the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
John Gossner's Treasury
Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee. If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? Exodus 33:13-16; Exodus 34:9.
The Lord said to Moses, "Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people; and I will send an angel before thee. " But Moses said, "If Thy presence go not with us, let us remain where we are. We will not go without Thee. " Thus did Moses cling to the Lord and to His presence as a child to its mother. He would not take one step without Him, would not himself guide the people: the Lord should guide him and the people by His countenance. How am I to know the way? Thus said also the disciples of Jesus (John 14). Thus thinks and says every disciple of Jesus; he dare not take a step without the Lord. He does not want an angel only; no, he wants the Lord Himself. If the Lord was moved by Moses and the stiff-necked people that so often offended Him, to go with them, will He then refuse your prayer, when you as earnestly as Moses desire His guidance? Will He who promised, "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come unto you; I am with you alway even to the end of the world; where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them;" will He leave you alone? How delightfully, how safely one walks when He goes before, when His countenance gives light! But he who trusts in himself and guides himself or allows himself to be guided by men, will have many a weary step, go backward rather than forward, and fall in many a pit. He who diligently looks toward the pillar of a cloud and the pillar of fire, the presence of the Lord in the heart, who in his goings and comings is guided by Him, as were the children of Israel, will safely and cheerfully walk through the desert of this present life and find the Land of Promise. Should the people of the old covenant have better guidance than the Lord’s people of the new covenant? Shall not we also have a pillar of fire going on before us? Should the Lord only go with the bondmen of the law and not with the children of peace?
Ever be Thou our guide.
Our shepherd and our pride.
Our staff and song;
Jesus, Thou Christ of God,
By Thy perennial Word,
Lead us where Thou hast trod.
Make our faith strong.
