From J. C. Philpot's Daily Portions
October 26 "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without
wavering; for he is faithful who promised." Hebrews 10:23 Faith cannot rest upon fancy; it can only rest upon the
solid truth of God, as revealed in the Scriptures. And when it comes into
the truth of God, as Noah's dove came into the ark as its own nest and home,
then it finds rest and peace. Many people think we build our faith and hope,
not on the Scriptures, but on some mental feelings, or fancies of our own,
distinct from the word of God. I do not and cannot build my faith on
anything but what is revealed in the Bible; and I must do it because I have
no other foothold for it to stand upon. Do you not feel the same, you who
know anything of the trial of faith? You have had many a tossing up and
down, and have often needed a foothold for your faith to stand upon. You
have tried to believe this or that doctrine, or to get into this or that
experience; but you kept still falling short, for you found that your faith
needed something stronger than the testimony of men; you needed a solid
foundation on which to build for eternity; for the things to be believed
were so invisible and so mysterious, that nothing but the word of God could
suffice for your faith to stand upon and rest in. When, then, in this trial of faith, the truth of God as
it stands revealed in the Scriptures was applied to your heart by a divine
power, then you found that there was a foothold for belief, and that your
faith could then rest upon the inspired word of God, as a rock on which to
build, for life and death, time and eternity. It was so with Abraham. When Abraham was looking forward
to the birth of the promised seed, many a doubt or fear might have arisen in
his mind as to whether he would have a son by Sarah. But he rested upon the
word of promise, and thus obtained a foothold for his faith. As the Apostle
speaks, "Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father
of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall your seed be"
(Romans 4:18). Our faith must in the same way rest on the word of promise,
that "by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we
might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon
the hope set before us."