the Fourth Week after Easter
Click here to learn more!
Daily Devotionals
John Gossner's Treasury
Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: which made heaven, and earth, and all that therein is; which keepeth truth for ever, which executeth judgment for the oppressed. Psalms 146:3-7; Psalms 118:8-9.
Let ’’the God of Jacob" be your God. If Jacob’s faith be your faith, then Jacob’s God is your God also. Consider the whole history of Jacob, how his faith and confidence in God everywhere delivered him, blessed him, comforted and upheld him. The God of Jacob, who has a ladder that reaches from heaven to earth and from earth to heaven, by which God is accessible to us, by which He is most closely united with us so that our prayers ascend upon it, and His help descends upon it; Jacob’s God who is everywhere near and present, wherever you call upon Him, so that even in the desert and night of affliction, wherever you are, even though forsaken and rejected of men, standing alone in the great wide world, you can find the gate of heaven and the house of God; Jacob’s God, who allows Himself to be overcome by believing struggle and prayer and never sends you away without His blessing, this God who is able to shield you against your persecutor Esau and to make him obliging and kind to you, let Him be your God in whom you trust. But do not make men, no matter what name they may have, your gods and helpers; for they cannot, nor will they, help you. God may help through them, but the glory remains His. He deserves all our confidence. To Him our prayer also must be directed. Ought you not to feel ashamed that God, who has created heaven and earth and everything else, is not regarded by you as sufficiently powerful, ashamed that you doubt Him as if He could not help you? "With God nothing is impossible. " His promises never fail. Can you mention any instance in which He has not promised certain help to those who trust in Him?
O Thou from whom all blessings flow.
Thy peace and comfort now bestow;
Abide with us till life is o’er
And make us Thine forevermore.
