Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Spurgeon on Our Chief Tormentors

"Many of God's people are constantly under apprehensions of calamities which will never occur to them, and they suffer far more in merely dreading them than they would have to endure if they actually came upon them. In their imagination, there are rivers in their way, and they are anxious to know how they shall wade through them, or swim across them. There are no such rivers in existence, but they are agitated and distressed about them....They stab themselves with imaginary daggers, they starve themselves in imaginary famines, and even bury themselves in imaginary graves. Such strange creatures are we that we probably smart more under blows which never fall upon us than we do under those which do actually come. The rod of God does not smite us as sharply as the rod of our own imagination does; our groundless fears are our chief tormentors."

From C. H. Spurgeon's sermon, "Our Needless Fears," quoted in
Will Medicine Stop the Pain?: Finding God's Healing for Depression, Anxiety & Other Troubling Emotions by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Laura Hendrickson, M.D.

2 comments:

KP said...

You're most welcome. That passage struck my own heart so I posted it in hope that it would be helpful to someone else. I appreciate your letting me know it was.

read with open eyes said...

Are the calamities that do come worse for our having feared them? Job 3:25: For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.