We unnecessarily cause anguish and further strengthen the hold of the devil on our hearts by heeding his wish that we forget the promises our holy and righteous God has made to us, His special people in the Covenant of Grace. He has made a claim on your mind and soul. Rest and trust in His attributes and the assurance of His word. For in it is power to handle even the hardest of trials. The gospel is always the answer for our troubles.

The Puritans are blamed for everything from burning witches to being the original no fun police, but the reality is far from that caricature. Largely they were men engaged in the hard work of reconciling the Church of England of the 17th century with the teachings of Holy Scripture, who saw in the Lord Jesus Christ the sweet savor of life itself. Nothing in their mind compared with what was revealed unto them by the Holy Spirit about what the Redeemer had done, and was doing, in their hearts and souls through grace. They were in many ways mesmerized by the bounty of salvation. It was to them like the richest chocolate cake, melt-in-your-mouth barbeque pork, or a Tony’s shake (without the lid). One of my favorite Puritan writers is Jeremiah Burroughs. He was a member of the Westminster Assembly, and an assistant to another of my personal heroes, Edmund Calamy. He in many ways writes the clearest on dealing with suffering and the way to find hope in the midst of trial. For today’s prayer and worship help I want to start us off with a quote of his in order to help us think about how best to handle those dark providences in the power of the Lord’s grace and mercy. Here is the word:

Ordinarily when we are burdened with outward afflictions, we only think of natural helps and comforts. Whereas the way for us to sanctify God’s name, to do what is acceptable to God when any outward affliction comes, is to exercise our faith in the great promise of God in Jesus Christ, upon the great Covenant of Grace that God has made with us in him.

Burroughs’ point here is pretty straight-forward. The unfortunate reality is when we are drawn low our first recourse is often to what he calls “natural helps”, those things which are material, whether they be destructive like the bottle, or innocuous like binge-watching the Office or whatever. We get back from a difficult day at work, run to a different part of the house after a hard discussion with a spouse, or just try and find a quiet place to be alone, and what is our first move? To doom scroll the phone searching for a meme or a distraction. In any of these cases why is it a problem in the eyes of someone like Burroughs? What’s wrong with just spacing out and forgetting for a moment? Or more importantly what does the Bible have to say that might echo the concern of this godly pastor?

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