God Gives Us Himself

In the division of things, God gives himself to those who are his and when he does, he gives the best portion he could possibly give. There are many good things in the world, but none of these are a Christian’s portion. God supplies all earthly good until the time comes that we stand in need of no other good outside of him. It is our chief wisdom to know him, our holiness to love him, our happiness to enjoy him. There is in him to be had whatever can truly make us happy. We go to our treasure and our portion in all our wants; we live by it and value ourselves by it. God is such a portion, that the more we spend on him the more we may. ‘Our strength may fail, and our heart may fail, but God is our portion forever’ (Psa. 73:26). Everything else teaches us, by the vanity and vexation we find in them, that our happiness is not in them. They send us to God;  they may make us worse, but they cannot make us better. If God be once ours, he goes forever along with us, and when earth will hold us no longer, heaven will. Who that has his senses about him would perish for want of water when there is a fountain by him? Or for hunger when there is at a feast? God alone is a rich portion. O, then, let us labour for a large faith, as we have a large object. When the prophet came to the widow’s house, as many vessels as she had were filled with oil (1 Kings 17:14). We are limited in our own faith, but not limited in our God.It happens often in this world that God’s people are like Israel at the Red Sea, surrounded with dangers on all sides. What course have we to take, but only to look up and wait for the salvation of our God? Here is great consolation; let us teach our hearts to draw comfort from it.

Devotional Readings by Puritan Richard Sibbes
The Soul's Conflict with Itself, Works, vol. I, pp. 273-74
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