All the experiences of life come to us as tests, and as we meet them, our loving Father is watching with intense and jealous love, to see us overcome, and if we fail He is deeply disappointed, and our adversary is filled with joy.
We are a gazing-stock continually for angels and principalities, and every step we take is critical and decisive for something in our eternal future.
When Abraham went forth that morning to Mount Moriah, it was an hour of solemn probation, and when he came back he was one of God's tested men, with the stamp of His eternal approbation. God could say, “I know him, that he will do judgment and justice, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham all that He hath spoken.”
God is looking for such men to-day. Lord, help me to be such an one.
December 31.
“I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil” (John xvii. 15).
He wants us here for some higher purpose than mere existence. That purpose is nothing else than to represent Him to the world, to be the messengers of His Gospel and His will to men, and by our lives to exhibit to them the true life, and teach them how to live it themselves.
He is representing us yonder, and our one business is to represent Him here. We are just as truly sent into this world to represent Him as if we had gone to China as the ambassador of the American Government.