M&E Wednesday

Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
by C. H. Spurgeon
Wednesday Morning, July 6

Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Proverbs 1:33

Divine love is rendered conspicuous when it shines in the midst of judgments. Fair is that lone star which smiles through the rifts of the thunder clouds; bright is the oasis which blooms in the wilderness of sand; so fair and so bright is love in the midst of wrath. When the Israelites provoked the Most High by their continued idolatry, he punished them by withholding both dew and rain, so that their land was visited by a sore famine; but while he did this, he took care that his own chosen ones should be secure. If all other brooks are dry, yet shall there be one reserved for Elijah; and when that fails, God shall still preserve for him a place of sustenance; nay, not only so, the Lord had not simply one Elijah, but he had a remnant according to the election of grace, who were hidden by fifties in a cave, and though the whole land was subject to famine, yet these fifties in the cave were fed, and fed from Ahab's table too by His faithful, God-fearing steward, Obadiah. Let us from this draw the inference, that come what may, God's people are safe. Let convulsions shake the solid earth, let the skies themselves be rent in twain, yet amid the wreck of worlds the believer shall be as secure as in the calmest hour of rest. If God cannot save his people under heaven, he will save them in heaven. If the world becomes too hot to hold them, then heaven shall be the place of their reception and their safety. Be ye then confident, when ye hear of wars, and rumours of wars. Let no agitation distress you, but be quiet from fear of evil. Whatsoever cometh upon the earth, you, beneath the broad wings of Jehovah, shall be secure. Stay yourself upon his promise; rest in his faithfulness, and bid defiance to the blackest future, for there is nothing in it direful for you. Your sole concern should be to show forth to the world the blessedness of hearkening to the voice of wisdom.

Evening, July 6

How many are mine iniquities and sins?

Job 13:23

Have you ever really weighed and considered how great the sin of God's people is? Think how heinous is your own transgression, and you will find that not only does a sin here and there tower up like an alp, but that your iniquities are heaped upon each other, as in the old fable of the giants who piled Pelian upon Ossa, mountain upon mountain. What an aggregate of sin there is in the life of one of the most sanctified of God's children! Attempt to multiply this, the sin of one only, by the multitude of the redeemed, a number which no man can number, and you will have some conception of the great mass of the guilt of the people for whom Jesus shed his blood. But we arrive at a more adequate idea of the magnitude of sin by the greatness of the remedy provided. It is the blood of Jesus Christ, God's only and well-beloved Son. God's Son! Angels cast their crowns before him! All the choral symphonies of heaven surround his glorious throne. God over all, blessed for ever. Amen. And yet he takes upon himself the form of a servant, and is scourged and pierced, bruised and torn, and at last slain; since nothing but the blood of the incarnate Son of God could make atonement for our offences. No human mind can adequately estimate the infinite value of the divine sacrifice, for great as is the sin of God's people, the atonement which takes it away is immeasurably greater. Therefore, the believer, even when sin rolls like a black flood, and the remembrance of the past is bitter, can yet stand before the blazing throne of the great and holy God, and cry, Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea rather, that hath risen again. While the recollection of his sin fills him with shame and sorrow, he at the same time makes it a foil to show the brightness of mercy--guilt is the dark night in which the fair star of divine love shines with serene splendour.

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Fasting Is A Powerful Aid To Prayer

 

 By Gordon Cove  

www.heraldofhiscoming.com

     In early church history, fasting was considered one of the pillars of the Christian religion.  When the church had power, fasting was an essential part of the faith.  Fasting is not mere abstinence from food or from any other pleasure, but is abstinence with a purpose. 

     Further, fasting is a kind of mortification or self-chastisement, which aims at self-control.  Fasting is not meant to weaken the body, but to strengthen the will.  Our greatest goal in life should be to be men and women after God's own heart.  How often we have felt this great purpose to have been frustrated through fleshly and carnal appetites!  Fasting helps to subdue the flesh.  "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth" (Col. 3:5). 

     One of the "woes" that the Savior pronounced was "Woe unto you that are full" (Luke 6:25).  A luxurious diet, habitual overeating, produces an unbalanced animalism, and induces spirit-blindness which can see nothing beyond the natural.  A body, sluggish with eating and drinking chains our spirit and keeps it from rising above the earthly.  Oftentimes a sort of vicious circle is created.  We overeat, and then we are too sluggish to pray, and hence we never come within the range of the Spirit, where He can do great things for us and through us.  If we would see with the eyes of the Spirit, we must mortify the deeds of the body. 

