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Spurgeon's Morning & Evening Devotions
Morning, May 6
"He led them forth by the right way." - Psalm 107:7
Changeful experience often leads the anxious believer to enquire "Why is it
thus with me?" I looked for light, but lo, darkness came; for peace, but behold
trouble. I said in my heart, my
mountain standeth firm, I shall never be moved. Lord, thou dost hide thy face,
and I am troubled.
It was but yesterday that I could read my title clear; to-day my evidences are
bedimmed, and my hopes are clouded. Yesterday I could climb to Pisgah's top,
and view the landscape o'er, and rejoice with confidence in my future
inheritance; to-day, my spirit has no hopes, but many fears; no joys, but much
distress. Is this part of God's plan with me? Can this be the way in which God
would bring me to heaven? Yes, it is even so.
The eclipse of your faith, the darkness of your mind, the fainting of your
hope, all these things are but parts of God's method of making you ripe for the
great inheritance upon which you shall soon enter. These trials are for the
testing and strengthening of your faith-they are waves that wash you further
upon the rock-they are winds which waft your ship the more swiftly towards the
desired haven. According to David's words, so it might be said of you, "so he
bringeth them to their desired haven."
By honour and dishonour, by evil report and by good report, by plenty and by
poverty, by joy and by distress, by persecution and by peace, by all these
things is the life of your souls
maintained, and by each of these are you helped on your way. Oh, think not,
believer, that your sorrows are out of God's plan; they are necessary parts of
it. "We must, through much
tribulation, enter the kingdom. " Learn, then, even to "count it all joy when
ye fall into divers temptations. "
"O let my trembling soul be still,
And wait thy wise, thy holy will!
I cannot, Lord, thy purpose see,
Yet all is well since ruled by thee."
Evening, May 6
"Behold, thou art fair, my Beloved." - Song of Solomon 1:16
>From every point our Well-beloved is most fair. Our various experiences are
>meant by our heavenly Father to furnish fresh standpoints from which we may
>view the loveliness of Jesus; how amiable are our trials when they carry us
>aloft where we may gain clearer views of Jesus than ordinary life could afford
>us! We have seen him from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon,
>and he has shone upon us as the sun in his strength; but we have seen him also
>"from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards," and he has lost
>none of his loveliness. From the languishing of a sick bed, from the borders
>of the grave, have we turned our eyes to our soul's spouse, and he has never
>been otherwise than "all fair."
Many of his saints have looked upon him from the gloom of dungeons, and from
the red flames of the stake, yet have they never uttered an ill word of him,
but have died extolling his
surpassing charms. Oh, noble and pleasant employment to be for ever gazing at
our sweet Lord Jesus! Is it not unspeakably delightful to view the Saviour in
all his offices, and to
perceive him matchless in each?-to shift the kaleidoscope, as it were, and to
find fresh combinations of peerless graces? In the manger and in eternity, on
the cross and on his throne, in the garden and in his kingdom, among thieves or
in the midst of cherubim, he is everywhere "altogether lovely." Examine
carefully every little act of his life, and every trait of his character, and
he is as lovely in the minute as in the majestic.
Judge him as you will, you cannot censure; weigh him as you please, and he will
not be found wanting. Eternity shall not discover the shadow of a spot in our
Beloved, but rather, as ages
revolve, his hidden glories shall shine forth with yet more inconceivable
splendour, and his unutterable loveliness shall more and more ravish all
celestial minds.
============================================
Daily devotions for 05-08-2005:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: He Healed Them All
Evening Title: Waiting for a Wonder
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Morning: He Healed Them All
"Great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all." --Matthew 12:15
What a mass of hideous sickness must have thrust itself under the eye of Jesus!
Yet we read not that He was disgusted, but patiently waited on every case. What
a singular variety of evils must have met at His feet! What sickening ulcers
and putrefying sores! Yet He was ready for every new shape of the monster evil,
and was victor over it in every form. Let the arrow fly from what quarter it
might, He quenched its fiery power.
The heat of fever, or the cold of dropsy; the lethargy of palsy, or the rage of
madness; the
filth of leprosy, or the darkness of ophthalmia--all knew the power of His
word, and
fled at His command. In every corner of the field He was triumphant over evil,
and received the
homage of delivered captives. He came, He saw, He conquered everywhere. It is
even so this morning.
Whatever my own case may be, the beloved Physician can heal me; and whatever
may be the
state of others whom I may remember at this moment in prayer, I may have hope
in Jesus that He will be able to heal them of their sins. My child, my friend,
my dearest one, I can have hope for each, for all, when I remember the healing
power of my Lord; and on my own account, however severe my struggle with sins
and infirmities, I may yet be of good cheer. He who on earth walked the
hospitals, still dispenses His grace, and works wonders among the sons of men:
let me go to Him at once in right earnest.
Let me praise Him, this morning, as I remember how He wrought His spiritual
cures, which bring Him most renown. It was by taking upon Himself our
sicknesses. "By His stripes we are healed."
The Church on earth is full of souls healed by our beloved Physician; and the
inhabitants of
heaven itself confess that "He healed them all."
