QBC DAILY NUGGET
Saturday, April 4, 2026

PSALM 42:5 – “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation.”

THEME OF THE DAY: THOSE INWARD TRIALS.  The Puritans called it spiritual desertion or spiritual winter.  This spiritual condition was often caused by a lack of the sense of God’s Presence in love, grace, and power.  It almost always came with a lack of assurance in the believer’s heart. These Puritan pastors known as physicians of the soul wrote extensively about this painful experience. One was Christopher Love. In his book, Grace, the Truth and Growth and Different Degrees, he wrote, “A child of light may walk in darkness for a time, and though he has the Holy Ghost working grace and increasing grace in his heart, yet, he may want (lack) the oil of gladness, though he has received a precious anointing of grace.”

Here is an important truth as we too experience spiritual desertion or winter; God is most at work in us during these seasons. And for our encouragement, here is a poem.  Read it. Put it in your Bible and visit it often.  It will encourage us during those dark spiritual times. It is titled Inward Trials by John Newton (1725-1807)

I asked the Lord that I might grow,
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek, more earnestly, His face.

‘Twas He who taught me thus to pray
And He, I trust, has answered prayer!
But it has been in such a way,
As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favoured hour,
At once He’d answer my request;
And by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand
He seemed intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

Lord, why is this, I trembling cried,
Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?
“‘Tis in this way,” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and faith.”

“These inward trials I employ,
From self, and pride, to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”

PRAYER. Father, may I learn to walk by faith when all seems dark in my heart, trusting You without wavering.

REFLECTION:  We fight darkness and feelings by the Word of God just like the saints who went before us.