Kim from Hiraeth posted a wonderful quote from Charles Spurgeon about Romans 1:17, “The just shall live by faith.” You can find it here.

Kim’s post reminded me of a portion from Darlene Diebler Rose’s book, Evidence Not Seen. Russell and Darlene Diebler were missionaries to New Guinea who were taken captive by Japanese soldiers during World War II and put into prison camps, separated from each other. Russell died of illness during his imprisonment in the men’s camp. Darlene was eventually transferred to death row. She writes:

I knew without God, without that consciousness of His presence in every troubled hour, I could never have made it. “Lord, don’t ever leave me or forsake me. Your wonderful presence has made this cell a place of beauty; a sacred place like a chapel lighted by Your presence.”

Quite suddenly and unexpectedly, I felt enveloped in a spiritual vacuum. “Lord, where have You gone? What have I said or done to grieve You? Why have You withdrawn Your presence from me? O Father–.” In panic I jumped to my feet, my heart frantically searching for a hidden sin, for a careless thought, for any reason why my Lord should have withdrawn His presence from me. My prayers, my expressions of worship, seemed to go no higher than the ceiling; there seemed to be no sounding board. I prayed for forgiveness, for the Holy Spirit to search my heart. To none of my petitions was there any apparent response.

“Lord, I believe all that the Bible says. I do walk by faith and not by sight. I do not need to feel You near, because Your Word says You will never leave me nor forsake me. Lord, I confirm my faith; I believe.” The words of Hebrews 11:1 welled up, unbeckoned, to fill my mind: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The evidence of things not seen. Evidence not seen–that was what I put my trust in–not in feelings or moments of ecstasy, but in the unchanging Person of Jesus Christ. Suddenly I realized I was singing:

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and storm gale,
My anchor holds withing the veil.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

I was assured that my faith rested not on feelings, not on moments of ecstasy, but on the Person of my matchless, changeless Savior, in Whom is no shadow of turning. In a measure I felt I understood what Job meant when he declared, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (Job 13:15). Job knew that he could trust God, because Job knew the character of the On in Whom he had put his trust. It was faith stripped of feelings, faith without trappings. More than ever before, I knew that I could ever and always put my trust, my faith, in my glorious Lord. I encouraged myself in the Lord and His Word.

If you haven’t read Evidence Not Seen, I recommend that you put it on your ‘must read’ list! It’s among those I return to again and again; a story of a woman to whom God showed himself faithful in marvelous ways under very difficult circumstances. Read it and worship our faithful God.