Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: January 14th

The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. - Zephaniah 3:17.

HERE we have the divine sufficiency. This rises out of the relationship. A person, however, may be related to us, and he may even be with us, and yet not able to succour us. How often are we in conditions when, if the ear of friendship is not heavy that it cannot hear, the hand is shortened that it cannot save! But “is any thing too hard for the Lord?” says Abraham. “Once have I heard, this yea twice,” says David, “that power belongeth unto God.” Once there was no earth: “He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” Once there was no sun: he said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” And how is all this sustained? “He upholdeth all things by the word of his power.” Many frequently imagine that it is only the goodness of God they question, and not his power for they say, Who can question this? But did not the Jews question it, and after all the wonders which he had shown them?

Yea, they spake against God; they said, “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock that the water gushed out, and the streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people?” Yea, did not Moses himself question it? And Moses said, “The people among whom I am are six hundred thousand footmen, and thou hast said, I will give them flesh that they may eat a whole month: shall the flocks and herds be slain for them to suffice them? or shall the fish of the sea be gathered together to’ suffice them? And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord’s hand waxed short? Thou shalt see now whether my word shall not come to pass unto thee or not.”

And do not we, too, often question it? If not, why is it that we despond when difficulties multiply around us? He never knew what a difficulty meant, and never will. How is it that we begin to despond when means fail us? If he does not find a way he can always make a way for our escape. And, therefore, Christians may bring their faith to the comprehension, or rather to the apprehension, of his power.

Let us call to mind the case of Abraham, who had received a promise from God, the execution of which involved in it natural difficulties, yea, natural impossibilities; but he “staggered not at the promise through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.” The experience of Paul testifies to the same truth. “I am now,” says he, in his address to Timothy, “a suffering man, and shall soon be a dead one. I have finished my course, and the time of my departure is at hand, and I do not expect to depart from a bed of quietness, but from the axe of the executioner.” “Nevertheless I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day.”

And, oh, let. us remember he is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” There is no corruption in us but he is able to subdue; no want but he is able to relieve; no desire but he is able to accomplish. He is able to make us “more than conquerors.” He is able to “keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.” And when our body drops into the grave, and returns to corruption, he can “change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working by which he is able to subdue all things unto himself.” Praise we him therefore in the strains of the apostle:-“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy; to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever, Amen.”

And you … hath he reconciled. Colossians 1:21.

RECONCILED to whom? To God. How? In the body of his flesh through death. This reconciliation is effected alone through the mediation of him who died for us, and rose again; of which the Apostle speaks when he says, “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing unto them their trespasses.” We had provoked Jehovah, and he could easily and righteously have destroyed us. We lay entirely at his mercy, and we had no claim to his pity. But when he might have come against us in flaming fire with his holy angels, to take vengeance on us who knew him not, and did not obey him, behold he himself comes forward arrayed as the God of love.

There were difficulties in the way of our reconciliation; he removes them. A ransom was necessary; he provides it. A righteousness was requisite; he has wrought out and brought in everlasting righteousness. “He spared not his Son, but delivered him up for us all,” that we may have the assurance that “with him he will also freely give us all things.” And, oh, let us remember that in thus reconciling us, he did not wait for our submission and our application. He formed the plan himself, and he accomplished it; and “having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things to himself,” and having opened “a new and living way into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus,” he himself advances; he comes forward, he invites us, and he presses us, “who were alienated and enemies in our minds by wicked works,” to enter in.

Hid as we were among the trees of the garden by fear, the voice of thunder would only have driven us yet further off; but the still small voice of peace, saying unto us, “Be ye reconciled unto God,” draws us forth, brings us to his dear feet, encourages us to say, “O Lord, I will praise thee; though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me,” and to pray, “Lord, I am thine, save me; Lord, I am thine, employ me.”