Wrestlings Within

This article is from Issue 4, Called to Trust

By A. B. Simpson

Many of our battles are fought in view of heaven alone. That is a strange picture that the apostle gives of his trials, “We are made a gazing-stock to angels and principalities.” Have you not felt, beloved, in some quiet hour, in the secret of your closet, that you were going through a decisive battle which no mortal saw? Within the silent walls of your chamber an issue was being decided which would affect all eternity. The question was, should you be true to God, should you trust Him, should you obey God, or should you compromise? It was a great thing for you that you gained the victory, but it was a greater thing for your Lord.

How the ranks of hell and heaven look on as some David and Goliath fight alone amidst the gaze of other worlds! How the ranks of hell shout with satisfaction when you betray the slightest weakness….and how your Master smiles with glad approval and sees of the travail of his soul with satisfaction, as like some ancient hero you dare to answer, “Our God is able to deliver us, but if not we will not bow down to the graven image which thou hast set up.”

Do you know, beloved, that Christ’s greatest victories were alone with God and the devil? No human eye saw that victory in the wilderness, but God saw it and was glorified. Shall we stand for Him? God is looking for those on whom He can depend, to stand as bulwarks and battlements against the shocks of hell’s artillery. Shall we, beloved, be not only conquerors, but trusted soldiers whom God can use as His battle-axes and His weapons of war, as His mighty iron-clads, to carry the battle to the very ships of the enemy, not fearing their hardest blows, and hurling against them the thunder-bolts of His victorious power?

A. B. Simpson

Taken from Life On The Altar Publications
Issue 4 Spring 2022