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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
Devotional: June 7th

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Morning Devotional

Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. - Psalms 116:7.

WHEN Christians call to remembrance their former experience, and review the dealings of God with them, how much there is in the retrospect to excite and to encourage them to return from their backslidings, and to adopt the language of the Psalmist here, and to say, with the church, “I will go and return unto my first husband, for then was it better with me than now.” As the dove returned unto the ark because she could find no rest for the sole of her foot, so it is impossible for the believer to know any true satisfaction till he says, with David, “Return unto thy rest, O my soul.” Having tasted that the Lord is gracious, and known the blessedness of nearness to God and communion with him, he looks back, and, as he compares his former state with the present, he says,-

“Where is the blessedness I knew

When first I saw the Lord?

Where is the soul-refreshing view

Of Jesus and his word?

What peaceful hours I then enjoy’d!

How sweet their memory still!

But now I find an aching void

The world can never fill.”

He may have forgotten his resting-place, but he can find no substitute for it. To recover his first peace, and to regain his former happiness, he must draw near to God, his “exceeding joy.” With him is the fountain of life, and there is enough in him to bless us, whatever be our wants or our capacities of enjoyment; and therefore a Christian from whom the Lord has withholden some of the privileges he once enjoyed, instead of complaining of God, should rather say, with the church, “I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him.” Let such with broken hearts and contrite spirits return unto the Lord, taking with them words, saying, “Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we render the calves of our lips:” until he has done this he must necessarily be miserable. And nothing is so well calculated to induce this return unto God, the resting-place of his soul, as the remembrance of past displays of God’s goodness to him. It is then he is heard to say,-

“His love in time past forbids me to think

He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink;

Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review

Confirms his good pleasure to help me quite through.”

He remembers not only his own folly and wickedness in forsaking the fountain of living waters, but also that with the Lord there is plenteous redemption; and therefore, though greatly distressed, he encourages himself in the Lord his God, whom he addresses in the language of the church:-“Though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me.” “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation; he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments and a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.”

Evening Devotional

And it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. - Isaiah 55:13.

WE may observe four things with regard to the results of this moral transformation. First, That it is supposed that this effect is the work of God. And it is and it must be so, and the very quality of the effect shows its origin and its author. “He that hath wrought in us for the selfsame thing is God.” God it is who “works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure.” This is the promise which he has given us-“A new heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you;” and all the subjects of Divine grace will readily avow, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”

Secondly, This is to be to him for a name, that is, a praise; both these words are used together in another passage-“They shall be to me for a name and a praise.” The latter is explanatory of the former. While all God’s works praise him, he derives his praise principally from his people. “This people,” says he, “have I formed for myself, and they shall show forth my praise.” And again, “I have placed salvation in Zion for Israel my glory;” the people from whom I principally derive the revenue of my praise in the world. And God does derive more glory from the common actions of his people, who, whether they eat or drink, do all to the glory of God, than from the very religion and all the works of other men. If Christians are to be to the Lord for a name, let us take care it be a good one, a becoming one, and that we “walk worthy of God, who has called us unto his kingdom and glory.” And as we are charged with a portion of the Divine glory and praise, let us carry it down unsullied to the grave, “harmless and blameless, the children of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom we are to shine as lights in the world.”

Third, This moral transformation is to be unto the Lord for a “sign.” A sign is a manifestation or token. In the Scripture it is commonly used to indicate a kind of external evidence or pledge. As God said to Moses, “If they will not believe the first sign, show them a second sign.” “Now the conversion of souls to God is a moral miracle; it is a striking display on God’s part to save. It is truly a sign-a sign that God is not unmindful of his covenant- that he has not forgotten to be gracious-that he has not forsaken the earth-that he has not abandoned the country where such conversions take place. Such converts are the greatest blessings to the community, by their prayers, their influence, and their examples-a sign that with him is “no variableness nor shadow of turning,”-that “his ear is not heavy that it cannot hear, nor his arm shortened that it cannot save”-a sign to encourage hope with regard to ourselves, and to preclude despair with regard to any of our fellow-creatures, however abandoned they may become; that “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is exceeding abundant with faith and love,” and that he “is able to save unto the uttermost.”

Observe, fourthly, The duration of all this. It is “to be to the Lord for an everlasting sign, that shall not be cut off.” Towers, temples, pillars, statues, whatever has been designed to perpetuate the praise or fame of distinguished men in our world, are exposed to the ravages of time, and will perish; but the people whom the Lord hath set apart for himself shall remain for ever the triumphs of his faithfulness, and the monuments of his mercy and grace, that he may be admired in them and glorified by them.

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