Welcome to the Femina Podcast.

This is Nancy Wilson.

Thanks for joining me today.

I have a quote for you today from the Puritan Thomas Brooks.

It comes from a book called Sermons of the Great Ejection,

an introduction to Puritan preaching, published by Banner of Truth.

So here it is. I more, that's E. Y.E. I, okay. I more, mind more, and lay to heart more

the spiritual and eternal workings of God in your souls than the external

providences of God in the world. Above all, look to the work that God is carrying on in your souls.

Beloved, there is a great weakness amongst Christians. They do so poor on the dark side of the Providence as they have no heart

to consider the bright side. There's something very useful in this quote for us. And first I'm going to

try to illustrate his point and make a few practical applications. What Brooks is saying here is that we tend to have our eye on

externals, on the hard providences in particular, the disappointments and challenges and provocations

rather than having our eye where he thinks we should, which is on what God is doing in our own

souls. What work is God doing in our hearts and minds and

souls? How is he using whatever hard providence you have to accomplish his work of sanctification

in you? Repeating part of that quote, Beloved, there is a great weakness amongst Christians. They do so

poor on the dark side of the Providence as they have no heart to consider the bright side.

Of course, it's much more natural for us to be taken up with how hard the winter weather has been,

what impossible bills are due, what illnesses afflict us and our loved

ones, or how others are not helping but hindering us. Brooks is suggesting that rather than letting

our mind be taken up with the sadness or difficulty of our trials, we should be considering

...