November 3

People who slander the names of others do it behind their backs. And sin seldom blasphemes God to His face; that is the language of hell....

But faith sees God eyeing the soul to preserve it.... Faith warns, "Do not blaspheme the God of heaven; you cannot even whisper softly enough for Him not to hear. For He is closer to you than you are to yourself," Thus faith breaks the devil's snare. When God came to Job in His majesty, all Job's long speaches suddenly vanished and he covered his face with humility before the Lord: "Now mine eyes seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5-6).

Faith accepts no report of God except from God's own mouth.... Faith conceives all its ideas of God by the Word, solves all cases of conscience, and interprets mysteries by this Word.... [Satan] drives the person who is in a hard situation to entertain wrong thoughts of God. Thus he criticizes God's justice when blatant sinners have not been judged quickly; or he says he will not serve a God who permits His servants to wear ragged clothing. These are the broken glasses that Satan mirrors God in, so that he may distort His goodness to the doubting eye. And if we judge God to be what He appears in Satan's jagged pieces of deception, we might condemn the Holy One and be caught in a dangerous tornado of temptation.

Faith praises God in sad conditions. Blessing and blasphemy are contrasting tunes. They cannot be played on the same instrument without changing all the strings. It is beyond Satan's skill to strike such a harsh stroke as blasphemy on a soul tuned for praise. "My heart is fixed," says David-- there was his faith. And then he says, "I will sing and give praise" (Psalm 57:7). It was faith that tuned his spirit and prepared his affections to praise.

Faith can praise God because it sees mercy even in the greatest affliction. Thus Job quenched this dart which Satan shot at him from his wife's tongue. "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" (Job 2:10). Will we let a few present troubles become a grave to bury the memory of all His past mercies? What God takes from us is less than we owe Him, but what He leaves us is more than He owes.

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