     It is strange how much we miss by the willful neglect of such a power as fasting – a power entrusted to us by the Lord Himself.  For the flesh is an upstart, ever trying to drag the spirit down to its own fallen level, and fasting is one of the greatest measures used against the flesh to bring about self-control.  

God-Given Desires, God-Forbidden Ways 

     Fasting will often prevent self-indulgence – not by crushing our God-given desires, but by preventing them from being used in God-forbidden ways, by keeping them within the barriers of God-imposed limits.  Fasting is the sworn foe of sensuality!  Fasting is also an expression of mourning – either over one's personal sins or when we are burdened for the souls of others. 

     Fasting means that you have reached the place of spiritual desperation.  It means that you are now determined at all costs to put God first.  There are times when we should turn our backs on everything in the world, even our daily food, in seeking the face of God.  Fasting means that we are determined to seek the face of God and get our prayers answered.  It simply means that we put God first, before everything, including food. 

     Ordinary fasting means to abstain from food, but the same spirit of desperation will also lead us to abstain from other things as well, such as business, talking, visiting, etc.  Fasting is a voluntary disuse of anything innocent in itself, with a view to spiritual culture. 

     So fasting is putting God first when one prays, wanting God more than one wants food, more than sleep, more than one wants fellowship with others, more than one wants to attend to business.  How could a Christian ever know that God was first in his life if he did not sometimes turn from every other duty and pleasure to give himself wholly to the seeking of the face of God? 

     "One object of fasting is the mortification of sin.  Is your mind distempered, your heart hard, your grace weak, and corruptions strong?  Does pride, envy, malice, the love of the world, or any other filthiness of the flesh or spirit, prevail?  Fasting, then, is your duty.  Some demons will not come forth but by prayer and fasting (Matt. 17:14-21; Mark 9:29).  When this is the case, fasting is the proper remedy, and should be used as the chief means thereunto." (J. Beaumont).  

Fasting Necessary to Repentance 

     In the Bible there are many examples of fasting.  David fasted over his sick child (2 Sam. 12:16, 21).  "I proclaimed a fast…that we might afflict ourselves before our God," writes Ezra of the whole Jewish nation (Ezra 8:21).  The fast of the Ninevites (Jonah 3:5-7), and the fast which the prophet Joel ordered (Joel 2:12), were regarded as necessary elements in corporate repentance.  So with the individual.  Paul after his conversion, fasted three days in self-surrender to Christ (Acts 9:9). 

     The men of Nineveh fasted in sackcloth and ashes, as a symbol of deep national mourning.  There are times when some deep experience, some profound humility of repentance, causes us to reject all food and earthly pleasures.  In its sorrow for sin or the burden for lost souls, all luxury jars upon the soul. 

     Prayer in itself is very often a shallow thing – a light and insincere thing.  Fasting is an evidence of our intense earnestness and of our fervor.  It declares to God that we will not "let up" until the answer comes.  It really says, "I have set myself to seek God as long as necessary, and as earnestly as I possibly can." 

     It requires faith to pray an ordinary prayer, for "he that cometh to God must believe that He is…" (Heb. 11:6).  But it requires even more faith to fast and pray.  Fasting reveals a greater desire, a greater determination and greater faith, and God observes this when He sees one of His children fasting and praying.  He sees that His child has forsaken all pleasures, including one of the chiefest pleasures of life, the pleasure of eating. 

     Fasting is the deliberate clearing of the way to be more effective with God in prayer.  It is the laying aside of all weights and hindrances (Heb. 12:1).  To lay aside every weight is to lay aside all the hindrances to prayer, and a heavy stomach is a hindrance.  Try praying on an empty stomach, and see how much easier it is to prevail in prayer. 

     We are too much wrapped around with soft physical indulgences. We are too padded and protected.  We must lay bare our pampered lives!  We must make an avenue for God through the throng of lusts. 

     When men are wholly absorbed in grief for some loved ones, they are not hungry.  They do not want to eat.  Then we may also expect that when Christians are wholly absorbed in passionate and earnest prayer for souls, for revival – will they not also be glad to do without food? 

     Fasting shows that we are persistent.  Often mere prayer is indefinite and brief, and really gets nowhere.  On the other hand, when we begin to fast and pray, it simply means that we have settled down to the real business of praying with a persistence that will take no denial.  It is certain that God's people would see more answers to their prayers if they would fast more and spend the time in seeking the Lord. 

     When a person wants a thing so much that he is willing to go without food to obtain it, then the fast itself becomes a prayer.  It is an inward, unspoken heart cry, a deep-rooted longing, and a reaching out to contact the Lord, the only One who has the power to grant the desires of the heart (Psa. 37:4).

 

TO BE CONTINUED ….

 

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