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Daily devotions for 02-10-2005:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: The Danger of Abounding
Evening Title: Return to Him
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Morning: The Danger of Abounding
"I know how to abound." --Philippians 4:12
There are many who know "how to be abased" who have not learned "how to
abound." When they are set upon the top of a pinnacle their heads grow dizzy,
and they are ready to fall. The Christian far oftener disgraces his profession
in prosperity than in adversity. It is a dangerous
thing to be prosperous. The crucible of adversity is a less severe trial to the
Christian than the
fining-pot of prosperity. Oh, what leanness of soul and neglect of spiritual
things have been
brought on through the very mercies and bounties of God! Yet this is not a
matter of necessity, for the apostle tells us that he knew how to abound. When
he had much he knew how to use it.
Abundant grace enabled him to bear abundant prosperity. When he had a full sail
he was oaded with much ballast, and so floated safely. It needs more than human
skill to carry the brimming cup of mortal joy with a steady hand, yet Paul had
learned that skill, for he declares, "In all things I am instructed both to be
full and to be hungry." It is a divine lesson to know how to be full, for the
Israelites were full once, but while the flesh was yet in their mouth, the
wrath of God came upon them.
Many have asked for mercies that they might satisfy their own hearts' lust.
Fulness of bread
has often made fulness of blood, and that has brought on wantonness of spirit.
When we have
much of God's providential mercies, it often happens that we have but little of
God's grace,
and little gratitude for the bounties we have received. We are full and we
forget God:
satisfied with earth, we are content to do without heaven. Rest assured it is
harder to know
how to be full than it is to know how to be hungry--so desperate is the
tendency of human
nature to pride and forgetfulness of God. Take care that you ask in your
prayers that God would teach you "how to be full."
"Let not the gifts Thy love bestows
Estrange our hearts from Thee."
Evening: Return to Him
"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy
sins: return
unto Me; for I have redeemed thee." --Isaiah 44:22
Attentively observe THE INSTRUCTIVE SIMILITUDE:
our sins are like a cloud. As clouds are of many shapes and shades, so are our
transgressions. As clouds obscure the light of the sun, and darken the
landscape beneath, so do our sins hide from us the light of Jehovah's face, and
cause us to sit in the shadow of death. They are earth-born things, and rise
from the miry places of our nature; and when so collected that their measure is
full, they threaten us with storm and tempest.
Alas! that, unlike clouds, our sins yield us no genial showers, but rather
threaten to deluge us
with a fiery flood of destruction. O ye black clouds of sin, how can it be fair
weather with
our souls while ye remain?
Let our joyful eye dwell upon THE NOTABLE ACT of divine mercy--"blotting out."
God Himself appears upon the scene, and in divine benignity, instead of
manifesting His anger, reveals His grace: He at once and for ever effectually
removes the mischief, not by blowing away the cloud, but by blotting it out
from existence once for all.
Against the justified man no sin remains, the great transaction of the cross
has eternally
removed His transgressions from him. On Calvary's summit the great deed, by
which the sin of all the chosen was for ever put away, was completely and
effectually performed.
Practically let us obey THE GRACIOUS COMMAND, "return unto me."Why should
pardoned sinners live at a distance from their God? If we have been forgiven
all our sins, let no legal fear withhold us from the boldest access to our
Lord. Let backslidings be bemoaned, but let us not
persevere in them. To the greatest possible nearness of communion with the
Lord, let us, in
the power of the Holy Spirit, strive mightily to return. O Lord, this night
restore us!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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