Monday Morning, July 9
"Forget not all His benefits."
Psalm 103:2
It is a delightful and profitable occupation to mark the hand of God in the lives of ancient saints, and to observe his goodness in delivering them, his mercy in pardoning them, and his faithfulness in keeping his covenant with them. But would it not be even more interesting and profitable for us to remark the hand of God in our own lives? Ought we not to look upon our own history as being at least as full of God, as full of his goodness and of his truth, as much a proof of his faithfulness and veracity, as the lives of any of the saints who have gone before? We do our Lord an injustice when we suppose that he wrought all his mighty acts, and showed himself strong for those in the early time, but doth not perform wonders or lay bare his arm for the saints who are now upon the earth. Let us review our own lives. Surely in these we may discover some happy incidents, refreshing to ourselves and glorifying to our God. Have you had no deliverances? Have you passed through no rivers, supported by the divine presence? Have you walked through no fires unharmed? Have you had no manifestations? Have you had no choice favours? The God who gave Solomon the desire of his heart, hath he never listened to you and answered your requests? That God of lavish bounty of whom David sang, "Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things," hath he never satiated you with fatness? Have you never been made to lie down in green pastures? Have you never been led by the still waters? Surely the goodness of God has been the same to us as to the saints of old. Let us, then, weave his mercies into a song. Let us take the pure gold of thankfulness, and the jewels of praise and make them into another crown for the head of Jesus. Let our souls give forth music as sweet and as exhilarating as came from David's harp, while we praise the Lord whose mercy endureth forever.
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Evening, July 9
"And God divided the light from the darkness."
Genesis 1:4
A believer has two principles at work within him. In his natural estate he was subject to one principle only, which was darkness; now light has entered, and the two principles disagree. Mark the apostle Paul's words in the seventh chapter of Romans: "I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members." How is this state of things occasioned? "The Lord divided the light from the darkness." Darkness, by itself, is quiet and undisturbed, but when the Lord sends in light, there is a conflict, for the one is in opposition to the other: a conflict which will never cease till the believer is altogether light in the Lord. If there be a division within the individual Christian, there is certain to be a division without. So soon as the Lord gives to any man light, he proceeds to separate himself from the darkness around; he secedes from a merely worldly religion of outward ceremonial, for nothing short of the gospel of Christ will now satisfy him, and he withdraws himself from worldly society and frivolous amusements, and seeks the company of the saints, for "We know we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." The light gathers to itself, and the darkness to itself. What God has divided, let us never try to unite, but as Christ went without the camp, bearing his reproach, so let us come out from the ungodly, and be a peculiar people. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners; and, as he was, so we are to be nonconformists to the world, dissenting from all sin, and distinguished from the rest of mankind by our likeness to our Master.
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Let Us Pray… Without Delay!
preaching the gospel, they immediately prayed with a gathering of believers in Jerusalem (see Acts 4:23-31). As I once heard, "Prayer was their first choice, not their last chance." Here's what they asked from God: "And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus" (vv. 29-30).
God responded right away: "And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness" (v. 31).
Fooling the Israelites
If only the Israelites would have been as wise as these first century believers.
God had promised them Canaan. However, once the Israelites were in the Promised Land, they were to drive out the "Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites" (Deuteronomy 20:17). But in Joshua 9, the Gibeonites (who were Hivites [cf. 11:19]) deceived the Israelites by leading them to believe that they had journeyed from a foreign land. Their worn-out sandals and ragged clothes duped the Israelites. You can imagine the Jewish leaders conferring with one another: "These people are obviously not from Canaan—just look at them. Even their bread is crumbly and their wineskins are old and cracked." They unwisely made a covenant with the Gibeonites to let them live.
Three days later, the truth came out, and the negative consequences followed quickly: "Then all the congregation murmured against the leaders" (9:18). Problems would also arise in the future. The Lord had told Israel not to make a covenant with these nations, "lest they make you sin against me" (Exodus 32:33).
Why did this happen? How did they make such an unwise decision? Joshua 9:14 provides the answer: "So the men [of Israel] took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord" (emphasis added). Like the believers in Acts 4, they should have prayed immediately, but they didn't even pray at all.
A Foolish Young Pastor
I didn't make prayer a priority in an extremely trying incident that occurred early in my first pastorate. A large group of long-time members left the church for non-disciplinable reasons. They resigned their membership on a Tuesday, and we had our monthly members' meeting the next day.
Where did I go wrong? I very proudly went into the Wednesday meeting and informed the remaining members about those who were leaving. I then forcefully declared that we needed to remove them from the membership right away. I was so quick to tell them what "God wanted," without much prayer at all (other than praying briefly at the beginning of the meeting). I also paid little attention to the fact that people were hurting and confused since many of the people who left were longtime, close friends with those who stayed.
How foolish!
What would have been the right course of action? I should have walked into the meeting that night, explained what happened the previous day, and then said, "We need God right now. We need the wisdom that He promises to give to those who ask for it. We're going to take the rest of our time together and pray."
What About You?
When the difficult situation arises in your life, do you pray immediately, or only after you are done complaining? When the life-changing decision is before you, are you quick to ask God for wisdom? Since you learned of the disease, have you cried out to the doctors more than to God?
If you are a leader in your church, do you make prayer a priority? Is there a significant amount of time for it in your gatherings? Do you spend more time making announcements to the people than talking to God? And when the controversy comes in the life of your church, what happens first—a strategy session, or a prayer meeting?
"Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." (John 16:24)
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