From J. C. Philpot's Daily Portions
July 29 Then Gideon said to God, "Please don't be angry with me,
but let me make one more request. This time let the fleece remain dry while
the ground around it is wet with dew." So that night God did as Gideon
asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with
dew." Judges 6:39, 40 Many of the Lord's people labor under doubts and fears,
questionings and suspicions as to the reality of the work of grace upon
their hearts; whether their convictions were not merely convictions of
natural conscience, and whether their joys have been anything else but the
joys of the hypocrite. "O," they say, "what would I not give to have a
divine testimony that the blessed Spirit was leading me in the right path!"
It is through these very doubts that the evidence is
obtained. Doubts lead to cries and groans after a divine testimony;
and in answer to these cries the heavenly witness is given. A man without
doubts is without testimonies. Doubts are to testimonies what the lock to
the key, the enigma to the solution. Testimonies are Ebenezers, "stones of
help" (1 Sam. 7:12, marg.); but the stone must have a hole dug for it to
stand in, and that hole is doubt. Doubts of salvation are to manifestations
of salvation what hunger is to food, nakedness to clothing, a thunderstorm
to a shelter, a gallows to a reprieve, and death to a resurrection. The one
of these things precedes, prepares, and opens a way for the other. The first
is nothing without the last, nor the last without the first. Thus, next to
testimonies, the best thing is spiritual doubts. To know we are right is the
best thing; to fear we are wrong is the second best. To enjoy the witness of
the Spirit is the most blessed thing this side of the grave; to pant after
that enjoyment is the next greatest blessing. I am speaking, mind, only of
spiritual doubts; that is, doubts in a spiritual man, for natural doubts are
as far from salvation as natural hopes. The path through the valley of Baca
is "from strength to strength," that is, according to the eastern mode of
traveling, from one halting-place to another, where wells are dug, and "the
rain fills the pools" (Ps. 84:6, 7). We do not learn either God or ourselves, sin or
salvation, in a day. The question is not so much whether you have much
faith, but whether you have any. It is not quantity, but quality; not
whether you have a very great religion, but whether you have any at all. A
grain of true faith will save the soul; and I have known many, many seasons
when I would have been glad to feel certain that I had the thousandth part
of a grain. A grain of mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds; and even
faith as small as that can move mountains. Happy is he that has one divine
testimony to his eternal interest in the electing love of the Father, in the
atoning blood and justifying righteousness of the Son, and in the divine
teachings of the Holy Spirit.