From J. C. Philpot's Daily Portions
October 2 "For you, O God, have proved us; you have tried us, as
silver is tried." Psalm 66:10 The Lord's dealings with his people in the wilderness are
very much to this purpose and to this end--to prove them, and to know what
is in their hearts. Has the Lord implanted life in your soul? Has he touched
your conscience with his finger? Has he begun a work of grace upon your
heart? If so, in your travels through this wilderness there will be things
from time to time to prove the reality of this work upon your soul. You will have temptations; now, when temptation
comes, it will prove whether you have the fear of God in your soul to stand
against the temptation, or whether you fall under the temptation; or, if you
fall under the temptation, whether you are ever recovered out of it. And if
you are a living soul, the Lord will keep bringing circumstance upon
circumstance, event upon event, one thing after another; and all these
things, as they come upon you, shall be made to prove whether the fear of
God be in your soul or not. Now, if the fear of God be not in a man's heart,
he must decline, he must fall away. SATAN will be more than a match for
every one except God's own family; SIN will overcome and destroy every one
but those whose sins are pardoned through atoning blood and dying love; and
the WORLD, sooner or later, will overcome everyone who has not the faith of
God's elect whereby alone the world is overcome. Thus the Lord, in his
mysterious dealings (and how mysterious his dealings are!) proves the
reality of the work of grace in every heart where that work is begun, and
proves the hypocrisy of all who have but a name to live while their soul is
dead before God.