Daily Devotionals

The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions

Devotional: March 11th

March 11—Morning—Matthew 8:2-3

And behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord! if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed."—Matthew 8:2-3.

Behold, my soul, in the instance of this leper, thine own circumstances. What he was in body, such wert thou in soul. As his leprosy made him loathsome and offensive before men, so thy polluted soul made thee odious in the sight of God! He would not have sought a cure, had he not been conscious of his need of it. Neither wouldest thou ever have looked to Jesus, had he not convinced thee of thy helplessness and misery without him. Moreover, he would not, though convinced how much he needed healing, have sought that mercy from Jesus, had he not been made sensible of Jesus’s ability to the cure. Neither wouldest thou ever have come to Jesus, hadst thou not been taught who Jesus is, and how fully competent to deliver thee. The poor leper did not doubt whether Jesus was able: though he rather feared that ability might not be exercised towards him. His prayer was, not if thou art able, but, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." Now here, my soul, I hope, thy faith, through grace, exceeds the Jewish leper. Surely thou both knowest Jesus’s power and Jesus’s disposition to save thee. Unworthy and undeserving as thou art, yet his grace is not restrained by thy undeservings, no more than it was first constrained by thy merit. His love, his own love, his free love, is the sole rule of his mercy towards his children, and not their claims, for they have none, but in his free grace and the Father’s everlasting mercy. Cherish these thoughts, my soul, at all times, for they are most sweet and precious. But are these all the blessed things which arise out of the view of the poor leper’s case? Oh, no; the most delightful part still remains in the contemplation of Jesus’s mercy to the poor petitioner, and the very gracious manner the Son of God manifested in the bestowing of it. He not only healed him, and did it immediately, but with that tenderness which distinguished his character and his love to poor sinners. Jesus put forth his hand and touched him; touched a leper! even so, precious Lord, deal by me. Though polluted and unclean, yet condescend to put forth, thine hand and touch me also. Put forth thy blessed Spirit. Come, Lord, and dwell in me, abide in me, and rule and reign over me. Be thou my God, my Jesus, my Holy One, and make me thine for ever.

March 11—Evening—Song of Solomon 6:4

"Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah; comely as Jerusalem."—Song of Solomon 6:4.

And what was Tirzah? One of the cities in the lot of Manasseh, Joshua 12:6; Joshua 12:24. and no doubt, as Judea was the glory of all lands, Tirzah, which was a part of it, was lovely. And the comeliness of that highly favoured spot, Jerusalem, is celebrated in the sacred Song; "In the mountain of his holiness, "saith the Psalmist, "beautiful for situation, and the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, "Psalms 48:1-2. And is Christ’s church, in her Lord’s eye, thus beautiful? Yes! he himself saith she is: and, by consequence, every individual member of her is so, which constitutes her one body. Pause, my soul, over this account, and let thine everlasting meditation dwell upon the pleasing subject. Thou art mourning continually over thine infirmities; thou feelest what Paul felt, and thou groanest under the same burden as he groaned under: and, indeed, the consciousness of the remains of indwelling sin is enough to make the souls of the redeemed go softly all their days. But while thus conscious that thyself thou hast nothing that is lovely, do not overlook the loveliness which the righteousness of Christ, justifying his people, imparts to all their persons. Zion is said to be the perfection of beauty; and so she is in the eyes of God our Father, being the body of Christ, and made so in his beauty. What Jesus is in God’s sight, such must be his people. For Christ, as head of his church, is the fulness that filleth all in all. If, in my soul, thou wert looking for any thing in thyself that was amiable or beautiful to recommend thee to Jesus, or to justify thee before God; then, indeed, thou mightest exclaim with the prophet: "Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, "Isaiah 6:5. But if Jesus hath touched thy lips, and taken away thine iniquity, and thy sin is purged; then art thou all fair in him, and accepted by God the Father in him, the beloved: and Jesus saith to thee, and of thee, "Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem." See to it henceforth, that thou art never losing sight of thy oneness with Christ, thy acceptance in Christ, and the loveliness that thou art deriving from Christ. And while thou art daily lamenting that a soul united to Jesus should still carry about such a body of sin and death as thou dost, which harrasseth and afflicteth thy soul; yet never, never forget that thou art now looking up to the throne of grace for acceptance as thou art in Jesus, and not as thou art in thyself; and comfort thyself with this pleasing consideration, that ere long thou wilt be openly presented before a throne of glory, "not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and without blemish before him in love."