Daily Devotionals

Spiritual Treasury For The Children of God

Devotional: September 20th

If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.- John 13:17.

Jesus is a prophet to teach, a priest to atone, and a king to reign by love in the hearts of all his subjects. So a Christian receives the Lord Jesus. Faith in him begets an ear of love to his doctrine, and a heart of obedience to his commands. Let no one call evangelical obedience, legal bondage. For, every precept that drops from the mouth of Jesus, flows from love to us. When he saith, "Do this;" it is for thy happiness and good, O soul. "Avoid that:" love is careful of thee, "Do thyself no harm." This is pleasant to the renewed soul to hear, his happiness to obey. Faith in Jesus makes all things easy. "His commandments are not grievous." To know them is our privilege. To do them is our happiness.

Say, O Christian, is not this thy experience? Art thou not happy in doing the will of Jesus, who died for our sins? Art thou not delighted in obeying Jesus, who hath made peace between God and thy soul? Art thou not joyful in glorifying thy Father, by bringing forth the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ? Verily IN keeping thy commandments, O Lord, there is great reward of grace; in peace and happiness of soul now; and hereafter such shall hear that joyful sentence from our loving Saviour, "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."- Matthew 25:34. Then shall the works of the righteous be owned and proclaimed by the judge. They are called to inherit the kingdom. Why? Because blessed of God the Father with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus.

Hence the kingdom is prepared for them before the foundation of the world. But it constitutes no part of the believer’s happiness, to do any work whatsoever, whereby to entitle himself to the favor of God; or to make the work of salvation more effectual than the blood and righteousness of the Son of God hath. No; this is to be rejected as the vilest slavery, the worst of drudgery; contrary to faith; inconsistent with Christian love; and derogatory to the salvation of JESUS. Luther was wont to say, ’if picking up a straw would save me, I would not do it; it would be an act of unbelief of my dear Lord’s salvation: but being already saved by Jesus, through his grace, I would go through fire and water to obey his commands.’ Where Jesus is the life of the soul, this will be manifest, in obedience to his commands. "Blessed is the man who delighteth greatly in his commandments."- Psalms 112:1.

I hear thy word with love.

And I would fain obey:

Send thy good Spirit from above

To guide me lest I stray.

How perfect is thy word!

And all thy judgments just,

For ever sure thy promise, Lord,

Here I securely trust.

While of thy works I sing,

Thy glory to proclaim,

Accept the praise, my God and King,

In my Redeemer’s name.

Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6:11.

Happiness, that inestimable jewel, springs only from content. Christian content is founded in humility. The humble Christian lives upon the fulness of God. Thence he seeks all his supplies. Our Lord not only teaches his disciples the words of prayer, which any one may use, but also gives the Spirit of prayer, which is peculiar to disciples only. This consists, (1st.) in knowing our wants. (2d.) In seeking a supply of them from the Lord. Give us (3d.) this day: just from hand to mouth: daily bread, all the blessings of providence and grace, needful for us, as men and Christians. (1st.) Do we know our own wants? The sight and sense of these will make and keep us very low and humble in our own eyes; for we shall go out of ourselves, and live out of ourselves. Do we want daily bread to support our bodies? Have we no source of life in ourselves, but what must be fed and nourished from the food we receive from day to day? Just so it is with our souls. Christ saith, “I am the bread of life.” (John 6:48.) We have no inherent stock of spiritual food in ourselves. The man who thinks so, is as foolish as he would be, who should say, he has a supply within himself for natural food; he needs not pray for it. (2d.) Do we seek supply from our Lord? He says, “Blessed are they who hunger.” (Matthew 5:6.) Their blessedness consists, in coming empty to him, to be filled. Give us. Dear Lord, I am just the same hopeless, helpless, miserable sinner in myself, as I was when I first heard of thee, and came unto thee. (3d.) Give me this day my daily bread: thy flesh to eat, and thy blood to drink. Thy flesh is meat indeed; thy blood is drink indeed. (John 6:55.) Lord, thou hast said, “He that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” (verse 57.) O that, in feeding on thee by faith, I may know that I have eternal life, and that thou wilt raise me up at the last day. This feeding is far more preferable than disputing. True, we are exhorted to contend earnestly for the faith. But then it should be with a desire that our own souls, and the souls of others, may be edified, fed, and nourished, by the faith of Jesus; else, it is but vain jangling. Who would not contend for his natural food? How jealous, how watchful should we be against every enemy, who would prevent our comfortable feeding upon Christ, the bread of life! The more we feed upon this bread, the less appetite we have to the pleasures of this world, and the vanities of sense. Our spiritual food transforms us into the image of our Lord, and causes us to aspire after him, and long to be with him. Precious promise! “Jesus shall feed his flock like a shepherd.” Isaiah 40:11.

Jesus, who art the bread of life,

O feed our souls this day!

And grant us to grow strong in thee,

To run the heav’nly way.