When your own emptiness is painfully forced upon your consciousness

Please note that I have updated some the wording of this excerpt and edited it with bracketed additions[].

“By all the castings down of His servants, God is glorified, for we are led to magnify Him when again He sets us upon our feet, and even while prostrate in the dust our faith yields Him praise.
[For it is here that we gain a proper perspective of ourselves, who by our sin have reduced ourselves to dust.] It is here that we speak all the more sweetly of His faithfulness, and are the more firmly established in His love.
[The great champions of faith] could scarcely have been produced if they had not been emptied from vessel to vessel, and made to see their own emptiness and the vanity of all things round about them.
Glory be to God for the furnace, the hammer, and the file. Heaven shall be all the fuller of bliss because we have been filled with anguish here below, and earth shall be better tilled because of our training in the school of adversity.
The lesson of wisdom is, be not dismayed by soul-trouble.
Count it no strange thing, but a part of ordinary [living the faith] experience, [as St. Paul testifies of it in Romans 7].
Should the power of depression be more than ordinary, think not that all is over with your usefulness.
Do not cast away your confidence, for it has great recompense of reward.
Even if the enemy’s foot be on your neck, expect to rise and overthrow him.
Cast the burdens of the present, along with the sins of the past and the fears of the future, upon the Lord, who does not forsake His saints.
Live by the day, and yes, by the hour.
Put no trust in frames and feelings.
Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement.
Trust in God alone, and lean not on the reeds of human help.
Be not surprised when friends fail you: it is a failing world.
Never count upon immutability in man: you may count on inconstancy without fear of disappointment.
The disciples of Jesus forsook Him; be not amazed if your [friends an even family leave and forsake you, for they never belonged to you and your life is not found in them.] [A]ll is not gone from you with their departure.
Serve God with all your might while the candle is burning, and then when it goes out for a season, you will have the less to regret.
Be content to be nothing, for that is what you are.
When your own emptiness [or nothingness] is painfully forced upon your consciousness, chide yourself that you ever dreamed of being full [or something more], except in the Lord [Jesus Christ].
Set small store the rewards [this world today]; be grateful for [the divine promises and works of God through His Word and Sacraments along your] way, [and] look for the recompensing joy hereafter [in the place Christ has prepared].
Continue with double dedication to serve your Lord when no visible result is before you.
Any simpleton can follow the narrow path in the light: faith’s rare wisdom enables us to march on in the dark with infallible accuracy, since [faith receives the hand] of our great Guide.
Between this and heaven there may be rougher weather yet. Nevertheless, it is all provided for by our Head, [Jesus Christ].
In nothing let us be turned aside from the path that the [Word of God] has urged us to pursue.
Come fair or come foul, the [life of faith is our station, and living the faith is our way] when we cannot see the face of God, [so that we might trust in Him all the more while dwelling] under the shadow of His wings.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Minister’s Prayer Book
John W. Doberstein - Pg. 226-227