From the Writings of Hannah Whitall Smith

In God is Enough, a daily devotional containing excerpts from Hannah Whiteall Smith's writings, we read the following quote.  It originally appeared in The God of All Comfort, and was published in 1906.  It is equally true today.

Overadvertising or Undertrusting

The religion of the Lord Jesus Christ was meant to be full of comfort.  Every newly converted soul, in the first joy of conversion, fully expects it.  And yet it seems as if for a great number of Christians, their religious lives are the most uncomfortable part of their existence.  Does the fault of this state of things lie with the Lord?  Has He promised more than He is able to supply?

We know what overadvertisement is.  It is a twentieth-century disease from which we all suffer.  Everything is overadvertised.  Is it the same with the kingdom of God?  Has He deceived us?  There is a feeling abroad that Christ offered more in His gospel than He has to give.  People claim that they have not realized what was predicted as the portion of the children of God.

But why is this so?  Has the kingdom of God been overadvertised, or is it only that it has been underbelieved?  Has the Lord Jesus Christ been overestimated, or has He only been undertrusted?  I firmly believe that the kingdom of God cannot possibly be overadvertised nor the Lord Jesus Christ overestimated, for, "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).  This difficulty arises from the fact that we have underbelieved and undertrusted.