Day 1 - Lord's Day (Sunday) | Daily Devotions | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | Connect the Testaments | My Utmost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Quie Hour |

 Morning, December 22 Go To Evening Reading

“I will strengthen thee.”

—Isaiah 41:10

God has a substantial reserve to discharge this engagement, for he can do everything. Believer, till thou canst drain dry the ocean of omnipotence, till thou canst break into pieces the towering mountains of almighty strength, thou never needest to fear. Think not that man's strength shall ever be able to overcome the power of God. While the earth’s massive pillars stand, thou hast enough reason to abide firm in thy faith. The same God who directs the world in its orbit feeds the burning furnace of the sun and trims the lamps of heaven has promised to supply thee with daily strength. While he can uphold the universe, dream not that he will prove unable to fulfill his promises. Remember what he did in the old days, in the former generations. Remember how he spake, and it was done; how he commanded, and it stood fast. Shall he that created the world grow weary? He hangeth the world upon nothing; shall he who doth this be unable to support his children? Shall he be unfaithful to his word for want of power? Who is it that restrains the tempest? Did he not ride upon the wings of the wind, make the clouds his chariots, and hold the ocean in the hollow of his hand? How can he fail thee? When he has put such a faithful promise as this on record, wilt thou indulge the thought that he has out-promised himself and gone beyond his power to fulfill? Ah, no! Thou canst doubt no longer.

O thou who art my God and my strength, I can believe that this promise shall be fulfilled, for the boundless reservoir of thy grace can never be exhausted, and the overflowing storehouse of thy strength can never be emptied by thy friends or rifled by thine enemies.

“Now let the feeble all be strong,

And make Jehovah’s arm their song.”

Go To Morning Reading Evening, December 22

“The spot of his children.”

—Deuteronomy 32:5

What is the secret spot which infallibly betokens the child of God? It was vain to decide this upon our judgment, but God’s word reveals it to us, and we may tread where we have revelation to be our guide. Now, we are told concerning our Lord, “to as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to as many as believed in his name.” Then, if I have received Christ Jesus into my heart, I am a child of God. That reception is described in the same verse as believing in the name of Jesus Christ. If, then, I think on Jesus Christ’s name—that is, simply from my heart, trust myself with the crucified but now exalted Redeemer, I am a member of the family of the Most High. Whatever else I may not have, if I have this, I have the privilege to become a child of God. Our Lord Jesus puts it in another shape. “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” Here is the matter in a nutshell. Christ appears as a shepherd to his own sheep, not to others. As soon as he seems, his own sheep perceive him—they trust him, they are prepared to follow him; he knows them, and they know him—there is a mutual knowledge—there is a constant connection between them.

Thus, the one mark, the sure mark, the infallible mark of regeneration and adoption is a hearty faith in the appointed Redeemer. Reader, are you in doubt? Are you uncertain whether you bear the secret mark of God’s children? Then let not an hour pass over your head till you have said, “Search me, O God, and know my heart.” Trifle not here, I adjure you! If you must trifle anywhere, let it be about some secondary matter: your health, if you will, or the title deeds of your estate; but about your soul, your never-dying soul and its eternal destinies, I beseech you to be in earnest. Make sure to work for eternity.

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

December 22: A False Form of Righteousness

Jeremiah 42:1–43:13; Romans 9:30–10:21; Proverbs 24:23–34

Zeal can be treacherous if it’s misplaced. It may lead us to set and strictly follow standards that have nothing to do with God’s work—standards that make us feel like good people but can devastate our lives and the lives of others.

Paul addresses the misplaced zeal of many Jewish people in his letter to the Roman church: “Brothers, the desire of my heart and my prayer to God on behalf of them is for their salvation. I testify that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. By ignoring the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom 10:1–4).

Many Jewish people who had rejected the Messiah were attempting to make themselves right with God by keeping the ot law. In doing so, they missed God by seeking their own righteousness. Paul tells the Romans that these Jewish people ignored the “righteousness of God”—God’s work of salvation in Jesus Christ. Only by submitting to God could they be “right with God” through Jesus Christ.

This lesson doesn’t apply only to the Jewish people and their relationship to the law. Jesus restored our relationship with God when we couldn’t. We only have to believe in Him. Yet a dangerous zeal can still trip us up. If we rest in anything except Christ’s work and try to reach God by being good people, we will surely miss Him. And in the process, we can become stumbling blocks in the lives of others.

Are you trying to attain righteousness through your own effort? How does your life reflect humility because of Christ’s work in you? How can you lovingly point others toward the righteousness of God, found only through His son, Jesus Christ?

What are you trying to attain? How can you focus your hope and the hope of others on Christ and the righteousness He has gained for you?

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).

December 22nd

The drawing of the Father

No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him. John 6:44.

When God draws me, the issue of my will comes in at once—will I react to the revelation God gives; will I go to Him? Discussion on spiritual matters is an impertinence. Never discuss with anyone when God speaks. Belief is not an intellectual act; belief is a moral act whereby I deliberately commit myself. Will I dump myself down absolutely on God and transact on what He says? If I will, I shall find that I am based on reality as sure as God’s throne.

In preaching the gospel, always push an issue of will. Belief must be the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to persuasive power; a deliberate launching on God and what He says until I am no longer confident in what I have done; I am assured only in God. The hindrance is that I will not trust God; I will trust only my mental understanding. As far as feelings go, I must stake all blindly: I must will to believe, and this can never be done without a violent effort to dissociate myself from my old ways of looking at things and by putting myself right over on to Him.

Every man is made to reach out beyond his grasp. God draws me; my relationship with Him is personal, not intellectual. I am introduced into the relationship by the miracle of God and my own will to believe. Then, I began to appreciate and understand the wonder of the transaction intelligently.

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

December 22

Be not doubtful, but followers of them also inherit the promises through faith and patience.

Heb. 4:12

God makes a promise. Faith believes it. Hope anticipates it. Patience quietly awaits it.

Selected

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