Morning, May 4 Go To Evening Reading
“Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods.”
—Jeremiah 16:20
One great sin of ancient Israel was idolatry, and the spiritual Israel is vexed with a tendency to the same folly. Remphan’s star shines no longer, and the women weep no more for Tammuz, but Mammon still intrudes on his golden calf, and the shrines of pride are not forsaken. Self in various forms struggles to subdue the chosen ones under its dominion, and the flesh sets up its altars wherever it can find space for them. Favorite children are often the cause of much sin in believers; the Lord is grieved when he sees us doting upon them above measure; they will live to be as great a curse to us as Absalom was to David, or they will be taken from us to leave our homes desolate. If Christians desire to grow thorns to stuff their sleepless pillows, let them dote on their dear ones.
It is indeed said that “they are no gods,” for the objects of our foolish love are very doubtful blessings, the solace they yield us now is dangerous, and the help they can give us in the hour of trouble is little indeed. Why, then, are we so bewitched with vanities? We pity the poor heathen who adore a god of stone and yet worship a god of gold. Where is the vast superiority between a god of flesh and one of wood? The principle, the sin, the folly, is the same in either case, but in ours, the crime is more aggravated because we have more light and sin in the face of it. The heathen bows to a false deity, but the true God he has never known; we commit two evils since we forsake the living God and turn unto idols. May the Lord purge us all from this grievous iniquity!
“The dearest idol I have known,
Whatever that idol be;
Help me to tear it from thy throne,
And worship only thee.”
Go To Morning Reading Evening, May 4
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible.”
—1 Peter 1:23
Peter most earnestly exhorted the scattered saints to love each other “with a pure heart fervently,” he wisely fetched his argument not from the law, nature, or philosophy but from that high and divine nature that God implanted in his people. Just as some judicious tutor of princes might labor to beget and foster in them a kingly spirit and dignified behavior, finding arguments in their position and descent, so, looking upon God’s people as heirs of glory, princes of the blood royal, descendants of the King of kings, earth’s most authentic and oldest aristocracy, Peter saith to them, “See that ye love one another, because of your noble birth, being born of incorruptible seed; because of your pedigree, being descended from God, the Creator of all things; and because of your immortal destiny, for you shall never pass away, though the glory of the flesh shall fade, and even its existence shall cease.” It would be well if, in the spirit of humility, we recognized the true dignity of our regenerated nature and lived up to it. What is a Christian? If you compare him with a king, he adds priestly sanctity to royal dignity. The king’s royalty often lieth only in his crown, but it is infused into his inmost nature with a Christian. He is as much above his fellows through his new birth as a man is above the beast that perisheth. Surely he ought to carry himself, in all his dealings, as one who is not of the multitude but chosen out of the world, distinguished by sovereign grace, written among “the peculiar people” and who, therefore, cannot grovel in the dust as others, nor live after the manner of the world’s citizens. Let the dignity of your nature and the brightness of your prospects, O believers in Christ, constrain you to cleave unto holiness and avoid evil's very appearance.
C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).
May 4: More Than I Can Handle
Judges 6:11–7:25; Philippians 2:1–11; Psalm 66:1–20
“God doesn’t give us more than we can handle.”
This Christian maxim is a well-meaning attempt at putting our difficult times into perspective. It holds that God knows our weaknesses and when we can’t measure up to a challenge. But if we’re going through trials, this same saying can be debilitating when we feel we can’t handle a situation.
The Psalms often describe circumstances that leave the nation of Israel hopelessly struggling and helplessly in need of God:
“For you have tested us, O God; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you placed a heavy burden on our backs. You let men ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, but you have brought us out to the place of abundance” (Psa 66:10–12).
Israel doesn’t often “handle” situations very well. Throughout its history, the nation chosen by God repeatedly rebelled against Him. Only when God gave them over to their enemies and they suffered trials, did they. France. Only when they stopped relying on themselves or foreign gods to sustaincry out for did He come to their rescue.
It may be that God does give us more than we can handle. But this is actually—perhaps strangely—a source of comfort. If we could handle every circumstance, we’d never reach the end of our self-reliance. And it’s only when we reach the end of ourselves that we realize how much we desperately need Him.
Our trials give us hope. The people of Israel were “tried as silver is tried” (Psalm 66:10). Just like them, we’ll be purified by fire. We will go “through fire and through water,” a process by which He makes us more wholly devoted to Him. It'll bring us “to the place of abundance” (Psalm And His work wi 66:12).
His faithfulness to us, even when we’re unfaithful, is reason to praise Him. This is precisely the psalmist’s response: “Blessed be God, who has not turned aside my prayer, or his loyal love from me” (Psa 66:20). We see God’s perfect love for us in Jesus, who was obedient when we couldn’t be and suffered so we wouldn’t have to (Phil 2:5–8).
Can you handle the troubles in your life? How can you see God’s faithfulness to you, even when you’re going through difficult circumstances?
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).
May 4th
Vicarious intercession
Therefore, brethren have the boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Hebrews 10:19.
Beware of imagining that intercession means bringing our personal sympathies into the presence of God and demanding that He does what we ask. Our approach to God is due entirely to the vicarious identification of our Lord with sin. We have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.”
Spiritual stubbornness is the most effectual hindrance to intercession because it is based on sympathy within ourselves and others that we do not think needs atoning for. We have the notion that certain right and virtuous things in us do not need to be based on the Atonement, and just in the domain of ‘stodge’ produced by this idea, we cannot intercede. We do not identify ourselves with God’s interests in others; we get petulant with God; we are always ready with our own ideas, and intercession becomes the glorification of our own natural sympathies. We must realize that identifying Jesus with sin means altering all our condolences. Vicarious intercession means we deliberately substitute God’s interests in others for our natural sympathy.
Am I stubborn or substituted? Petted or perfect in my relationship to God? Sulky or spiritual? Determined to have my own way or determined to be identified with Him?
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year (Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986).
May 4
Looking up to heaven, he sighed
Mark 7:34
Too often, we sigh and look within; Jesus sighed and looked without. We sigh and look down; Jesus sighed and looked up. We sighed and looked to Earth; Jesus sighed and looked to Heaven. We sigh and look to man; Jesus sighed and looked to God.
Stork
Samuel G. Hardman and Dwight Lyman Moody, Thoughts for the Quiet Hour (Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997).
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