Required reading
A treatise on Satan's temptations by Richard Gilpin (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 5 of Part 2.
My summary
This week Gilpin looks at Satan's attempts against the peace and comfort of the children of God.
We consider Satan's:
(i) implacable malice toward our happiness;
(ii) desire to take our inward spiritual peace;
(iii) many advantages to trouble and disquiet our hearts;
(iv) use of the troubles of God's children as a stumbling-block to others;
(v) use of the troubles of God's children to prepare the hearts of men thereby to give entertainment to his venomous impressions.
What grabbed me
I liked the connection Gilpin drew between joy and obedience: ' Spiritual comfort is not only our satisfaction, but our inward strength and activity; for all holy services doth depend upon it. By this doth God strengthen our heart and gird up our loins ' to run the ways of his commandments.' It doth also strengthen the soul to undergo afflictions, to glory in tribulations, to triumph in persecutions. The outward man is also corroborated by the inward peace of the mind : ' A merry heart doth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones,' Prov. xvii. 22 ; all which are intended by that expression, Neh. viii. 10, ' The joy of the Lord is your strength ; ' it is strength to the body, to the mind, and that both for service and suffering ; the reason whereof the apostle doth hint to us, Phil. iv. 7, ' The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds' — that is, peace doth so guard us as with a garrison...for so much the word imports — that our affections, our hearts, being entertained with divine satisfactions, are not easily enticed by baser proffers of worldly delights, and our reasonings, our minds, being kept steady upon so noble an object, are not so easily perverted to a treacherous recommendation of vanities. '
Happiness in the Lord breeds a desire to please him.
Next week's reading
Read Chapter 6 of Part 2.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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