But Lord, they do not look like chariots. They look instead like enemies, sufferings, trials, defeats, misunderstandings, disappointments, unkindnesses; juggernaut cars of misery and wretchedness that are only waiting to roll over us and crush us into the earth.

But they are chariots; chariots of triumph in which we may rise to those very heights of victory for which our souls have been longing and praying.

Earthly chariots are subject to the laws of matter and may be hindered or overturned; God’s chariots are controlled by spiritual forces, and triumph over all hindering things!

“Tens of thousands” says the text; and although our spiritual eyes may not as yet have been opened to see them, all around us on every side they must be waiting for us.

“And Elisha prayed, ‘Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.’ Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17).

Chariots the King of Syria was unable to see, nor could the servant of the prophet see them. But the prophet himself sat calmly in his house without fear—his eyes had been opened to see the invisible. Now, what he asked for his servant was, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.”

Open our eyes that we may see!

I have not a shadow of a doubt that if all our eyes were opened today we would see our homes, our places of business, the streets we traverse, filled with the “chariots of God.” There is no need for any one of us to walk for lack of a chariot in which to ride: that cross inmate of your household, who has hitherto made life a burden to you and who had been the juggernaut car to crush your soul into the very dust, may henceforth be a glorious chariot to carry you to the heights of heavenly patience and long-suffering; that misunderstanding, that mortification, that unkindness, that disappointment, that loss, that defeat—these are the chariots waiting to carry you to those places of victory you have so often longed to reach.

Somewhere in the trial His will must be hidden, and you must accept His will whether known or unknown, and so hide yourself in His invisible arms of love. Say, “Thy will be done! Thy will be done!” again and again.

Shut out every other thought but the one thought of submission to His will and of trust in His love. Thus will you find yourself riding with God in a way you never dreamed could be.

No words can express the glorious places to which that soul shall arrive who travels in the chariots of God! Would you ride on the high places of the earth?

Then get into the chariots that will take you there! HANNAH WHITALL SMITH