[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-0922":3},"SEPTEMBER 22\r\nAnd the Lord said ... Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail\r\nnot (Luke 22.31,32).\r\nOur faith is the center of the target at which God doth shoot when He tries us; and if any other grace shall escape untried, certainly  faith shall not There is no way of piercing faith to its very\r\nmarrow like the sticking of the arrow of desertion into it, this finds it out whether it be of immortals or no. Strip it of its\r\narmor of conscious enjoyment and suffer the terrors of the Lord to set themselves in array against it; and that is faith indeed which\r\ncan escape unhurt from the midst of the attack. Faith must be\r\ntried, and seeming desertion is the furnace, heated seven times, into which it might be thrust Blest the man who can endure the    ordeal! --C. H. Spurgeon.\r\nPaul said, \"I have kept the faith,\" but he lost his head! They cut that off, but it didn't touch his faith. He rejoiced in three\r\nthings this great Apostle to the Gentiles; he had \"fought a good\r\nfight\" he had \"finished his course,\" he had \"kept the faith.\" What did all the rest amount to? St Paul won the race; he gained the\r\nprize, and he has not only the admiration of earth today, but the admiration of Heaven. Why do we not act as if it paid to lose all  to win Christ? Why are we not loyal to truth as he was? Ah, we\r\nhaven't hir arithmetic. He counted differently from us; we count\r\nthe things gain that he counted loss. We must have his faith, and keep it if we would wear the same crown.",1783499793876]