Arise and Depart

“Arise ye and depart.” – Micah 2:10

Sometimes the believer is drawn and weaned from the earth. But if we are not disposed to lessen our connection with this world, the Lord knows how to drive as well as to draw us. He can put a thorn in our nest and cause us to flutter out to the edge of it, there to sit like a bird ready to fly toward heaven. If we become careless and high-minded and, like David, say, “In my prosperity I shall never be moved”, then we shall be made to say with him, “Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled.”

We are liable to become slothful and to fall asleep at our post and it is no little thing sometimes that will wake us. But God can strike very hard and will do so if necessary; and instead of complaining about this, we should rather be grateful that he is determined that we shall not take up with anything down here as our portion, and that he should say by his providence, as well as by his word, “Arise and depart, for this is not your rest”; look toward heaven, go and take hold of everlasting grace. And the trials and disappointments of earth will never do us good until they have produced this result.

If we only dispute and fret, our afflctions have as yet done nothing effectual for us. But when they cause us to turn from earth to heaven, from time to eternity, from the creature to God, then they are working for our good, and made to yield unto us the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

From every earthly pleasure,
From every transient joy,
From every mortal treasure,
That soon will fade and die;
No longer these desiring,
Upward our wishes tend,
To nobler bless aspiring,
And joys that never end.

– William Jay