It’s been a good while since I’ve quoted anything from my friend, Amy Carmichael . . . and she is always so good:
Is 53.7 Hard-pressed–yet He humbled Himself, nor opened Hismouth.
The assault of our great enemy comes in waves. Sometimes we cannot do the work committed to us to do, and this is indeed a trial of faith. “Hard-pressed” is the word that describes it all.
It is the word spoken of our Lord Jesus in Rotherman’s translation. Hard-pressed–yet He humbled Himself, nor opened Hismouth. To ask why, even to wonder why, is to open our mouth. Our Lord Jesus Christ shows us the way here as everywhere. Am I hard-pressed in any direction inward or outward? The only word I speak must be a word of acceptance “Even so, Father.” Underfoot is the rock of Romans 8.28. Overhead is the banner of Eternal Love. Nothing is going wrong, however wrong it seems. All, all is well.
Steep me in Your stillness, Lord.
Oh, calm my restless soul.
Hush my spirit,
and put Your finger on my lips.
Say to my stormy being,
“Quiet, be still.”
Then hold me close
and let me rest
my head
against Your breast.
I have no wit, no words, no tears;
My heart within me like a stone
Is numbed too much for hopes or fears.
Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
I lift mine eyes, but dimmed with grief
No everlasting hills I see;
My life is in the falling leaf:
O Jesus, quicken me.
My life is like a faded leaf,
My harvest dwindled to a husk:
Truly my life is void and brief
And tedious in the barren dusk;
My life is like a frozen thing,
No bud nor greenness can I see:
Yet rise it shall–the sap of spring;
O Jesus, rise in me.
My life is like a broken bowl,
A broken bowl that cannot hold
One drop of water for my soul
Or cordial in the searching cold;
Cast in the fire the perished thing;
Melt and remould it, till it be
A royal cup for Him, my King:
O Jesus, drink of me.
Today being the feast of the Passion of St. John the Baptist, I cannot help but return to something about which I have posted before, and that is: the blessing of not being offended by however and whatever God is doing. In Luke 7, we read about John being in prison. He sends word to Jesus wondering, “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” A puzzling thing for John, of all people, to ask. However, considering his situation at the time, not surprising. He’s in prison. Jesus has not come to visit him (as far as we know). So, as for many of us, it would be perfectly understandable to start dealing with doubts about Jesus.
I find Jesus’ answer even more astounding than John’s question. Jesus instructs John’s disciples to go to him and recite a list of the many wonders that Jesus has done. And then He concludes with that mysterious phrase: “And blessed is he who takes no offense at me.” Amy Carmichael was the one who unlocked this mystery for me. She refers to this verse many times in her writings. I’ll let her speak for herself . . . any may each of you respond to the grace of becoming one of the “unoffended.” She writes from the perspective of John’s thinking as he is listening to the report of his disciples:
St. John the Baptist in Prison receives Christ’s answer, (Matthew 11: 2-6) Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627 – 1678)
Before they got to the end of the mighty things they were to tell him, his heart must have kindled with new hope: My Lord can do all that, He is doing all that, He is omnipotent. He is my loving Lord, and He is very near. I shall soon be free–He who is opening the prison doors of death will open my prison door. Can you not all but hear him say it, or at least feel him think it, as he listens to the story of ‘what things’ these men of his ‘have seen and heard’? And then, instead of a promise, a quick help, ‘Blessed is he who takes no offense at Me,’ and that was all. But it was enough. John accepted the unexplained. And a light shone in the cell, and in that light he lived till his prison door opened, and he stepped across its threshold into the Land of Light.
To many of you this is a familiar word, but to me it came afresh as I read these two verses one after the other last night [Luke 7.22,23], and it spoke to me as I thought of the many who are being trusted not to be offended in Him.
Let us pray for each other to each be able to accept the unexplained and not be offended in Him.
Witnesses to Hope 