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Daily devotions for 04-30-2005:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: The Paths May Not Be Bright
Evening Title: Comprehensive Love
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Morning: The Paths May Not Be Bright
"Thou art my hope in the day of evil." --Jeremiah 17:17
The path of the Christian is not always bright with sunshine; he has his
seasons of darkness and of storm. True, it is written in God's Word, "Her ways
are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace;" and it is a great
truth, that religion is calculated to give a man happiness below as well as
bliss above; but experience tells us that if the course of the just be "As the
shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," yet sometimes
that light is eclipsed. At certain periods clouds cover the believer's sun, and
he walks in darkness and sees no light. There are many who have rejoiced in the
presence of God for a season; they have basked in the sunshine in the earlier
stages of their Christian career; they have walked along the "green pastures"
by the side of the "still waters," but suddenly they find the glorious sky is
clouded; instead of the Land of Goshen they have to tread the sandy desert; in
the place of sweet waters, they find troubled streams, bitter to their taste,
and they say, "Surely, if I were a child of God, this would not happen." Oh!
say not so, thou who art walking in darkness.
The best of God's saints must drink the wormwood; the dearest of His children
must bear the cross. No Christian has enjoyed perpetual prosperity; no believer
can always keep his harp from the willows. Perhaps the Lord allotted you at
first a smooth and unclouded path, because you were weak and timid. He tempered
the wind to the shorn lamb, but now that you are stronger in the spiritual
life, you must enter upon the riper and rougher experience of God's full-grown
children.
We need winds and tempests to exercise our faith, to tear off the rotten bough
of self-dependence, and to root us more firmly in Christ. The day of evil
reveals to us the value of our glorious hope.
Evening: Comprehensive Love
"The Lord taketh pleasure in His people." --Psalm 149:4
How comprehensive is the love of Jesus! There is no part of His people's
interests which He does not consider, and there is nothing which concerns their
welfare which is not important to Him. Not merely does He think of you,
believer, as an immortal being, but as a mortal being too. Do not deny it or
doubt it: "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." "The steps of a good
man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in His way" It were a sad thing
for us if this mantle of love did not cover all our concerns, for what mischief
might be wrought to us in that part of our business which did not come under
our gracious Lord's inspection! Believer, rest assured that the heart of Jesus
cares about your meaner affairs. The breadth of His tender love is such that
you may resort to Him in all matters; for in all your afflictions He is
afflicted, and like as a father pitieth his children, so doth He pity you. The
meanest interests of all His saints are all borne upon the broad bosom of the
Son of God. Oh, what a heart is His, that doth not merely comprehend the
persons of His people, but comprehends also the diverse and innumerable
concerns of all those persons!
Dost thou think, O Christian, that thou canst measure the love of Christ? Think
of what His
love has brought thee--justification, adoption, sanctification, eternal life!
The riches of His
goodness are unsearchable; thou shalt never be able to tell them out or even
conceive them. Oh, the breadth of the love of Christ! Shall such a love as this
have half our hearts? Shall it have a cold love in return? Shall Jesus'
marvellous lovingkindness and tender care meet with but faint response and
tardy acknowledgment? O my soul, tune thy harp to a glad song of
thanksgiving! Go to thy rest rejoicing, for thou art no desolate wanderer, but
a beloved child,
watched over, cared for, supplied, and defended by thy Lord.
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Daily devotions for 05-01-2005:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: Complaining Against God
Evening Title: His Thoughts Are On Us
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Morning: Complaining Against God
"And all the children of Israel murmured." --Numbers 14:2
There are murmurers amongst Christians now, as there were in the camp of Israel
of old. There are those who, when the rod falls, cry out against the afflictive
dispensation. They ask,
"Why am I thus afflicted? What have I done to be chastened in this manner?" A
word with thee, O murmurer! Why shouldst thou murmur against the dispensations
of thy heavenly Father? Can He treat thee more hardly than thou deservest?
Consider what a rebel thou wast once, but He has pardoned thee! Surely, if He
in His wisdom sees fit now to chasten thee, thou shouldst not complain. After
all, art thou smitten as hardly
as thy sins deserve? Consider the corruption which is in thy breast, and then
wilt thou wonder
that there needs so much of the rod to fetch it out? Weigh thyself, and discern
how much dross is mingled with thy gold; and dost thou think the fire too hot
to purge away so much dross as thou hast? Does not that proud rebellious spirit
of thine prove that thy heart is not thoroughly sanctified? Are not those
murmuring words contrary to the holy submissive nature of God's children?
Is not the correction needed? But if thou wilt murmur against the chastening,
take heed, for it
will go hard with murmurers. God always chastises His children twice, if they
do not bear the first stroke patiently. But know one thing--"He doth not
afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." All His corrections are
sent in love, to purify thee, and to draw thee nearer to Himself.
Surely it must help thee to bear the chastening with resignation if thou art
able to recognize
thy Father's hand. For "whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every
son whom He receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with
sons." "Murmur not as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the
destroyer."
Evening: His Thoughts Are On Us
"How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God." --Psalm 139:17
Divine omniscience affords no comfort to the ungodly mind, but to the child of
God it
overflows with consolation. God is always thinking upon us, never turns aside
His mind from
us, has us always before His eyes; and this is precisely as we would have it,
for it would be
dreadful to exist for a moment beyond the observation of our heavenly Father.
His thoughts
are always tender, loving, wise, prudent, far-reaching, and they bring to us
countless
benefits: hence it is a choice delight to remember them. The Lord always did
think upon His
people: hence their election and the covenant of grace by which their salvation
is secured; He
always will think upon them: hence their final perseverance by which they shall
be brought
safely to their final rest. In all our wanderings the watchful glance of the
Eternal Watcher is
evermore fixed upon us--we never roam beyond the Shepherd's eye. In our sorrows
He observes us incessantly, and not a pang escapes Him; in our toils He marks
all our weariness, and writes in His book all the struggles of His faithful
ones.
These thoughts of the Lord encompass us in all our paths, and penetrate the
innermost region of our being. Not a nerve or tissue, valve or vessel, of our
bodily organization is uncared
for; all the littles of our little world are thought upon by the great God.
Dear reader, is this precious to you? then hold to it. Never be led astray by
those philosophic
fools who preach up an impersonal God, and talk of self-existent,
self-governing matter. The Lord liveth and thinketh upon us, this is a truth
far too precious for us to be lightly robbed of it.
The notice of a nobleman is valued so highly that he who has it counts his
fortune made; but what is it to be thought of by the King of kings! If the Lord
thinketh upon us, all is well, and we
may rejoice evermore.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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