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

 Morning, January 2 Go To Evening Reading

“Continue in prayer.”

—Colossians 4:2

It is interesting to remark how much a portion of Sacred Writ is occupied with prayer, either in furnishing examples, enforcing precepts, or pronouncing promises. We scarcely open the Bible before we read, “Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord,” just as we are about to close the volume, the “Amen” of an earnest supplication meets our ear. Instances are plentiful. Here we find a wrestling Jacob—a Daniel who prayed three times a day—and a David who called upon his heart God with all hi. We see Elias, Paul, and Silas on the mountain in the dungeon. We have multitudes of commands and myriads of promises. What does this teach us, but what is prayer's sacred importance and necessity?

We may be sure that whatever God has made prominent in his Word, he intended to be conspicuous in our lives. If he has said much about prayer, it is because he knows we have much need of it. So deep are our necessities that until we are in heaven, we must not cease to pray. Dost thou want nothing? Then, I fear thou dost not know thy poverty. Hast thou no mercy to ask of God? Then, may the Lord’s mercy show thee thy misery! A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus. It is the breath, the watchword, the comfort, the strength, and the honor of a Christian. If thou be a child of God, thou wilt seek thy Father’s face and live in thy Father’s love. Pray that this year thou mayst be holy, humble, zealous, and patient; have closer communion with Christ, and enter oftener into the banqueting house of his love. Pray that thou mayst be an example and a blessing unto others and that thou mayst live more to the glory of thy Master. The motto for this year must be “Continue in prayer.”

Go To Morning Reading Evening, January 2

“Let the people renew their strength.”

—Isaiah 41:1

All things on earth need to be renewed. No created thing continues by itself. “Thou renewest the face of the year,” was the Psalmist’s utterance. Even the trees, which wear not themselves with care, nor shorten their lives with labor, must drink of the rain of heaven and suck from the hidden treasures of the soil. The cedars of Lebanon, which God has planted, only live because, day by day, they are full of sap freshly drawn from the earth. Neither can man’s life be sustained without renewal from God. As it is necessary to repair the waste of the body through frequent meals, we must repair the waste of the soul by feeding upon the Book of God, listening to the preached Word, or the soul-fattening table of the ordinances. How depressed are our graces when means are neglected! What poor starvelings some saints are who live without the diligent use of the Word of God and secret prayer! If our piety can live without God, it is not of divine creation; it is a dream, for if God had begotten it, it would wait upon him as the flowers await the dew. Without constant restoration, we are not ready for the perpetual assaults of hell, the sternheaven, or even afflictions of the strifes within. When the whirlwind shall be loosed, woe to the tree that hath not sucked up fresh sap and grasped the rock with many intertwisted roots. When tempests arise, woe to the mariners that have not strengthened their mast, cast their anchor or sought the haven. Suppose we suffer the good and grow weaker. In that case, the evil will surely gather strength and struggle desperately for mastery over us, and perhaps, a painful desolation and a lamentable disgrace may follow. Let us draw near to the footstool of divine mercy in humble entreaty, and we shall realize the fulfillment of the promise, “They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.”

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

January 2: Scripture for War or Peace?

Genesis 3–4; Matthew 3–4; Ecclesiastes 1:6–11

Like many people, I use Scripture to defend my views. But so does Satan. In Matthew 4, the devil says: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you’ ” (Matt 4:6, citing Psa 91:11–12). In turn, Jesus responds with Scripture, “Again, it is written, ‘You are not to put the Lord your God to the test’ ” (Matt 4:7, citing Deut 6:16, coupled with Isa 7:12).

While the devil used Scripture for his own purposes, Jesus used them for God’s. This teaches us that Scripture alone isn’t enough: it must be contextualized and balanced with other Scripture.

This story raises the question, “Will we use Scripture to defend our own positions or use it to defend God’s?” It’s easy to quote Scripture only to defend our personal theological position. Sometimes, we are too focused on being “right” and not necessarily on helping other believers. However, while we might believe that being “right” will ultimately help them, we may be inhibiting the gospel message. We might even be the ones driving them away.

Many of us have relationships plagued by a need to be right or to use Scripture in our personal war. But that needs to change.

When we use Scripture for our gains or battles, we act like Christ’s tempter—not Christ. We might think we are defending the gospel, butut Christ’s virgin birth, suffering, death, resurrection, or continued presence in our lives, it’s if it’s not abo not about the fundamental truths. It’s about our battle—about what we want. Instead, let’s act more like Christ. Let’s use Scripture in the proper context, balancing it with other Scripture.

How do you need to change the way you’re using Scripture?

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).

January 2nd

Will you go out without knowing?

He went out, not knowing whither he went. Hebrews 11:8.

Have you been ‘out’ in this way? If so, no logical statement is possible when anyone asks you what you are doing. One of the difficulties in Christian work is this question—‘What do you expect to do?’ You do not know what you will do; you only know that God knows what He is doing. Continually revise your attitude towards God and see if it is a going out of everything, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in perpetual wonder—you do not know what God is going to do next. Each morning you wake, it is to be a ‘going out,’ building confidence in God. “Take no thought for your life, … nor yet for your body”—take no thought for the things for which you did take thought before you ‘went out.’

Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do; He reveals to you Who He is. Do you believe in a miracle-working God, and will you surrender to him until you are not surprised an atom at anything He does?

Suppose God is the God you know Him to be when you are nearest to Him. What an impertinence worry! Let the attitude of life be a continual ‘going out’ in dependence upon God, and your life will have an ineffable charm about it, which is a satisfaction to Jesus. You have to learn to go out of convictions, out of creeds, out of experiences until, so far as your faith is concerned, there is nothing between yourself and God.

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

January 2

My reward is with me

Rev. 22:12

We are to be rewarded not only for work done but for burdens borne; I am not sure that the brightest rewards will be for those who have borne burdens without murmuring. On that day, He will take the lily growing so long among thorns and lift it up to be the glory and wonder of all the universe, and the fragrance of that lily will draw forth ineffable praises from all the hosts of Heaven.

Andrew Bonar

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