December 14, Morning
C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling
"They go from strength to strength." — Psalm 84:7 · KJV
"They go from strength to strength." There are various renderings of these words, but all of them contain the idea of progress; and our good Authorized Version is enough for us this morning. "They go from strength to strength" — that is, they grow stronger and stronger. Usually, when we are walking, we go from strength to weakness; we start fresh and in good order for our journey, but by and by the road is rough and the sun is hot, we sit down by the wayside, and then again painfully pursue our weary way. But the Christian pilgrim, having obtained fresh supplies of grace, is as vigorous after years of toilsome travel and struggle as when he first set out. He may not be quite so elated and buoyant, nor perhaps quite so hot and hasty in his zeal as once he was; but he is much stronger in all that makes for real power, and travels, if more slowly, far more surely. Some gray-haired veterans have been as firm in their grasp of truth, and as zealous in spreading it, as in their younger days; but, alas, it must be confessed it is often otherwise, for the love of many grows cold and iniquity abounds. Yet this is their own sin, and not the fault of the promise, which still holds good: "The youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall; but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Fretful spirits sit down and trouble themselves about the future. "Alas," they say, "we go from affliction to affliction." Very true, O you of little faith; but then you go from strength to strength also. You shall never find a bundle of affliction that has not bound up in the midst of it sufficient grace. God will give the strength of ripe manhood along with the burden allotted to full-grown shoulders.