All Is Not Lost

"Please deliver me from the hand of my brother."
GENESIS 32:11
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All Is Not Lost
Such prayers, which are poured out in extreme despair and the greatest dangers, are very pleasing to God. These are the ineffable and vehement groanings by which the godly rouse themselves against despair. . . . This is the struggle of the godly, in which they awaken faith powerfully by the remembrance of the promise and the divine command and by trust in it. I must and will preach, but the devil offers resistance. Very well, preaching there must be, even if the world should be torn apart...Here the devil urges that all is lost. "Why do you cry out?" he suggestively asks the afflicted man. "It is all over with you and time to give up." But the Spirit says in opposition: “All is not lost; quite the contrary! It is by no means all over! I know that God has determined and promised something else in regard to me." This is the great fervency and power of the Spirit in weakness. It is a very pleasing sacrifice to God according to Psalm 51:17, for it is the sacrifice of mortification: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." . . . Therefore we should learn to be strong and unbroken in courage, whatever evils and dangers confront us and however much despair catches the attention of our hearts. . .. In this manner God wants our faith to be exercised and aroused that we may grow from day to day and become stronger.
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