end
thereof into this rich provision, that my soul may eat and be satisfied,
and that the eyes of my understanding may be enlightened? because the
Lord loved you. This is his great reason for
all of God's dealings with his redeemed people. It is a full
and convincing answer to all the doubts and questionings with
which Satan can perplex and distress the Lord's timid ones. The enemy
of souls has, alas, a powerful confederate in the wicked unbelief
which lurks within us. But they will both be vanquished
when we have learned to use this weapon of war against them. Come,
my heart, try its blessed force and quality at this moment. The
foe says, Why does God send you affliction, and sorrow, and suffering,
when those who do not fear His name have continual quietness
and abounding prosperity? If you can boldly answer, it
is because the Lord loves me, then you will have given Him
such a sword thrust as will free you for a time at least from
His cunning devices and fierce onslaughts. Or look at the text
as a shaft of sunlight piercing through a chink in the shuttered
window of some dark experience. Bring your fears and forebodings
out of their dusky corners and place them within the radiance
of this light of love. You will be amazed to see them
transformed into confident trusts. Your doubts will vanish as if
they had never been, and the evil and bitter things of life
will all be transformed into blessings in a moment. Because
the Lord loved you is the master key which fits the locks of the
hardest question and opens the mysteries of the deepest problem. It is a charm of wondrous efficacy,
and every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ may not only rejoice
in its possession, but use it constantly to obtain all the
desire of his heart in spiritual things. What ails you, poor soul? Is it loss of health, or friends,
or means? Has God taken from you some dearly
loved one, and left you alone on this sad earth? Is He trying
and proving you, by many and varied tests and troubles, to
know what was in your heart, whatever may be your immediate
and peculiar sorrow, if you have grace and faith enough to say,
This is because the Lord loves me? then I dare to promise you
that all the bitterness of the affliction will melt away, and
the peace of God will fill you with a sweet contentment which
surpasses understanding. No distress can withstand such
divine solace. No anguish can refuse the relief
of this balm of Gilead. If all that happens to you can
be traced directly or indirectly to the hand of your loving Lord,
then how gladly should you bear life's burdens, and how perfect
should be the rest in which heart and mind should dwell. O gracious
Master, looking back over the years that are gone, the interminglings
of grief and gladness pass before my eyes as the clouds sail by
on an April day, and though the memories of great affliction
and sore bereavement cast deep shadows across the scene, and
seem for a time to blot out all the brightness, Yet, above and
beyond those changeful skies, the sun has never ceased shining,
and darkness, as well as day, has proclaimed the immutability
of your love. When the ears of my soul are
attuned to catch the soft whisper of your voice, I hear you saying,
All this, my child, was because I loved you. Left to yourself,
you would have destroyed yourself. But in me was your help found. All the tribulations you have
endured were but my servants to whom I entrusted the necessary
discipline of your earthly life. Do not forget those words of
mine. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten."