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Daily devotions for 01-24-2005:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: Out of the Snare
Evening Title: Growing Tired of Service
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Morning: Out of the Snare
"Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler." --Psalm 91:3
God delivers His people from the snare of the fowler in two senses. From, and
out of. First, He
delivers them from the snare--does not let them enter it; and secondly, if they
should be caught therein, He delivers them out of it. The first promise is the
most precious to some; the second is the best to others.
"He shall deliver thee from the snare." How?
Trouble is often the means whereby God delivers us. God knows that our
backsliding will soon end in our destruction, and He in mercy sends the rod. We
say, "Lord, why is this?" not knowing that our trouble has been the means of
delivering us from far greater evil. Many have been thus saved from ruin by
their sorrows and their crosses; these have frightened the birds from the net.
At other times, God keeps His people from the snare of the fowler by giving
them great spiritual strength, so that when they are tempted to do evil they
say, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" But what a
blessed thing it is that if the believer shall, in an evil hour, come into the
net, yet God will bring him out of it!
O backslider, be cast down, but do not despair.
Wanderer though thou hast been, hear what thy Redeemer saith--"Return, O
backsliding children; I will have mercy upon you." But you say you cannot
return, for you are a captive. Then listen to the promise--"Surely He shall
deliver thee out of the snare of the fowler." Thou shalt yet be brought out of
all evil into which thou hast fallen, and though thou shalt never cease to
repent of thy ways, yet He that hath loved thee will not cast thee away; He
will receive thee, and give thee joy and gladness, that the bones which He has
broken may rejoice. No bird of paradise shall die in the fowler's net.
Evening: Growing Tired of Service
"Martha was cumbered about much serving." --Luke 10:40
Her fault was not that she served: the condition of a servant well becomes
every Christian. "I
serve," should be the motto of all the princes of the royal family of heaven.
Nor was it her fault
that she had "much serving." We cannot do too much. Let us do all that we
possibly can; let
head, and heart, and hands, be engaged in the Master's service. It was no fault
of hers that
she was busy preparing a feast for the Master.
Happy Martha, to have an opportunity of entertaining so blessed a guest; and
happy, too,
to have the spirit to throw her whole soul so heartily into the engagement. Her
fault was that
she grew "cumbered with much serving," so that she forgot Him, and only
remembered the service. She allowed service to override communion, and so
presented one duty stained with the blood of another. We ought to be Martha and
Mary in one:
we should do much service, and have much communion at the same time. For this
we need
great grace. It is easier to serve than to commune.
Joshua never grew weary in fighting with the Amalekites; but Moses, on the top
of the mountain in prayer, needed two helpers to sustain his hands. The more
spiritual the exercise, the sooner we tire in it. The choicest fruits are the
hardest to rear: the most heavenly graces are the most difficult to cultivate.
Beloved, while we do not neglect external things, which are good enough in
themselves, we ought also to see to it that we enjoy living, personal
fellowship with Jesus. See to it that sitting at the Saviour's feet is not
neglected, even though it be under the specious pretext of doing Him service.
The first thing for our soul's health, the first
thing for His glory, and the first thing for our own usefulness, is to keep
ourselves in perpetual
communion with the Lord Jesus, and to see that the vital spirituality of our
religion is
maintained over and above everything else in the world.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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