August 27, Morning

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"How long will it be ere they believe me?" — Numbers 14:11 · KJV

Strive with all diligence to keep out that monster unbelief. It so dishonors Christ that He will withdraw His visible presence if we insult Him by indulging it. True, it is a weed whose seeds we can never wholly clear from the soil, but we must strike at its root with zeal and perseverance. Of all hateful things, it is the most to be abhorred; its poison is so venomous that both the one who exercises it and the one against whom it is exercised are hurt by it. In your case, O believer, it is most wicked, for the mercies of your Lord in the past only increase your guilt in doubting Him now. When you distrust the Lord Jesus, He may well cry, "Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves." This is crowning His head with thorns of the sharpest kind. It is very cruel for a well-beloved wife to mistrust a kind and faithful husband. The sin is needless, foolish, and unwarranted; Jesus has never given the slightest ground for suspicion, and it is hard to be doubted by those to whom our conduct is always affectionate and true. Jesus is the Son of the Highest and has boundless wealth; it is shameful to doubt Omnipotence and distrust all-sufficiency. The cattle on a thousand hills will serve for our hungriest feeding, and the granaries of heaven are not likely to be emptied by our eating. If Christ were only a cistern, we might soon drain His fullness; but who can drain a fountain? Multitudes of spirits have drawn their supplies from Him, and not one has complained of the scantiness of His resources. Away, then, with this lying traitor unbelief, whose only errand is to cut the bonds of communion and make us mourn an absent Savior! Bunyan tells us that unbelief has "as many lives as a cat"; if so, let us kill one life now, and keep at the work until all nine are gone. Down with you, you traitor — my heart abhors you.