Day 4 - Wednesday | Daily Devotions | Day and Morning: Daily Reading | Connect the Testaments | My Utmost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Day |

 Morning, October 2 Go To Evening Reading

“The hope which is laid up for you in heaven.”

—Colossians 1:5

Our hope in Christ for the future is the mainspring and the mainstay of our joy here. It will animate our hearts to think often of heaven, for all we can desire is promised there. Here we are weary and toilworn, but yonder is the land of rest where the sweat of labor shall no more bedew the worker’s brow, and fatigue shall be forever banished. To those weary and spent the word “rest” is complete of heaven. We are always in the field of battle; we are so tempted within, and so molested by foes without, that we have little or no peace; but in heaven we shall enjoy the victory, when the banner shall be waved aloft in triumph, and the sword shall be sheathed, and we shall hear our Captain say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” We have suffered bereavement after bereavement, but we are going to the land of the immortal, where graves are unknown things. Here sin is a constant grief to us, but there we shall be perfectly holy, for there shall by no means enter into that kingdom anything which defileth. Hemlock springs not up in the furrows of celestial fields. Oh! Is it not joy, that you are not to be in banishment forever, that you are not to dwell eternally in this wilderness, but shall soon inherit Canaan?

Nevertheless let it never be said of us, that we are dreaming about the future and forgetting the present, let the future sanctify the present to highest uses. Through the Spirit of God, the hope of heaven is the most potent force for the product of virtue; it is a fountain of joyous effort and the cornerstone of cheerful holiness. The man with this hope in him goes about his work with vigor, for the joy of the Lord is his strength. He fights against temptation with ardor, for the hope of the next world repels the fiery darts of the adversary. He can labor without present reward, for he looks for a reward in the future.

Go To Morning Reading Evening, October 2

“A man greatly beloved.”

—Daniel 10:11

Child of God, do you hesitate to appropriate this title? Ah! Has your unbelief made you forget that you are greatly beloved, too? Must you not have been greatly beloved, to have been bought with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot? When God smote his only begotten Son for you, what was this but being greatly beloved? You lived in sin, and rioted in it, must you not have been greatly beloved for God to have borne so patiently with you? You were called by grace, led to a Saviour, and made a child of God and an heir of heaven. All this proves, does it not, a very significant and superabounding love? Since that time, whether your path has been rough with troubles or smooth with mercies, it has been full of proof that you are a man greatly beloved. If the Lord has chastened you, yet not in anger; if he has made you poor, yet in grace you have been rich. The more unworthy you feel yourself, the more evidence you have that nothing but unspeakable love could have led the Lord Jesus to save such a soul as yours. The more demerits you feel, the more precise is the display of the abounding love of God in having chosen you, called you, and made you an heir of bliss. If there is such love between God and us, let us live in its insistence and sweetness, the privilege of our position. Do not let us approach our Lord as though we were strangers or he were unwilling to hear us—for we are greatly beloved by our loving Father. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Come boldly, O believer, for despite the whisperings of Satan and the doubtings of thine own heart, thou art greatly beloved. Meditate on the exceeding greatness and faithfulness of divine love this evening, so go to thy bed in peace.

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

October 2: When Love Is Lost, Labor Is in Vain

Ezekiel 3:16–5:17; Revelation 2:1–11; Job 32:11–22

When zeal lacks love, faith is rendered useless. Love is the crux of faith. We can study the Bible like a scholar, pray like a warrior, and evangelize like the world is ending tomorrow, but we still might miss the mark of faith. God desires our love.

The church in Ephesus, one of the most influential communities in the first century AD, patiently endured persecution and held on to their faith. But Ephesus is the first church that Jesus holds accountable in His revelation to John—and not for their lack of zeal:

“And you have patient endurance, endured many things because of my name, and have not become weary. But I have this against you: you have left your first love. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, and repent and do the works you did at first. But if you do not, I am coming to you, and I will remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent” (Rev 2:3–5).

Although the Ephesian church had remained outwardly faithful in formidable circumstances, Jesus still threatened to remove His favor. The community was doing everything right—maintaining orthodox standards, testing apostles, refusing to tolerate evil—but they no longer delighted in the grace they first knew. They weren’t motivated by the same love.

We hear the same reprimand when Paul writes to the church in Corinth: Even if we “speak with the tongues of men and angels,” or “have the gift of prophecy,” or have faith that “can remove mountains,” we are nothing without love (1 Cor 13:1–2). Paul continues with the poetry that speaks a hard but necessary truth: Even if we “parcel out all [our] possessions” and “hand over [our bodies] so that [we] will be burned”—all without love—it doesn’t benefit us or earn us favor with God (1 Cor 13:3–4).

These passages should shake us. If we rely on our correct doctrines for approval, we must take our cue from Jesus’ words to the church in Ephesus. If we think our evangelizing efforts, church involvement, or Bible reading merit God’s favor, we are mistaken. Even our suffering profits us nothing without love.

The grace God has shown us should break our hearts, drive us to Him, deepen our love—and motivate all of our labors. We must continually return to that grace. It’s His love that initially motivated our passion. And it’s His love that sustains it.

Have your labors lost their love? How can you dwell in His grace and love so that all your actions are infused with meaning?

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).

October 2

The sphere of humiliation

If Thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Mark 9:22.

After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are, where it is neither beautiful nor poetic nor thrilling. The height of the mountain top is measured by the drab drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mount, but we never live for His glory there. In the sphere of humiliation, we find our true worth to God; that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at the heroic pitch because of the natural selfishness of our hearts, but God wants us at the drab, commonplace pitch where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with Him. Peter thought it would be fine for them to remain on the mount, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mount into the valley—the place where the meaning of the vision is explained.

“If Thou canst do anything …” It takes the valley of humiliation to root the skepticism out of us. Look back at your own experience, and you will find that until you learned Who Jesus was, you were a cunning skeptic about His power. You could believe anything when you were on the mount, but what about when you were up against facts in the valley? You may be able to testify to sanctification, but what about the thing that is humiliating to you just now? The last time you were on the mount with God, you saw that all power in heaven and on earth belonged to Jesus—will you be skeptical now in the valley of humiliation?

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

October 2

God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him

1 John 4:16

God is love, and it is good, as it is true, to think that every sun ray that touches the earth has the sun at the other end of it; so every bit of love upon God’s world has God at the other end of it.

Mark Guy Pearse

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