Daily Devotionals

Music For the Soul

Devotional: December 8th

GOD’S BOUNDLESS RICHES

That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Jesus Christ, - Ephesians 2:7

There is the measure. There is no limit except the uncounted wealth of His own self-manifestation, the flashing light of a revealed Divinity. Whatsoever there is of splendor in that, whatsoever there is of power there, in these, and in nothing this side of them, lies the limit of the possibilities of a Christian life. Of course, there is a working limit at each moment, and that is our capacity to receive; but that capacity varies, may vary indefinitely, may become greater and greater beyond our count or measurement. Our hearts may be made more and more capable of God; and in the measure in which they are capable of Him they shall be filled by Him. A limit which is always shifting is no limit at all. A kingdom the boundaries of which are not the same from one year to another, by reason of its own inherent expansive power, may be said to have no fixed limits. And so we appropriate and enclose, as it were, within our own little fence, a tiny portion of the great prairie that rolls boundless to the horizon. But to-morrow we may enclose more, if we will, and more and more; and so ever onwards. For all that is God’s is yours, and He has given you His whole Self to use and to possess through your faith in His Son. A thimble can only take up a thimbleful of the ocean, but what if the thimble be endowed with a power of expansion which has no term known to men? May it not, then, be that some time or other it shall be able to hold so much of the infinite depth as now seems a dream too audacious to be realized. So it is with us and God. He lets us come into the vaults, as it were, where in piles and masses the ingots of uncoined and uncounted gold are stored and stacked; and He says, "Take as much as you like to carry." There is no limit except the riches of His glory.

Oh! when one contrasts the largeness of God’s promises and the miserable contradiction which the average Christian life of this generation presents, what can we say? " Hath His mercy clean gone for ever? Doth His promise fail for evermore? " Ye weak Christian people, born weakling and weak ever since, open your mouths wide! Rise to the height of the expectations and the desires which it is our sin not to cherish; and be sure of this, as we ask so shall we receive. " Ye are not straitened in God." Alas! alas! "ye are straitened in yourselves." And there must be self-suppression if there is to be the triumph of a Divine power in you. You cannot fight with both classes of weapons. The human must die if the Divine is to live. The life of nature, self-dependence on self, must be weakened and subdued if the life of God is to overcome, to fill you. You must be able to say " Not I! " or you will never be able to say " Christ liveth in me." The patriarch that overcame halted on his thigh; and all the life of nature was lamed and made impotent that the life of grace might overcome. So crush self by the power and for the sake of the Christ, if you would that the Spirit may bear rule over you.