Morning, April 24 Go To Evening Reading
“And because of all this, we make a sure covenant.”
—Nehemiah 9:38
There are many occasions in our experience when we may very rightly and with benefit renew our covenant with God. After recovery from sickness when, like Hezekiah, we have had a new term of years added to our life, we may fitly do it. After any deliverance from trouble, when our joys bud forth anew, let us again visit the foot of the cross and renew our consecration. Especially, let us do this after any sin that has grieved the Holy Spiritonor upon the cause of God; let us then look to that blood that or brought dish can make us whiter than snow and again offer ourselves unto the Lord. We should not only let our troubles confirm our dedication to God, but our prosperity should do the same. If we ever meet with occasions that deserve to be called “crowning mercies,” then, indeed, if he hath crowned us, we ought also to crown our God; let us bring forth anew all the jewels of the divine regalia which have been stored in the jewel-closet of our heart, and let our God sit upon the throne of our love, arrayed in royal apparel. If we would learn to profit by our prosperity, we should not need so much adversity. If we would gather from a kiss all the good it might confer upon us, we should not so often smart under the rod. Have we lately received some blessings that we expected little? Has the Lord put our feet in a large room? Can we sing of mercies multiplied? Then this is the day to put our hand upon the altar's horns and say, “Bind me here, my God; bind me here with cords, even forever.” Since we need the fulfillment of new promises from God, let us offer renewed prayers that our old vows may not be dishonored. This morning, let us make a sure covenant with him because of the pains of Jesus, which we have been considering with gratitude for the last month.
Go To Morning Reading Evening, April 24
“The flowers appear on the earth; the time of birds singing is come, and the turtle's voice is heard in our land.”
—Song of Solomon 2:12
Sweet is spring season: the long and dreary winter helps us appreciate its genial warmth, and its promise of summer enhances its present delights. After periods of depression of spirit, it is delightful to behold again the light of the Sun of Righteousness; then our slumbering graces rise from their lethargy, like the crocus and the daffodil from their beds of earth; then is our heart made merry with delicious notes of gratitude, far more melodious than the warbling of birds—and the comforting assurance of peace, infinitely more delightful than the turtle’s note, is heard within the soul. Now is the time for the soul to seek communion with her Beloved; now must she rise from her native sordidness and come away from her old associations. If we do not hoist the sail when the breeze is favorable, we shall be blameworthy: times of refreshing ought not to pass over us unimproved. When Jesus visits us in tenderness and entreats us to arise, can we be so base as to refuse his request? He has himself risen so that he may draw us after him: he now, by his Holy Spirit, has revived us so that we may, in newness of life, ascend into the heavenlies and hold communion with himself. Let our wintry state suffice us for coldness and indifference; when the Lord creates a spring within, let our sap flow with vigor, and our branch blossom with high resolve. O Lord, if it is not springtime in my chilly heart, I pray you to make it so, for I am heartily weary of living far from thee. Oh! The long and dreary winter, when wilt thou bring it to an end? Come, Holy Spirit, and renew my soul! Quicken thou me! Restore me, and have mercy on me! This very night, I would earnestly implore the Lord to take pity upon his servant and send me a happy revival of spiritual life!
C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).
April 24: Tongues, Flames, and Other Things That Devour
Joshua 12:1–13:32; 2 Corinthians 11:7–15; Psalm 52:1–53:6
I’d like to skip over the “mighty man” description in Psalm 52. Of all of his destructive influences, the mighty man is most judged for his use of words. The psalmist’s words burn because I’ve set more than a few forests ablaze with careless words (Jas 3:5). So how should someone like me respond to the psalmist’s judgment?
“Why do you boast about evil, O mighty man? The loyal love of God endures continually. Your tongue plans destruction like a sharp razor, working deceit. You love evil more than good, a lie more than speaking what is right. You love all devouring words, O deceitful tongue” (Psa 52:1–4).
Prideful self-reliance is the root of the evil man’s devouring, razor-sharp tongue. He boasts to make himself appear mighty. He takes “refuge in his destructiveness” (Psa 52:7). In contrast, the psalmist finds refuge in God, in the sanctuary of His loyal love: “But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God. I trust in the loyal love of God forever and ever” (Psa 52:8).
On my own, I’m more like the mighty man than the stable and prosperous olive tree. I can try to manage my words, fabricating my sense of security based on good behavior. But efforts born out of self-reliance—the root problem of my flippant speech—always fail me. Unless I recognize the foolishness of my pride, I cannot see my desperate need for God. I'll never resemble the psalmist's prosperous olive tree without hope in Jesus, who provided refuge through His sacrifice.
Often, the places where we fail so miserably, where we need the most grace, are also the places where we see God’s work all the more. His Spirit changes us in thankfulness. It makes us ever more eager to say with the psalmist: “I will give thanks to you forever, because of what you have done” (Psalm people who bear the fruit of th 52:9).
Where do you see pride and self-reliance taking root in your life?
Rebecca Van Noord
John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).
April 24th
The warning against wantoning
Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you. Luke 10:20.
As Christian workers, worldliness is not our snare, sin is not our snare, but spiritual wantoning is taking the pattern and print of the religious age we live in, making eyes at spiritual success. Never court anything other than the approval of God, go “without the camp, bearing His reproach.” Jesus told the disciples not to rejoice in successful service, yet this seems to be the one thing in which most of us rejoice. We have the commercial view—so many souls saved and sanctified, thank God, now it is all right. Our work begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation; we are not to save souls but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God’s sovereign grace; our work as His disciples is to disciple lives until they are wholly yielded to God. One life wholly devoted to God is of more value to God than one hundred lives simply awakened by His Spirit. As workers for God, we must reproduce our own kind spiritually, and that will be God’s witness to us as workers. God brings us to a standard of life by His grace, and we are responsible for reproducing that standard in others.
Unless the worker lives a life hidden with Christ in God, he will become an irritating dictator instead of an indwelling disciple. Many of us are dictators; we dictate to people and to meetings. Jesus never dictates to us in that way. Whenever Our Lord talked about discipleship, He always prefaced it with an ‘IF,’ never with an emphatic assertion—‘You must.’ Discipleship carries an option with it.
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year (Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986).
April 24
The love of Christ constraineth us
2 Cor. 5:14
The love of Christ is too large for any heart to hold. It will overflow into others’ hearts: it will give itself out, give itself away, to enrich other lives. The heart of Christ is costly for anyone to have. It will lead those who have it where it led Him. If it cost Him the cross, it will cost them no less.
J. M. Campbell
Samuel G. Hardman and Dwight Lyman Moody, Thoughts for the Quiet Hour (Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997).
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