Morning, August 31 Go To Evening Reading
“On mine arm shall they trust.”
—Isaiah 51:5
In seasons of severe trial, the Christian has nothing on earth that he can trust and is therefore compelled to cast himself on his God alone. When his vessel is on its beam-ends, and no human deliverance can avail, he must simply and entirely trust himself to the providence and care of God. Happy storm that wrecks a man on such a rock as this! O blessed hurricane that drives the soul to God and God alone! There is no getting at our God sometimes because of the multitude of our friends, but when a man is so poor, so friendless, so helpless that he has nowhere else to turn, he flies into his Father’s arms and is blessedly clasped therein! When he is burdened with troubles so pressing and so peculiar that he cannot tell them to any but his God, he may be thankful for them, for he will learn more of his Lord then than at any other time. Oh, tempest-tossed believer, it is a happy trouble that drives thee to thy Father! Now that thou hast only thy God to trust to, see that thou puttest thy complete confidence in him. Dishonor not thy Lord and Master by unworthy doubts and fears; but be strong in faith, giving glory to God. Show the world that thy God is worth ten thousand planets to thee. Show rich men how rich thou art in thy poverty when the Lord God is thy helper. Show the strong man how strong thou art in thy weakness when underneath thee are the everlasting arms. Now is the time for feats of faith and valiant exploits. Be strong and very courageous, and the Lord, thy God, shall certainly, as surelyindeesurely indeed as he built the heavens and the earth, glorify himself in thy weakness and magnify his might amid thy distress. The grandeur of the arch of heaven would be spoiled if the sky were supported by a single visible column, and your faith would lose its glory if it rested on anything discernible by the carnal eye. May the Holy Spirit give you rest in Jesus this closing day of the month.
Go To Morning Reading Evening, August 31
“If we walk in the light, as he is in the light.”
—1 John 1:7
As he is in the light! Can we ever attain this? Shall we ever be able to walk as clearly in the morning as he is whom we call “Our Father,” of whom it is written, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all?” Indeed, this is the model which it set before us, for the Saviour himself said, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect;” and although we may feel that we can never rival the perfection of God, yet we are to seek after it, and never to be satisfied until we attain to it. As he grasps his early pencil, the youthful artist can hardly hope to equal Raphael or Michael Angelo, but still. However, if he did not have a noble beau ideal before his mind, he would only attain something very mean and ordinary. But what does the expression mean that the Christian is to walk in the light as God is in the morning? We conceive it to import likeness, but not degree. We are as indeed in the light, as heartily, as sincerely in the light morning, as honestly in the morning, though we cannot be there in the same measure. I cannot dwell in the sun, it is too bright a place for my residence, but I can walk in the light of the sun; and so, though I cannot attain to that perfection of purity and truth which belongs to the Lord of hosts by nature as the infinitely good. Yet, I can set the Lord always before me and strive, with the help of the indwelling Spirit, after conformity to his image. That famous old commentator, John Trapp, says, “We may be in the light as God is in the light for quality, but not for equality.” We are to have the same light and are as indeed to have it and walk in it as God does, though, for equality with God in his holiness and purity, that must be left until we cross the Jordan and enter into the perfection of the Highest. Mark that the blessings of sacred fellowship and perfect cleansing are bound up with walking in the light.
Spurgeon, C. H. Morning and Evening: Daily Readings. London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896. Print.
August 31: Walking with Jesus
Isaiah 65:1–66:24; Luke 24:13–53; Job 14:11–22
Imagine encountering Jesus on the road to Emmaus. It would be a surreal experience. You’re walking to the next town, and you start a conversation with a man beside you, only to find out later that you’ve been talking with the resurrected Son of God. Even more surreal, the topic of conversation up to your moment of discovery has been the death of the man walking with you (Luke 24:13–35).
I have often wondered what it would be like to meet Jesus face to face—to have Him explain to me how He exists in the biblical text from Moses, in all the prophets, and in all Scripture (Luke 24:27). How different would my life be after that experience? Would I rethink everything I had known and heard—perhaps everything I do?
Asking these questions is not only healthy, but it also turns on our spiritual GPS. Are we on the path God has called us to? Have we strayed in one direction or another? Are we in some odd roundabout where we’re explaining to Jesus what His coming means?
Many Christians—not just scholars and preachers—complicate matters of salvation. We overthink God’s work or place it far from our daily lives. Like the old saying, we become “too big for our britches,” forgetting that, ultimately, the entire Bible points to Jesus and His redeeming work.
Jesus’ work is accurate and surreal. In the Bible, He is present everywhere. In our lives, He is present in every aspect and every moment. We need only to acknowledge Him and act upon the truth of His message. That simple idea is what it means to walk the road with our Savior.
How can you walk more aligned with the Savior?
John D. Barry
Barry, John D., and Rebecca Kruyswijk. Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012. Print.
August 31st
My joy … your joy
My joy might remain in you, and your joy might be complete. John 15:11.
What was the joy that Jesus had? Using the word happiness in connection with Jesus Christ is an insult. The joy of Jesus was the absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice of Himself to His Father, the pleasure of doing what the Father sent Him to do. “I delight to do Thy will.” Jesus prayed that our joy might go on fulfilling itself until it was the same joy as His. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce His joy to me?
The full flood of my life is not in bodily health, external happenings, or seeing God’s work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God and in the communion with Him that Jesus Himself had. The first thing hindering this joy is the captious irritation of thinking out circumstances. The cares of this world, said Jesus, will choke God’s word. Before we know where we are, we are caught up in the shows of things. All that God has done for us is the mere threshold; He wants to get us to where we will be His witnesses and proclaim Who Jesus is.
Be rightly related to God, find your joy there, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. Be a center for Jesus Christ to pour living water through. Stop being self-conscious, stop being a sanctified prig, and live the life hidden with Christ. The energy rightly related to God is as natural as breathing wherever it goes. The lives that have been of most blessing to you are those who were unconscious of it.
Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986. Print.
August 31
I would have you without carefulness
1 Cor. 7:32
Do not look forward to the changes and chances of this life in fear. Instead, look to them with full hope that, as they arise, God, whose you are, will deliver you out of them. He has kept you hitherto—do you but hold fast to His dear hand, and He will lead you safely through all things; and when you cannot stand, He will bear you in His arms. Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow. The same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering or give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace then, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.
Francis de Sales
Hardman, Samuel G., and Dwight Lyman Moody. Thoughts for the Quiet Hour. Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997. Print.
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