the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions
March 7—Morning—Revelation 7:16
"They shall hunger no more."—Revelation 7:16.
My soul! contemplate for a moment, before thou enterest upon the concerns of time and sense, in the claims of the world, the blessed state of the redeemed above. They are at the fountain-head of happiness, in their station, in their service, in their society, in their provision, in their everlasting exemption from all want, and above all, in the presence of God and the Lamb. "They shall hunger no more." Sweet thought! Let me this day anticipate as many of the blessed properties of it as my present state in Jesus will admit. If Jesus be my home, my residence, my dwelling-place, will not the hungerings of my soul find supply? Yes, surely. A life of faith on the Son of God, is a satisfying life, under all the changes of the world around. Finding Jesus, I find sustenance in him, and therefore do not hunger for ought besides him. "Thou art my hiding-place," said one of old; and my soul finds occasion to adopt the same language. And He that is’ my hiding-place, is also my food and my nourishment. In Jesus there is both food and a fence; there is fruit, as well as a shadow; and the fulness of Jesus needs vent in the wants of his people, for the pouring forth of his all-sufficiency. My soul, cherish this thought to the full. If thy hunger be really for Jesus, and him only, then will thy hunger be abundantly supplied in his communication. As long as I look at my wants, without an eye to Jesus, I shall be miserable. But if I consider those wants and that emptiness purposely appointed for the pouring out of his fulness, they will appear as made for the cause of happiness. Jesus keeps up the hungering, that he may have the blessedness OF supplying them; he keeps his children empty that he may fill them, and that his fulness may be in request among them. So far, therefore, is my hungering from becoming a source of sorrow, it furnisheth out a source of holy joy. I should never be straitened in myself, when I am not straitened in Jesus. Nay, it would be a sad token of distance from Jesus if a sense of want was lessened. While, on the other hand, the best proof’ I can have of nearness to Jesus, and living upon him, is, when my enjoyment of Jesus discovers new and increasing wants, and excites an holy hungering for his supplying them. By and by I shall get home, and then at the fountain head of rapture and delight, all hungering and wants will be done away, in the full and everlasting enjoyment of God and the Lamb!
March 7—Evening—Hebrews 11:11
"Because she judged him faithful who had promised."—Hebrews 11:11.
I admire what the Holy Ghost hath here recorded of Sarah’s faith. After what we read of the weakness of her faith at first, in the history to which this refers, I cannot but rejoice in the recovery of the great mother in Israel, through grace; and read with very much pleasure, this honourable testimony, which the Holy Ghost himself hath given of her. And I admire yet more, the grace and goodness of the Eternal Spirit, in causing it to be handed down to the church, among the list of such worthies, and desire to bless his holy name for this scripture. And while I bless God for the memorial, I pray him to give me a spirit of wisdom, to improve it to my own furtherance in faith. The faith of Sarah, like that of her husband’s, was the more illustrious, from the seeming impossibilities which lay in the way of the accomplishment of God’s promise. For what the Lord engaged to do, was contrary to the whole course of nature. But what was that to Sarah? All she had to do, was to consider the promise; and keep an eye upon the Almighty Promiser. If there are difficulties in the way, that is God’s business, and not mine, might Sarah say. How the Lord will bring it to pass, is with him, and not with me: I have no concern with that. My province is to believe; it is God’s to work. Here was an act of illustrious faith! and the sequel of Sarah’s history, shews how well founded it was. But the Holy Ghost explains the subject, and shews how it was accomplished; "because she judged him faithful who had promised." Now, my soul, see to it, that thou make the same grand cause the foundation of thy faith; namely, Jehovah’s faithfulness; and, depend upon it, every promise of the gospel, even Jesus, with all his fulness, thou mayest, as well as Sarah, rely upon; and thou wilt be always able to do it, as long as thou makest the same perfection of Jehovah thy confidence: "because she judged him faithful that promised." While I rest upon his faithfulness, I rest upon the Rock of Ages, which can never give way: and every difficulty, or seeming impossibility, which comes between the promise of a faithful God, and the accomplishment of that promise, hath no more to do with the thing itself, than the tide hath with unsettling the rock; but will, like the tide, soon ebb, and withdraw, and leave the ground dry. Oh! the blessedness of judging Him faithful, who hath promised.
