Remember and Tell

For our better encouragement in these sad times, and to help our trust in God, we should often call to mind the former experiences, which either ourselves or others have had of God's goodness, and make use of them for our spiritual good. As the Psalmist did, ‘our fathers trusted in you and were not confounded' (Psa. 22:4). God's truth and goodness is unchangeable, 'he never leaves those that trust in him' (Psa. 9:10). Likewise, in our own experiences, we should take notice of God's countless dealings with us, how many ways he has refreshed us, and how good we have found him in our worst times. After we have once tried him and his truth, we may safely trust him. God will stand upon his credit, he never failed any yet, and he will not begin to break with us. If his nature and his word and his former dealing have been sure and square, why should our hearts waver? 'Your word' wrote the Psalmist, 'is well tried, therefore your servant loves it' (Psa. 119:140). The word of God is 'as silver tried in the furnace, purified seven times' (Psa. 12:6). Experience is nothing else but a multiplied remembrance of former blessings, which will help to multiply our faith. Tried truth and tried faith in truth, sweetly agree, and answer one another. It strengthens the faith of Christians when they would communicate to each other their mutual experiences. This has formerly been the custom of God's people, 'Come and hear, all you that fear God, and I will declare what he has done for my soul' (Psa. 66:16); and David urges this as a reason for the deliverance that came from God's hand. Then 'the righteous would encompass him about' (Psa. 142:7), to rejoice in the experience of God's goodness to him. The want of this makes us upon any new trial, to call God's care and love into question, as if he had never formerly been good to us. Every experience of God's love should refresh our faith for any new onset of trouble or distress.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
The Soul's Conflict with Itself, Works, vol. 1, pp. 216-17
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