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

 Morning, January 25 Go To Evening Reading

“I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us.”

—Isaiah 63:7

And canst thou not do this? Are there no mercies which thou hast experienced? Though thou art gloomy now, canst thou forget that blessed hour when Jesus met thee and said, “Come unto me”? Canst thou not remember that rapturous moment when he snapped thy fetters, dashed thy chains to the earth, and said, “I came to break thy bonds and set thee free”? Or if the love of thine espousals be forgotten, there must surely be some precious milestone along the road of life not immensely grown over with moss, on which thou canst read a happy memorial of his mercy towards thee? What didst thou never have a sickness like that which thou art suffering now, and did he not restore thee? Wert thou never poor before, and did he not supply thy wants? Wast thou never in straits before, and did he not deliver thee?

Arise, go to the river of thine experience, pull up a few bulrushes, and plait them into an ark, wherein thine infant faith may float safely on the stream. Forget not what thy God has done for thee; turn over the book of thy remembrance, and consider the old days. Canst thou not remember the hill, Mizar? Did the Lord never meet with thee at Hermon? Hast thou never climbed the Delectable Mountains? Hast thou never been helped in time of need? Nay, I know thou hast. Go back, then, a little way to the choice mercies of yesterday, and though all may be dark now, light up the past lamps; they shall glitter through the darkness, and thou shalt trust in the Lord till the day break and the shadows flee away. “Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses, for they have been ever of old.”

Go To Morning Reading Evening, January 25

“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”

—Romans 3:31

When the believer is adopted into the Lord’s family, his relationship with old Adam and the law ceases at once, but then he is under a new rule and a new covenant. Believer, you are God’s child; your first duty is to obey your heavenly Father. A servile spirit you have nothing to do with: you are not a slave but a child, and now, since you are a beloved child, you are bound to obey your Father’s faintest wish, the least intimation of his will. Does he bid you to fulfill a sacred ordinance? You neglect it at your peril, for you will be disobeying your Father. Does he command you to seek the image of Jesus? Is it not your joy to do so? Does Jesus tell you, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”? Then, not because the law commands, but because your Saviour enjoins you, you will labor to be perfect in holiness. Does he bid his saints love one another? Do it, not because the law says, “Love thy neighbor,” but because Jesus says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” and this is the commandment that he has given unto you, “that ye love one another.” Are you told to distribute to the poor? Do it, not because charity is a burden you dare not shirk, but because Jesus teaches, “Give to him that asketh of thee.” Does the Word say, “Love God with all your heart”? Look at the commandment and reply, “Ah! the commandment, Christ hath fulfilled thee already—I have no need, therefore, to fulfill thee for my salvation, but I rejoice to yield obedience to thee because God is my Father now, and he has a claim upon me, which I would not dispute.” May the Holy Ghost obedient your heart to the constraining power of Christ’s love, that your prayer may be, “Make me go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.” Grace is the mother and nurse of holiness and not the apologist of sin.

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

January 25: Radiance

Genesis 40:1–41:37; Hebrews 1–2, Ecclesiastes 9:11–18

When I was a boy, my dad took me to his construction site and told me, “Don’t look directly at the welding light; it can blind you.” But a welding flame is astounding and dangerous. As my father talked with the foreman, I fixated on the light. I saw spots for the rest of the evening but didn’t tell anyone. I secretly feared that the radiance had actually blinded me.

The radiance of Christ is blinding—it was for Paul (Acts 9:1–31). In an epic hymn about the work of God’s Son throughout history, the author of Hebrews calls Jesus “the radiance of [God’s] glory and the representation of his essence, sustaining all things by the word of power” (Heb 1:3). It’s easy to wonder if sustainability is possible if the world will one day crumble and fall. But in Christ, there is hope.

Jesus is much like the sun. You don’t always notice its power, warmth, or even that it’s there. That is especially the case on cloudy days. We forget that without the sun, there would be no life. It’s easy to forget that it is warming us even through rain and clouds.

The same is true for Jesus in our lives. It’s easy to forget Him until we desperately need Him. It’s easy to overlook the daily miracles, such as life itself when searching for something extraordinary. But the unusual is always present. It’s here in the work of Christ, every day. His radiance shines upon us, even when we don’t realize it.

What miracles can you recognize today?

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 25th

Leave room for God

But when it pleased God … Gal. 1:15.

As workers for God, we must learn to make room for God—to give God ‘elbow room.’ We calculate, estimate, and say that this and that will happen, and we forget to make room for God to come in as He chooses. Would we be surprised if God came into our meeting or into our preaching in a way we had never looked for Him to come? Do not look for God to go in any particular way, but look for Him. That is the way to make room for Him. Expect Him to come, but do not expect Him only in a certain way. However much we may know God, the great lesson to learn is that He may break in at any minute. We are apt to overlook this element of surprise, yet God never works in any other way. Suddenly, God meets the life—“When it was the good pleasure of God.…”

Keep your life so constant in its contact with God that His surprising power may break out on the right hand and on the left. Always be in a state of expectancy, and see that you leave room for God to come in as He likes.

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

January 25

My God shall be my strength

Isa. 49:5

Oh, do not pray for easy lives! Pray to be stronger, men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks! Then, the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle. Every day, you shall wonder at yourself, the richness of life which has come in you by the grace of God.

Phillips Brooks

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