Daily Devotionals

The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions

Devotional: January 2nd

January 2—Morning—Luke 13:8-9

"Lord! let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well; and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down."—Luke 13:8-9.

Do I not behold the Lord Jesus here represented in his glorious office of our High Priest and Intercessor? And is it thus that he so mercifully pleads for the awakened and unprofitable among his people? Pause, my soul! Was it not from the effects of his intercession, that the world itself was spared from instant destruction, when Adam first brake through the fence of God’s law? Is it not now by the same rich grace that thousands are spared from year to year in Christ Jesus, before that they are called to the knowledge of Christ Jesus? Nay my soul! pause once more, over the view of this wonderful subject, and ask thyself was it not from the same almighty interposition that thou was kept from going down to the pit during the long, long period of thy unregeneracy, while thou wert wholly unconscious of it? And was it from thy gracious intercession, blessed Jesus, that I then lived, that I am now spared, and, after all my barrenness, that another year of grace is opening before me? Oh, precious, Precious Jesus! suffer me to be no longer unfruitful in thy garden! Do, Lord, as thou hast said. Dig about me, and pour upon me all the sweet influences of thy Holy Spirit, which, like the rain, and the sun, and the dew of heaven, may cause me to bring forth fruit unto God. And, Lord, if so unworthy a creature may drop a petition at thy mercy seat for others, let the coming year be productive of the same blessings to all thy redeemed; even to my poor unawakened relations among them; and to thousands of those who are yet in nature’s darkness. Oh that this may be to them the acceptable year of the Lord!

January 2—Evening—Matthew 26:20

"Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve."—Matthew 26:20.

And now the even is again come, will Jesus graciously sit down with me? Wherefore, my soul, shouldest thou doubt the kindness of thy condescending Lord? It may be allowed, that in many of the tenderest incidents which passed between Jesus and his disciples while upon earth, there were some peculiarly suited, and designed to have a personal respect to them alone. But in many things they were the representatives of Jesus’s whole family; and hence every child of God may invite Jesus to sit down with him, and enjoy communion with him; that while Jesus speaks by his word to his people, and they to him; as his whole heart and soul is theirs, so their whole hearts and souls may go forth, in all the sweet exercises of love and faith to him, and a holy familiarity may take place between them. Come, then, thou gracious Lord, and sit down with me, after all the toils of the day, and close the evening with some blessed token of thy favour. I remember somewhat of thy past kindness, and therefore I feel encouraged to seek a renewal of thy love. Do I not know thee, O thou dear Lord! as a tried, a sure, an unchanging friend; a brother born for adversity? And shall not this knowledge make me confident for all that I have now to ask? Shall I go to the Lamb of God, who hath died for me, as one under doubts and fears that he will not own me, nor regard the purchase of his blood? No! precious Jesus, never will I so dishonour thee, while thou hast given me, not the spirit of bondage, but the spirit of adoption. Never will I lose sight of thee in this endearing part of thy character; for thine own love, and not our desert, is the rule of thy grace to thy people. Come, then, Lord Jesus, in the stillness of this evening, and manifest thyself to my heart otherwise than thou dost to the world. If Jesus will but speak, yea, whisper in the words of his holy scripture, I shall feel all the power, sweetness, and energy of its saving truths. One view of Jesus’s heart, and the love in it to poor sinners, will bear down all the cries of unbelief, all the clamours of the world, and all the temptations of the enemy. Yea, Lord, I shall for a while forget every sorrow, every pain, every difficulty and trial. And will not the tempter flee, when he beholds my poor feeble soul upheld in Jesus’s arms, and lying in Jesus’s bosom? Blessed be my God and Saviour, I feel a sense of thy strengthening and refreshing presence. My faith lays hold of thee, neither will I let thee go, O thou, the hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof! "And why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turned aside to tarry but for a night?"