Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: February 1st

For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred? - Esther 8:6.

RELATIVE affection, so far from being sinful, is amiable and praiseworthy. Alas, there are but few Christians but have some irreligious friends and relations. Surely for them they may and ought to be peculiarly concerned. There is a father who is thinking of his unruly son, and saying, “My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.” There is a sister sorrowing over an ungodly brother; a believing wife mourning over an unbelieving husband. And how natural it is, how becoming, thus to say with Esther, “How can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?” But the concern of the Christian is not to be confined here. It must reach others; it must extend to strangers, and even to enemies. It must cause us to resemble Paul, who said to Agrippa, “I would to God that not only thou, but all that hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.” This disposition is always the result of divine grace. Divine grace always produces a concern for the welfare of others. A Christian cannot conceal the rich and heavenly stores he has discovered, but will rather be for making them known. As the woman of Samaria felt, so will be his feelings and conduct: he will say,-

“Now will I tell to sinners round

What a dear Saviour I have found;

I’ll point to his redeeming blood,

And say, Behold the way to God.”

Nor have Christians to go out of their own proper stations for this, but may preach to their children, their servants, their friends, and their neighbours. They need not go abroad as foreign missionaries, but they may be Home Missionaries,-such as our Saviour would make the delivered demoniac. He besought the Saviour that he might be with him. No, says he; but, “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee.” All Christians are under a twofold obligation to do this. First, An obligation of gratitude. Where much has been forgiven, the same ought to love much.

And, Secondly, An obligation of duty. We should, therefore, seek to be useful. We may go to our fellow-sinners and say, I was once in the same state with you; oh that you were now in the same condition with me! Oh that the Lord would open my mouth, that I might show you what a change I have experienced in having been delivered from this present evil world, from the Bower of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son! Oh, come, taste, and see for yourselves ‘that the Lord is good. Thus we have seen that a man cannot keep his religion to himself. If he has any it will show itself; “for we cannot,” said the apostles, “but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” “And,” says our Saviour, “if these should hold their peace, the very stones would cry out.”

Turn ye unto me. - Zechariah 1:3.

WE have turned away from God, and the language of the Church well becomes us: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.” This being the case, religion must always commence with a turning unto the Lord. The very meaning of the word conversion is turning-from darkness to light-from sin to holiness -from the creature to God-as our end, our resting-place, and our portion.

But this will never take place without a deep conviction of the wrongness and danger of the state we are in, and of the course we are pursuing, as well as of the importance and necessity of our being united to the blessed God, with whom is the fountain of life, and who alone can “supply all our need from his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” This conviction the Holy Ghost produces, and under the influence of it the turning to God will be immediate and without delay. “I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.” It will he penitential; there will be a “sorrowing after a godly sort” that we have ever forsaken him. Under this conviction we shall turn to him fully, not merely forsaking some sins which are of easy abandonment, and performing some duties which are of easy execution, but the change will be entire.

We shall seek him with our whole heart; “for we cannot serve God and mammon.” David therefore says: “I esteem all thy commandments concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way.” This turning will be evangelical. There is no turning to God aright but through the Mediator- or it will be turning towards a “consuming fire,” for such God is out of Christ. It is only in the Son of his love that he is approachable. “I am the way,” says he. “No man cometh unto the Father but by me.”

It is thus we came to God at first. It is thus we must come to God always. It is only here that we can find boldness and access with confidence, and as we thus submit ourselves to the righteousness that is of God, we are accepted in the beloved, and have the testimony that we please God.