Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: June 12th

And rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. - Philippians 3:3.

IF, therefore, Christians cannot for a time rejoice in Christ, we cannot fail to observe, they can rejoice in nothing else. Their friends are “miserable comforters;” ministers are “physicians of no value;” the promises are “clouds without rain;” the ordinances are “wells without water.” Then creatures all look dismal, and, as they draw back, exclaim, “Help is not in us;” “If the Lord help thee not, whence shall we help thee? Out of the barn-floor, or out of the wine-fat?” But, on the other hand, “when he giveth peace, who then can make trouble?” When he “rejoices the souls of his servants,” every thing is changed around; when he smiles, every thing laughs. Then they learn in “whatsoever state. they are, therewith to be content;” then “in every thing they give thanks.” Then they can say, with Dr. Doddridge,-

“If thou, my Jesus, still art nigh,

Cheerful I live, and cheerful die,-

Secure, when mortal comforts flee,

To find ten thousand worlds in thee.”

So, then, “they that forsake him observe lying vanities, and forsake their own mercies.” “So will not I,” says the Christian; “I have found it good to draw near to God.” I forsake him? He has “been my help,” and therefore “under the shadow of his wings will I rejoice.” “When, therefore, many who were offended with his doctrine drew back and “walked no more with him,” to try the dispositions of his disciples, he said, “Will ye also go away?”

Now you have a very good time for it, if you will; now you may go in company; now you need not blush; now there are persons to keep you in countenance: “will ye also go away?” Peter answered, “Go away, Lord,” (and this was the sentiment of all his brethren too,) “we go away? to whom should we go?” To the philosophers? they are “vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts are darkened.” To the world? that is “vanity and vexation of spirit.” To sin? it leads down to hell by the chambers of death.” Shall we go to the Scribes and the Pharisees? they are “blind leaders of the blind.” Shall we go to Moses? Moses would send us immediately back to thee, for he wrote of thee, he spoke of thee; and every institution he established, and every ceremony and every sacrifice he ordained, was designed to proclaim, “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world.” “Lord, to whom should we go but unto thee? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”

O that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! - Job 23:3.

OBSERVE here the object of the patriarch’s solicitude. Although he does not express the name of God, his mind was full of it. Here we see an addition to his distress; he was now in a state of desertion. God was absent from him. God can never be absent from his people as to his essential presence, or even as to his Spiritual presence; because he hath said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” But he may be absent as to his sensible presence, or as to the manifestation of his favour and of the design of his dealings with us. This greatly enhances any external affliction.

For the presence of God, which is always necessary, is never so sweet as it is in the day of trouble; and often have his people found, when creatures have withdrawn that God has favoured them with peculiar communion with himself: the less they have had of the world, the more they have had of the Word-the less of earthly the more of heavenly good. But oh, to have tribulation in the world without realizing peace in him, and comfort from him: to say with David, “My bones are vexed,” and to add, “My soul is also vexed; but thou, O Lord, how long?” Yet let none imagine that this is peculiar to them. Isaiah says,” Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.” “He hideth himself from the house of Jacob.” This was Job’s case here. God had retired, and though searching he could not find him. “I go forward,” says he, “but he is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him. On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him; he hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him.” Therefore, “O that I knew where I might find him.”

Observe, Secondly, The earnestness of his desire. “That I might come even to his seat.” Nearness to God in duty is a very distinguishable thing from the mere exercise itself. There is such a thing as praying in prayer, and praising in praise, and hearing in hearing. This should be our concern; for in vain we draw near to God with our mouth, while our heart is far from him. To “enter into the secret of his tabernacle,” as David did, to “enter into the holiest of all,” as the apostle speaks of, “by the blood of Jesus,” to get near to his very seat, as Job has it here, to get so near as almost to get away from feeling the influence of the world-leaving it very far behind for the time-to draw so near to him as to see his beauty, and as to feel his influence-so near as to have our hearts fixed and fired and filled too. This is a possible thing, and should be our aim in our public and private devotions, and will be so in proportion as we are concerned to have the life of God advanced in our souls.