Day 5 - Thursday | Daily Devotions | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | Connect the Testaments | My Utmost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Hour |

 Morning, October 17 Go To Evening Reading

“And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul.”

—1 Samuel 27:1

The thought of David’s heart at this time was a false thought because he certainly had no ground for thinking that God’s anointing him by Samuel was intended to be left as an empty, unmeaning act. On no occasion had the Lord deserted his servant; he had been placed in perilous positions very often, but not one instance had occurred in which divine interposition had not delivered him. The trials to which he had been exposed had been varied; they had not assumed one form only, but many—yet in every case, he who sent the trial had also graciously ordained a way of escape. David could not put his finger upon any entry in his diary saying, “Here is evidence that the Lord will forsake me,” for the entire tenor of his past life proved the reverse. Based on what God had done for him, he should have argued that God would still be his defender. But is it not just in the same way that we doubt God’s help? Is it not mistrust without a cause? Have we ever had the shadow of a reason to doubt our Father’s goodness? Have not his lovingkindnesses been marvelous? Has he once failed to justify our trust? Ah, no! Our God has not left us at any time. We have had dark nights, but the star of love has shone forth amid the blackness; we have been in stern conflicts, but he has held the shield of our defense aloft over our heads. We have gone through many trials, but never to our detriment, always to our advantage, and the conclusion from our past experience is that he who has been with us in six troubles will not forsake us in the seventh. What we have known of our faithful God proves that he will keep us to the end. Let us not, then, reason contrary to evidence. How can we ever be so ungenerous as to doubt our God? Lord, throw down the Jezebel of our unbelief and let the dogs devour it.

Go To Morning Reading Evening, October 17

“He shall gather the lambs with his arm.”

—Isaiah 40:11

Our good Shepherd has a variety of experiences in his flock, some are strong in the Lord, and others are weak in faith, but he is impartial in his care for all his sheep, and the weakest lamb is as dear to him as the most advanced of the flock. Lambs are wont to lag behind, prone to wander, and apt to grow weary, but from all the danger of these infirmities, the Shepherd protects them with his arm of power. He finds new-born souls, like young lambs, ready to perish—he nourishes them till life becomes vigorous; he finds weak minds ready to faint and die—he consoles them and renews their strength. All the little ones he gathers, for it is not the will of our heavenly Father that one of them should perish. What a quick eye he must have to see them all! What a tender heart to care for them all! What a far-reaching and potent arm to gather them all! In his lifetime on earth, he was a great gatherer of the weaker sort, and now that he dwells in heaven, his loving heart yearns towards the meek and contrite, the timid and feeble, the fearful and fainting here below. How gently did he gather me to himself, to his truth, blood, love, and church! With what effectual grace did he compel me to come to himself! Since my first conversion, how frequently has he restored me from my wanderings and once again folded me within the circle of his everlasting arm! The best is that he does it all himself personally, not delegating the task of love but condescending himself to rescue and preserve his most unworthy servant. How shall I love him enough or serve him worthily? I would fain make his name great unto the ends of the earth, but what can my feebleness do for him? Great Shepherd, add to thy mercies this one other, a heart to love thee more truly as I ought.

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

October 17: Shepherding Is a Tough Business

Ezekiel 34:1–35:15; Revelation 17:1–18; Job 37:16–24

Leadership requires accountability, yet many past leaders considered themselves above rebuke. Even when their deeds failed to catch up to them in their own lifetimes, history judged them clearly. History often remembers and records people as they really are. And if history doesn’t recall the truth, God does.

Ezekiel was firm in his rebuke of the leaders of his time—Yahweh commanded him to be: “And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and you must say to them, to the shepherds, “Thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel who were feeding themselves! Must not the shepherds feed the flock? The fat you eat, and you clothe yourself with the wool; the well-nourished animals you slaughter, but you do not feed the flock” (Ezek 34:1–3).

During Ezekiel’s lifetime, the leaders of God’s people were not being leaders at all. They were looking out for themselves rather than the good of the people. The same is true of leaders in our own time. If absolute power corrupts absolutely, as John Dalberg-Acton remarked, then indeed, we are all at risk of losing our way. Rather than responding with dismay, we should determine to take proper action and speak the truth.

We must be people who seek God above ourselves. We must be people who put the needs of others before our own. We must want the glory of God among all people, above all things. We are all leading in one way or another, and others are watching us. That allows each of us to lead by example. And any leader led by something other than God’s will become corrupt. Ezekiel’s criticism presents us with an opportunity to change—to accept our rebuke and choose to live above reproach. Will we take it?

How should you change your approach to leading others in light of Ezekiel’s rebuke? What needs to change for you to live above reproach?

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).

October 17

Greater works

And he shall do more wondrous works than these because I go unto My Father. John 14:12.

Prayer does not fit us for the more significant works; prayer is the more excellent work. We think prayer is a commonsense exercise of our higher powers to prepare us for God’s work. In the teaching of Jesus Christ, prayer is the working of the miracle of Redemption in me, which produces the miracle of Redemption in others by the power of God. The way fruit remains is by prayer, but remember it is prayer based on the agony of Redemption, not mine. Only a child gets prayer answered; a wise man does not.

Prayer is the battle; it is a matter of indifference where you are. Whichever way God engineers circumstances, the duty is to pray. Never allow the thought—‘I am of no use where I am,’ because you certainly can be useless where you are not. Wherever God has dumped you down in circumstances, pray and ejaculate to Him all the time. “Whatsoever ye ask in My name, that will I do.” We won’t pray unless we get thrills; that is the intensest form of spiritual selfishness. We have to labor along God’s direction, and He says to pray. “Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.”

Nothing is thrilling about a labouring man’s work, but it is the labouring man who makes the conceptions of the genius possible; and the laboring saint makes the conceptions of his Master possible. You labor at prayer, and results happen constantly from God’s standpoint. What an astonishment it will be to fin  ,when the vl is lifted, the souls you have reaped simply because you had been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.

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

October 17

I spake unto thee in thy prosperity

Jer. 22:21

We shade our eyes with our hands to shut out the glare of the strong daylight when we want to see far away. Thus, God puts His Hand upon our brows and tempers the glow of prosperity so that we may take in the broader phases of His goodness. It is a common experience that, looking out from the gloom of some personal affliction, men have seen for the first time beyond the earth plane and caught glimpses of the Beulah Land. Let us not shrink from the Hand, which we know is heavy only with blessing.

Ludlow

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