From J. C. Philpot's Daily Portions
August 21 "O Lord, by these things men live; and in all these
things is the life of my spirit." Isaiah 38:16 When Hezekiah said, "By these things men live," he meant
that by these trials and deliverances, by these sinkings and risings,
strippings and clothings, emptyings and fillings, "by these things men,"
that is, spiritual men, "live." It is a mystery, but a great truth, that
just in proportion as we die to the world, to self, to sense, to nature, and
to false religion, the more the life of God is strengthened in our
conscience. The Lord, perhaps, has taught some of you this truth through
great afflictions. But when these trials came upon you at the first, it
seemed as though they would entirely overwhelm you; they took away your
standing, and it appeared as though they had destroyed your faith and hope. But though these floods of temptation passed over the
soul, they swept away nothing but rubbish, which until then was mistaken for
the inward teachings of God the Spirit. So far then from these afflictions
overwhelming your faith, you found that faith was secretly strengthened by
the very flood that threatened at first to drown it. True faith is no more
destroyed by sharp trials, than the oak is destroyed by cutting away the
ivy, or by a storm blowing down some of its rotten branches. And thus, as
the oak, the more the winds blow upon it, takes a firmer root in the soil;
so the storms and tempests that blow upon the soul, only cause it to take a
firmer hold of the truth, and to strike its fibers more deeply into the
Person, love, work, and blood of Jesus. So that, "by these things men live,"
for through them, the life of God is maintained and kept up in the soul, the
Holy Spirit secretly strengthening it by the very things that seemed to
threaten it with destruction.