Come, then, my soul, publish abroad the virtue of His grace, and let it be "to
the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign which shall not be cut off."
Evening: Waiting for a Wonder
"Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." --John 5:8
Like many others, the impotent man had been waiting for a wonder to be wrought,
and a sign to be given. Wearily did he watch the I pool, but no angel came, or
came not for him; yet, thinking it to be his only chance, he waited still, and
knew not that there was One near him whose word could heal him in a moment.
Many are in the same plight: they are waiting for some singular emotion,
remarkable impression, or celestial vision; they wait in vain and watch for
nought.
Even supposing that, in a few cases, remarkable signs are seen, yet these are
rare, and no man has a right to look for them in his own case; no man
especially who feels his impotency to avail himself of the moving of the water
even if it came. It is a very sad reflection that tens of thousands are now
waiting in the use of means, and ordinances, and vows, and resolutions, and
have so waited time out of mind, in vain, utterly in vain.
Meanwhile these poor souls forget the present Saviour, who bids them look unto
Him and be
saved. He could heal them at once, but they prefer to wait for an angel and a
wonder. To
trust Him is the sure way to every blessing, and He is worthy of the most
implicit confidence; but unbelief makes them prefer the cold porches of
Bethesda to the warm bosom of His love. O that the Lord may turn His eye upon
the multitudes who are in this case to-night; may He forgive the slights which
they put upon His divine power, and call them by that sweet constraining voice,
to rise from the bed of despair, and in the energy of faith take up their bed
and walk. O Lord, hear our prayer for all such at this calm hour of sunset, and
ere the day breaketh may they look and live.
Courteous reader, is there anything in this portion for you?
===============================================
Daily devotions for 05-09-2005:
Devotion: Morning and Evening
Morning Title: Knowledge of Our Faith
Evening Title: Truly Know God
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Morning: Knowledge of Our Faith
"She that was healed wist not who it was." --1John 5:13
Years are short to the happy and healthy; but thirty-eight years of disease
must have dragged a very weary length along the life of the poor impotent man.
When Jesus, therefore, healed him by a word, while he lay at the pool of
Bethesda, he was delightfully sensible of a change. Even so the sinner who has
for weeks and months been paralyzed with despair, and has wearily sighed for
salvation, is very conscious of the change when the Lord Jesus speaks the word
of power, and gives joy and peace in believing. The evil removed is too great
to be removed without our discerning it; the life imparted is too remarkable to
be possessed and remain inoperative; and the change wrought is too marvellous
not to be perceived. Yet the poor man was ignorant of the author of his cure;
he knew not the sacredness of His person, the offices which he sustained, or
the errand which brought Him among men. Much ignorance of Jesus may remain in
hearts which yet feel the power of His blood.
We must not hastily condemn men for lack of knowledge; but where we can see the
faith which saves the soul, we must believe that salvation has been bestowed.
The Holy Spirit makes men penitents long before He makes them divines; and he
who believes what he knows, shall soon know more clearly what he believes.
Ignorance is, however, an evil; for this poor man was much tantalized by the
Pharisees, and was quite unable to cope with them. It is good to be able to
answer gainsayers; but we cannot do so if we know not the Lord Jesus clearly
and with understanding. The cure of his ignorance,
however, soon followed the cure of his infirmity, for he was visited by the
Lord in the temple; and after that gracious manifestation, he was found
testifying that "it was Jesus who had made him whole." Lord, if Thou hast saved
me, show me Thyself, that I may declare Thee to the sons of men.
Evening: Truly Know God
"Acquaint now thyself with Him." --Job 22:21
If we would rightly "acquaint ourselves with God, and be at peace," we must
know Him as He has revealed Himself, not only in the unity of His essence and
subsistence, but also in the
plurality of His persons. God aid, "Let us make man in our own image"--let not
man be content until he knows something of the "us" from whom his being was
derived. Endeavour to know the Father; bury your head in His bosom in deep
repentance, and confess that you are not worthy to be called His son; receive
the kiss of His love; let the ring which is the token of His eternal
faithfulness be on your finger; sit at His table and let your heart make merry
in His
grace. Then press forward and seek to know much of the Son of God who is the
brightness of His Father's glory, and yet in unspeakable condescension of grace
became man for our sakes; know Him in the singular complexity of His nature:
eternal God, and yet suffering, finite man; follow Him as He walks the waters
with the tread of deity, and as He sits upon the well in the weariness of
humanity.
Be not satisfied unless you know much of Jesus Christ as your Friend, your
Brother, your
Husband, your all. Forget not the Holy Spirit; endeavour to obtain a clear view
of His nature
and character, His attributes, and His works.
Behold that Spirit of the Lord, who first of all moved upon chaos, and brought
forth order; who
now visits the chaos of your soul, and creates the order of holiness. Behold
Him as the Lord and giver of spiritual life, the Illuminator, the Instructor,
the Comforter, and the Sanctifier.
Behold Him as, like holy unction, He descends upon the head of Jesus, and then
afterwards rests upon you who are as the skirts of His garments.
Such an intelligent, scriptural, and experimental belief in the Trinity in
Unity is yours if you
truly know God; and such knowledge brings peace indeed.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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