Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: March 21st

Show me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. - Psalms 25:4.

BY the “way” and “paths of the Lord,” concerning which the Psalmist sought divine instruction and direction, we understand the way in which his people walk in regard to him; and these are called his ways, because he appoints them, and because he enjoins us to walk in them. Thus the apostle says, “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Our walking in them means our obedience to his commands. We read of “walking in the fear of the Lord,” and of “walking in love.” We read also of the “way of truth,” of the “way of holiness,” and of the “way everlasting.” When, therefore, David said, “Teach me thy way, O God; I will walk in thy paths;” “I will meditate on thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways;” “Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I will keep it unto the end,”-in all these instances he means the way in which we walk with regard to God, when we are yielding obedience to his injunctions.

There are persons who speak much of God’s commandments under the Law, who yet despise the chief of them under the gospel. For, as the Apostle John says, “This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.” Now, until this command of God be complied with, it is in vain to urge upon people their obligations to obedience; but when we are in Christ, walking in a state of union and communion with him, by faith receiving succours from him as our Head of influence, as well as supplies from him as our Head of government, then, with regard to walking in the way of his statutes generally, we are furnished with inclination as well as with ability; and then, when the Saviour says, “Deny thyself; take up thy cross and follow me;” when we are commanded to “pray without ceasing;” when he says, “Repair to my house; come to my table; walk so as to please me, and abound therein more and more;” when any Of these injunctions thus come from him, oh, then it is pleasing to walk in his ways, and the Christian can say, “Oh that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!”

“Make me to walk in thy commands;

’Tis a delightful road;

Nor let my head, or heart, or hands,

Offend against my God.”

Whose faith follow. - Hebrews 13:7.

EVERYBODY feels the force of the common adage, that example is above precept; and the Bible contains examples worthy our imitation. Let us, therefore, ascertain our models. The principal of these examples is indeed the example of the Lord of life and glory. He it is who is the image of the invisible God, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Other examples are occasionally useful. With these the Scripture abounds. We have the example of the servants, as well as of the Master. And we are commanded to set our feet in the foot-prints of the flock. We are to be followers of them “who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” The Apostle here refers in general to the patriarchs and prophets of ancient times. With these holy men we have an intimate connection, remotely as they lived from us, as to time and place. “They that are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” “Now we, then, as Isaac was, are the children of the promise.” Jacob wrestled with God, and prevailed, and was immediately knighted on the field, and surnamed by the name of Israel; and such honour have all the saints. He has not said to the seed of Jacob, “Seek ye me in vain.” “In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory.” Passing over successive generations, passing by princes, heroes, statesmen, and scholars, the Apostle points us to a small company distinguished chiefly by their communion with God and their obedience to him. And as this distinction is everything in the view of the Supreme Being, so it should also be in our estimation.

Let us, therefore, judge of men by their real worth; by their intellectual, moral, and religious character. The righteous are the excellent of the earth; they are more excellent than their neighbours; it is for them kingdoms are preserved or delivered from judgments; it is for them that God confers and continues blessings; it is for them that the earth itself is in being. These men lived also under a dispensation very inferior to our own. Yet such was their improvement of their means and privileges, that they are deemed worthy to be held forth as examples to us, upon whom the ends of the world are come. We cannot, therefore, judge of men solely by their situation and external advantages. Some plants of righteousness, who are fixed in a very unfavourable soil, bring forth more of the fruits of righteousness than others who are planted in the house of the Lord. Thus, “the first shall be last, and the last first.” We may observe, also, that these men had their faults and their infirmities, and are never represented in the Scriptures as perfect. But their imperfections are not to render us insensible to their excellencies; the evil in them is not to hinder us from following the good that was in them.

In reading the address of our Saviour to the seven churches, we may remark how in each case he seems to labour to find something to eulogize before he is constrained to condemn. May the same mind be in us which was also in him; and let us keep in view our models, that we be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.