Morning, February 29 Go To Evening Reading
“With lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”
—Jeremiah 31:3
The thunders of the law and the terrors of judgment are all used to bring us to Christ, but the final victory is affected by loving-kindness. The prodigal set out to his father’s house from a sense of need, but his father saw him a great way off and ran to meet him so that the last steps he took towards his father’s house were with the kiss still warm upon his cheek, and the welcome still musical in his ears.
“Law and terrors do but harden
All the while, they work alone;
But a sense of blood-bought pardon
Will dissolve a heart of stone.”
The Master came one night to the door and knocked with the iron hand of the law; the door shook and trembled upon its hinges, but the man piled every piece of furniture which he could find against the door, for he said, “I will not admit the man.” The Master turned away, but by and bye, he came back, and with his own soft hand, using most of that part where the nail had penetrated, he knocked again—oh, so softly and tenderly. This time, the door did not shake, but, strange to say, it opened, and there, upon his knees, the once unwilling host rejoiced to receive his guest. “Come in; thou hast so knocked that my bowels are moved for thee. I could not think of thy pierced hand leaving its blood-mark on my door and of thy going away houseless, ‘Thy head filled with dew, and thy locks with the drops of the night.’ I yield, I yield, thy love has won my heart.” So, in every case, lovingkindness wins the day. What Moses, with the tablets of stone, could never do, Christ does with his pierced hand. Such is the doctrine of effectual calling. Do I understand it experimentally? Can I say, “He drew me, and I followed on, glad to confess the voice divine?” If so, may he continue to draw me till, at last, I shall sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Go To Morning Reading Evening, February 29
“Now we have received … the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”
—1 Corinthians 2:12
Dear reader, have you received the spirit of God, wrought by the Holy Ghost in your soul? The necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart may be clearly seen from this fact that all which has been done by God the Father and the Son must be ineffectual to us unless the Spirit shall reveal these things to our souls. What effect does the doctrine of election have upon any man until the Spirit of God enters him? The election is a dead letter in my consciousness until the Spirit of God calls me out of darkness into marvelous light. Then, through my calling, I see my election, and knowing myself to be called by God, I know myself to be chosen for the eternal purpose. His Father made A covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ, but what avails that covenant to us until the Holy Spirit brings us its blessings and opens our hearts to receive them? There hang the blessings on the nail—Christ Jesus; but being short of stature, we cannot reach them; the Spirit of God takes them down and hands them to us, and thus they become ours. Covenant blessings are like the manna in the skies, far out of mortal reach, but the Spirit of God opens the windows of heaven and scatters the living bread around the camp of the spiritual Israel. Christ’s finished work is like wine stored in the wine vat; we can neither draw nor drink through unbelief. The Holy Spirit dips our vessel into this precious wine, and then we drink; without the Spirit, we are as truly dead in sin as though the Father never had elected and the Son had never bought us with his blood. The Holy Spirit is essential to our well-being. Let us walk lovingly towards him and tremble at the thought of grieving him.
C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).
February 29th
What do you want the Lord to do for you?
Lord, that I may receive my sight. Luke 18:41.
What is the thing that not only disturbs you but makes you a disturbance? It is always something you cannot deal with yourself. “They rebuked him, that he should hold his peace, but he cried much more.” Persist in the disturbance until you face the Lord Himself; do not deify common sense. When Jesus asks us what we want Him to do for us regarding the incredible thing we are faced with, remember that He does not work in commonsense ways but in supernatural ways.
Watch how we limit the Lord by remembering what we have allowed Him to do for us in the past: ‘I always failed there, and I always shall’; consequently, we do not ask for what we want, ‘It is ridiculous to ask God to do this.’ If it is an impossibility, it is the thing we have to ask. If it is not impossible, it is not a natural disturbance. God will do the absolutely impossible.
This man received his sight. The most impossible thing to you is that you should be so identified with the Lord that nothing of the old life is left. He will do it if you ask Him. But you must come to the place where you believe Him to be Almighty. Faith is not in what Jesus says but in Himself; if we only look at what He says, we shall never believe. Once we see Jesus, He does the impossible as naturally as breathing. Our agony comes through the wilful stupidity of our own heart. We won’t believe, we won’t cut the shoreline, we prefer to worry on.
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year (Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986).
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