the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Bowen's Daily Meditations
" If God be for us, who can be against us?" - Romans 8:31.
If God be for us, we are justified in making light of all our enemies. Any injury that they can do us is of little account, while we have this all-powerful ally. This seems a mere truism; but it is really the language of an uncommon faith. He goes on to enumerate tribulation, persecution, distress, famine, nakedness, peril, the sword. Now, these things involve tremendous losses; loss of honor, friends, domestic and social enjoyments, wealth, liberty, security, and even food and clothing. Before the thousandth part of these evils, the boldest hearts have recoiled, the strongest have turned and fled. The assurance that God would be with them had no more power to nerve and comfort them, than if a shield made of cobwebs had been presented to them. The language of Paul is the language then of one whose faith has taught him to find everything excellent, everything desirable in God. In vain the world arrays its forces, puts on its terrors; he knows the utter insignificance of these compared with the treasures of might that dwell with him, because God dwells with him.
When the Israelites came out of Egypt, the entire force of Egypt was against them. The sea was against them. The desert was against them. The Amalekites were against them. All nations were against them. Their own inexperience, their waywardness, their evil habits, - these were against them. But God was with them. And they came off more than conquerors. Thus it was with the apostles. The Jews were against them, and so were the Gentiles. Stripes, bonds, and imprisonment awaited them in every place. The power of the priesthood was against them. All the powers of an empire, the mightiest the world had ever seen, were against them. Yet they triumphed. God was with them, and none but God.
Had the church a faith more apostolic, there would not be seen, as there is, alas! too much, a disposition to snatch at worldly aid, and to avail ourselves of worldly wisdom. We need to know that he who is with us is mightier than they that are in the world. Knew we this better, we would enter many paths from which we now turn away; address ourselves to many tasks to which we now shut our eyes.
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