The Roots of Endurance by John Piper

Author:John Piper
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Religion, Clergy
ISBN: 9781581348149
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2006-08-17T22:00:00+00:00

Ibid., pp. 59-60.

RootsofEndurance.44279.int.qxd 9/21/07 3:37 PM Page 106

106

T H E R O O T S O F E N D U R A N C E

forty-nine years. He said, “My dear brother, we must not mind a little suffering for Christ’s sake.”

The Deepest Root of Simeon’s Endurance

But where now did this remarkable power and all these forms and strategies of endurance come from? Simeon did not respond to trial and suffering the way ordinary humans respond.

Something else was at work here than a mere man. Beneath the forms of his endurance was a life of prayer and meditation that drew up resources for the battle from some deeper place. Both prayer and meditation were essential to tap the grace of God.

“Meditation is the grand means of our growth in grace; without it, prayer itself is an empty service.”53 A friend of Simeon’s named Housman lived with him for a few months and tells us about this discipline of prayer and the Word.

Simeon invariably arose every morning, though it was the winter season, at four o’clock; and, after lighting his fire, he devoted the first four hours of the day to private prayer and the devotional study of the Scriptures. . . . Here was the secret of his great grace and spiritual strength. Deriving instruction from such a source, and seeking it with such diligence, he was comforted in all his trials and prepared for every duty.54

Yes, it was a secret of his strength. But it was not the deepest secret. What Simeon experienced in the Word and prayer was 53

Ibid., pp. 137-138.

54

Ibid., p. 66.

RootsofEndurance.44279.int.qxd 9/21/07 3:37 PM Page 107

Charles Simeon

107

extraordinary. It is so utterly different from the counsel we receive today that it is worth looking at carefully.

Growing Downward in Humiliation Before God,

Upward in Adoration of Christ

Handley Moule captures the essence of Simeon’s secret of longevity in this sentence: “‘Before honor is humility,’ and he had been ‘ growing downwards’ year by year under the stern discipline of difficulty met in the right way, the way of close and adoring communion with God. ”55 Those two things were the heartbeat of Simeon’s inner life: growing downward in humility and growing upward in adoring communion with God.

But the remarkable thing about humiliation and adoration in the heart of Charles Simeon is that they were inseparable. Simeon was utterly unlike most of us today who think that we should get rid once and for all of feelings of vileness and unworthiness as soon as we can. For him, adoration only grew in the freshly plowed soil of humiliation for sin. So he actually labored to know his true sinfulness and his remaining corruption as a Christian.

I have continually had such a sense of my sinfulness as

would sink me into utter despair, if I had not an assured view of the sufficiency and willingness of Christ to save me to the uttermost. And at the same time I had such a

sense of my acceptance through Christ as would overset my little bark, if I had not ballast at the bottom sufficient to sink a vessel of no ordinary size.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.