Antidotes! # 1

Antidotes! # 1

My mind is at times harassed with fear, tormented with doubts, and burdened with a load of guilt. I have tried a variety of things in order to get relief, and have looked for deliverance in many ways. But experience has taught me, that the only way to conquer fear, dissipate doubts, and remove a burden of fresh-contracted guilt - is to look back to the Cross! There, I see Jesus as the Sinner's Substitute, bearing our sins, in His own body on the tree, paying all the debt we had contracted, answering all the demands that can be made upon us, harmonizing all the perfections of God in our salvation, and providing a free and full salvation for us. As I look on the Cross - I feel peace flow into my soul, and a holy quietness take possession of my spirit.

I ask, "What should I fear? Jesus has made a full atonement for all my sins. He has given full satisfaction, to the law and justice of God, for all my misdeeds.

Why should I doubt? God is love, or He would not have given His Son to die the just for the unjust. Having given His Son, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself - will He not deal graciously with me, and freely give me all things?

Why should I carry a load of guilt? Has not Jesus been punished for me, that I may not be punished? Did not Jesus die, that I may live forever? Is not the atonement of God's own Son sufficient? Does not the blood of Jesus cleanse from all sin? If Jesus suffered for me, if He died in my stead - than surely I may go free.

Thus looking back to the Cross, and exercising faith in Jesus, I find my fears depart, my doubts remove, and my sense of guilt taken away. I have peace with God, confidence in God, and can leave all things with God.

Sometimes I feel sad and lonely. I have no one to whom I can open my heart, or into whose ear I can pour all my complaints. I need one who has a fellow feeling with me. One who has experienced what I do. One who can stoop to and help me. At such times I find it best to look up to the throne of grace, and sigh for fellowship with Jesus. He has been tried in all points like as we are. He has a human heart. He has carried the experience of earth, with Him to Heaven. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He is our Brother still. He remembers the lonely mountain, the howling wilderness, and the gloomy garden. He never forgets how He felt the need of sympathy, and friendly fellowship, when He went backwards and forwards to His disciples, and found them sleeping. I will therefore lift up my eyes to Jesus in the Heavens, and will seek to pour out my heart before Him, and receive comfort and consolation from Him. I have always one who feels for me, and feels with me. One that will listen to me, and prove His love by sustaining, cheering, and delivering me.

O Jesus, Saviour of my soul, when I look up to You, and believe that you are before the Father for me, and ever sympathize with me - I feel relieved, and the principal sense of loneliness and isolation leaves me! O my soul, whenever earth refuses to furnish you with a companion, a comforter, a friend who can identify himself with you - look up to Heaven, for Heaven will furnish what earth denies!

"Why should any living man complain?" (Lamentations 3:39). Occasionally, I am tempted to complain of my hard lot - and think myself harshly dealt with. Ingratitude rises and works in my heart. This always makes me wretched. I then find it profitable to look down into hell - and realize its horrors and agonies as my just desert.

If anyone ever deserved to go to hell - I did!

If justice was ever honored in a sinner's damnation - it would have been in mine!

If anyone was ever saved by grace alone - I am the man!

Shall I then, who deserve to be in hell - but am not; shall I who am an heir of Heavenly glory - though no one ever deserved it less; shall I, because of a few trials, troubles, and disappointments, or because I have rather a heavy cross to carry - shall I dare to murmur, or fret, or complain, or think myself harshly dealt with?

Shocking inconsistency! What are my present pains or sufferings - compared with the hell that I deserve!!

All the afflictions that I am called to endure here on earth - cannot even be compared with only twenty-four hours in hell! And yet my desert is, not to be in hell for a few hours - but forever! Surely every lost soul, every damned spirit - will be ready to rise up in judgment against me - if I complain of my present lot! What base gratitude - if I do not praise the Lord with joyful lips, for His rich, free, and sovereign grace!

~James Smith~

(continued with # 2)