The Christian in Complete Armour - Gurnall - XLIV - Direction Eight continued

Required reading
The Christian in Complete Armour by William Gurnall (Available from Amazon or free here) - Continue Direction Eight by reading Branch Fourth of First General Part.

My summary

Today we continue Direction Eight: 'Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.' (Eph. 6:16)

In Branch Fourth, Gurnall exhorts believers to preserve the shield of faith.  

If faith is such a choice grace:

(i) be stirred up to a more than ordinary care to preserve it;

(ii) deny not what God hath done for thee.

What grabbed me

I was helped by the points about the characters by which we may know whether faith be weak or strong.

For example: 'The more composed and contented the heart is under the changes which providence brings upon the Christian's state and condition in the world, the stronger his faith is. Weak bodies cannot bear the change of weather so well as healthful and strong ones do. Hot and cold, fair or foul, cause no great alteration in the strong man's temper; but alas! the other is laid up by them, or at best goes complaining of them. Thus strong faith can live in any climate, travel in all weather, and fadge with any condition. 'I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content,' Php. 4:11. Alas! all Christ's scholars are not of Paul's form; weak faith hath not yet got the mastery of this hard lesson. When God turns thy health into sickness, thy abundance into penury, thy honour into scorn and contempt, into what language dost thou now make thy condition known to him? Is thy spirit embittered into discontent, which thou ventest in murmuring complaints? or art thou well satisfied with God's dealings, so as to acquiesce cheerfully in thy present portion, not from an unsensibleness of the affliction, but approbation of divine appointment? If the latter, thy faith is strong.'

If you want to know if your faith is strong, how does it fare when the weather changes in your life?

Next week's readingContinue Direction Eight by reading Division First of Second General Part.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.