Day 7 - Sabbath - Saturday | Daily Devotions | Connect the Testaments: Morning and Evening | My Utmost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Quiet Hour |

 May 23: Fear: The Fight against It

1 Chronicles 12:1–13:14; 1 Timothy 6:11–21; Psalm 81:1–82:8

Fear is poisonous. When it drives our decisions, it will slowly destroy us—causing us to make moves that are against God’s will and detrimental to ourselves and others. The antidote to fear is complete reliance on Yahweh, our God, and His work through the Spirit.

David is the epitome of someone who sets aside fear in favor of God’s work. He surrounds himself with “feared” men, his “mighty men.” The descriptions of their skills show the caliber of these warriors and, by extension, the incredible character and skill it must have taken to lead them (1 Chr 12:1–15). It takes courage to be a leader and valor to be a leader of leaders. David was a man of valor—a man empowered by the Spirit’s work.

It would have been easy for David to worry or be concerned as a leader, especially when the Spirit comes upon a smaller group of men who oppose him. People rise up around him, and they are being chosen by God in a way he had not been. But David isn’t concerned or resentful; instead, he affirms God’s work (1 Chr 12:16–18).

The Spirit empowers David again when he seeks out the ark of the covenant, which had previously been with God’s people as they went into battle and when they worshiped (1 Chr 13:1–4). In this moment, when David summons the people to undertake this task, he shows that he is not just a leader of great men, but a godly leader of great men. He understands that his own strength and skill will not carry him and his warriors. Instead, they must be guided by Yahweh. They must recover the ark that symbolized Him and His work among them, His very presence.

Rather than let fear drive him, David drives out fear in the name of his God. We should be people of the same character, showing courage and valor.

What is God doing through you? How can you allow God to banish the fears you have?

John D. Barry

 John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

Morning, May 23: Go To Evening Reading

“The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.”

—Psalm 138:8

Most manifestly, the confidence which the Psalmist here expressed was a divine confidence. He did not say, “I have grace enough to perfect that which concerneth me—my faith is so steady that it will not stagger—my love is so warm that it will never grow cold—my resolution is so firm that nothing can move it; no, his dependence was on the Lord alone. If we indulge in any confidence which is not grounded on the Rock of ages, our confidence is worse than a dream; it will fall upon us and cover us with its ruins, to our sorrow and confusion. All that Nature spins time will unravel, to the eternal confusion of all who are clothed therein. The Psalmist was wise; he rested upon nothing short of the Lord’s work. It is the Lord who has begun the good work within us; it is he who has carried it on, and if he does not finish it, it never will be complete. If there be one stitch in the celestial garment of our righteousness which we are to insert ourselves, then we are lost; but this is our confidence, the Lord who began will perfect. He has done it all, must do it all, and will do it all. Our confidence must not be in what we have done, nor in what we have resolved to do, but entirely in what the Lord will do. Unbelief insinuates—“You will never be able to stand. Look at the evil of your heart, you can never conquer sin; remember the sinful pleasures and temptations of the world that beset you, you will certainly be allured by them and led astray.” Ah! Yes, we should indeed perish if left to our own strength. If we had alone to navigate our frail vessels over so rough a sea, we might well give up the voyage in despair; but, thanks be to God, he will perfect that which concerneth us, and bring us to the desired haven. We can never be too confident when we confide in him alone, and never too much concerned to have such a trust.

Go To Morning Reading, Evening, May 23

“Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money.”

—Isaiah 43:24

Worshippers at the temple were wont to bring presents of sweet perfumes to be burned upon the altar of God, but Israel, in the time of her backsliding, made but few votive offerings to her Lord; this was backsliding, evidence of coldness of heart towards God and his house. Reader, does this never occur with you? Is the complaint of the text occasionally, if not frequently, brought against you? Those who are poor in pocket, if rich in faith, will be accepted nonetheless because their gifts are small; but, poor reader, do you give in fair proportion to the Lord, or is the widow’s mite kept back from the sacred treasury? The rich believer should be thankful for the talent entrusted to him, but should not forget his large responsibility, for where much is given, much will be required; but, rich reader, are you mindful of your obligations, and rendering to the Lord according to the benefit received? Jesus gave his blood for us. What shall we give him? We are his, and all that we have, for he has purchased us unto himself—can we act as if we were our own? O for more consecration! and to this end, O for more love! Blessed Jesus, how good it is of thee to accept our sweet cane bought with money! nothing is too costly as a tribute to thine unrivaled love, and yet thou dost receive with favor the smallest sincere token of affection! Thou dost receive our poor forget-me-nots and love-tokens as though they were intrinsically precious, though indeed they are but as the bunch of wild flowers which the child brings to its mother. Never may we grow niggardly towards thee, and from this hour never may we hear thee complain of us again for withholding the gifts of our love. We will give thee the first fruits of our increase, and pay thee tithes of all, and then we will confess “of thine own have we given thee.”

 C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).

May 23rd

Careful infidelity

Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Matthew 6:25.

Jesus sums up commonsense carefulness in a disciple as infidelity. If we have received the Spirit of God, He will press through and say—‘Now where does God come in in this relationship, in this mapped-out holiday, in these new books?’ He always presses the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion.

“Take no thought …”—don’t take the pressure of forethought upon yourself. It is not only wrong to worry, it is infidelity, because worrying means that we do not think that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything else that worries us. Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the word He puts in? The devil? No, the cares of this world. It is the little worries that always. I will not trust where I cannot see, that is where infidelity begins. The only cure for infidelity is obedience to the Spirit.

The great word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon.

 Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year (Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986).

May 23

Hide thyself by the brook

1 Kings 17:3

Not by the river, but by the brook. The river would always contain an abundant supply, but the brook might dry up at any moment.

What does this teach us? God does not place His people in a state of luxuriance here. The world’s abundance might withdraw its affections from Him. He gives them not the river, but the brook. The brook may be running today, but tomorrow it may be dried up.

And wherefore does God act thus? To teach us that we are not to rest in His gifts and blessings, but in Himself. This is what our hearts are always doing—resting in the gift, instead of the Giver. Therefore, God cannot trust us by the river, for it unconsciously takes up His place in the heart. It is said of Israel that when they were full, they forgot God.

F. Whitfield

 Samuel G. Hardman and Dwight Lyman Moody, Thoughts for the Quiet Hour (Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997).