Rev. William Bridge
Bridge addresses those believers who are unsettled on account of changing circumstances.
GRANTED your condition may be more unsettled than that of others. If God has no design but love upon you in your unsettlement, then surely you have no reason to be troubled because of this.
Now, I ask, why does the Lord permit the condition of His people to be so unsettled in the world? It is that they may settle upon Himself. Oh, says a gracious heart, I see there is no abiding place here; therefore I look for one that is to come, that has foundation. Had I been settled in the world, I should have never been fixed upon God Himself; but being unsettled in the world, I learn to settle upon God Himself. God therefore empties His children from vessel to vessel, from condition to condition, that their filthy scent may not remain, (Jer. 48:11).
Beloved, there is no condition here below, that is able to grasp or hold the love of God to His children. Every condition is too narrow a vessel to hold the love of God in. Therefore God leads His people into several conditions, that so He may have the fuller vent for His love. So long as you are in one condition, you do not see or observe your own self and behaviour therein, and therefore God leads you into a new condition, that you may see what you were like in your former condition.
For example: when a man is in health, he does not observe his own behaviour in the days of health. Therefore God leads him into sickness, and when he is sick then he observes what his behaviour was when he was in health. Then, says that man, how wonton was I, how worldly was I, how vain was I, when I was in health! But when a man is sick, then he does not observe his behaviour in that condition. Therefore God leads him into health again, and when he is in health then he sees what his behaviour was while he was sick; and then, says he, how froward was I, how impatient was I, when I was sick! I say, a man does not observe the present behaviour of his soul in his present condition, and therefore God leads him into a new condition, and then he sees what his behaviour was in the old condition.