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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
Devotional: January 5th

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Morning Devotional

Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. - Job 5:7.

THUS we see there is an inheritance of grief, and to this patrimony all of Adam’s kind are heirs. Its possession is as sure to all the seed, as the laws of nature are inviolable. Some portions of our appointed lot are less painful than others, but, under every aspect in which we may view our earthly condition, we find that every situation, more or less, exposes us to trouble and sorrow. Life is a warfare, and earth, at best, is a vale of tears. Solomon in all his glory was not exempt from its disappointments and griefs. He had sought pleasure in its most favoured spots and sunniest aspects. All that wealth could purchase, or that skill could devise, or power command, failed in procuring an immunity for him from trouble. After exhausting its envied resources, and studying its universal history, he thus records the result of his extended observation and personal experience:-“All is vanity and vexation of spirit.”

And who is there of the children of men that has purchased an exemption from trial and temptation, from danger and disease, from woe and want? On every hand we find foes that molest and oppose us; cares that corrode us; fears that dismay us; bereavements to grieve us; and disappointment to confound us. Yea, in our very comforts we find the elements of the bitterest grief; in our possessions the sources of greatest peril; in our successes the excitements of envy and detraction; in our affections the seeds of anxiety and anguish; and in our connections the pledges of apprehension and separation; and “every drop of honey hides a sting.” As this is the common lot of all men, the apostle enjoins upon all sufferers, “not to think it strange concerning the fiery trials, as though some strange thing had happened unto them; knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in our brethren which are in the world.” For “there hath no temptation,” saith he, “taken you, but such as is common to man.” Religion does not exempt us from suffering, but it prepares us for it, and shows itself most to advantage when all other resources fail us.

While David said, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous,” he also added, “but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” And our Saviour says to his disciples, “In the world ye shall have tribulation;” but he also says, “In me ye shall have peace.”

Evening Devotional

If the Son shall make you free. - John 8:36.

THIS supposes a previous state of bondage. And the bondage from which the Son of God delivers us is twofold.

First, The bondage of condemnation. Sin always binds over the offender to penalty. Now no one by nature is free from this bondage-“Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law, to do them.” And who has ever done this? “There is none righteous, no, not one.” But who can lay open the contents of this curse? “Who knoweth,” says the Psalmist, “the power of thine anger: even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.” The apprehension of this wrath is tremendously awful, but the doom will far surpass the dread. There is the bondage, where is the Deliverer? The Son makes us free. He does this by his cross-by sacrifice, by ransom, by substitution, by “redeeming us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us,” by “bearing our sins in his own body on the tree.”

Secondly, There is the bondage of corruption. This takes in-the tyranny exercised over us by all our Spiritual enemies. We talk of liberty, “but of what a man is overcome, of the same is he brought into bondage.” Is he free who is the servant of sin-who is taken captive by the devil at his will-who hangs his hopes and fears upon the course of this world-who is governed, not by the convictions of his own mind, but by the smiles and frowns of his fellow-travellers, and approves better things and follows worse? There is the bondage; where is the Deliverer? The Son makes us free. He does this by his grace-by the undeserved and powerful agency of the Holy Spirit; and everything else will prove ineffectual.

The slave of sin resolves to escape; but attempting it in his own strength, he is overtaken, and is “tied and bound by the chain of his sin” faster than before. But when He who proclaims liberty to the captive comes and cries, “Loose him and let him go,” the poor captive is released-his fetters fall off-he gazes on his Deliverer, he melts into tears of sorrow, gratitude, and joy -he kneels, and asks, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” And he rises and says, “I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.” There is the bondage, there the Deliverer.

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