Day 7 - Sabbath (Saturday) | Daily Devotions | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | Connect the Testaments | My Hope for His Highest | Thoughts for the Hour |

 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, happy trouble 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 worlds 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 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 to 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 light 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 set before us, for the Saviour himself said, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect;".." However, we may feel that we can never rival the perfection of God, yet we are to seek it and never be satisfied until we attain it. As he grasps his early pencil, the youthful artist can hardly hope to equal Raphael or Michael Angelo. 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 light? We conceive it to import likeness but not degree. We are as indeed in the light, as heartily in the light, as sincerely in the light, as honestly in the light, though we cannot be there in the same measure. I cannot dwell in the sun; it is too bright for my residence, but I can walk in the sun's light. 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, by 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, as 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 Most High. Mark that the blessings of sacred fellowship and perfect cleansing are bound with walking in the light.

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

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 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 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 caught in some odd roundabout, explaining to Jesus what His coming means?

Many Christians—not just scholars and preachers—complicate matters of salvation. We overthink God's work or distance it 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

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

August 30

Am I convinced by Christ?

Notwithstanding, rejoice not …, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Luke 10:19, 20.

Jesus Christ says, in effect, Don't rejoice in successful service, but rejoice because you are rightly related to Me. The snare in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service and the fact that God has used you. You can never measure what God will do through you if you are rightly related to Jesus Christ. Keep your relationship right with Him, then whatever circumstances you are in, and whoever you meet day by day, He is pouring rivers of living water through you, and it is of His mercy that He does not let you know it. When once you are rightly related to God by salvation and sanctification, remember that wherever you are, you are put there by God. By the reaction of your life to the circumstances around you, you will fulfill God's purpose as long as you keep in the light as God is in the light.

Today, there is a tendency to put emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make usefulness their today of appeal. If you make usefulness the test, Jesus Christ was the greatest failure ever. The lodestar of the saint is God Himself, not estimated usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that Our Lord heeds in a man's life is the relationship of worth to His Father. Jesus is bringing many sons to glory.

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

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; 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 today or give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace then, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.

Francis de Sales

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