“I called upon the LORD in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.
The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?”
(Psalm 118:5-6)
“Thou hast set my feet in a large room. Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble."
(Psalm 31:8-9)
“If God be for us, who can be against us?”
(Romans 8:31)
I know not what the future holds,
No, not one single hour;
But I know One who knoweth well,
And has it in His power;
Because I trusted in the blood
Poured out on Calvary,
In Him my future is secure
For all eternity.
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July 21
Daily Refreshing
“Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine.”
(Isaiah 43:1)
"For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will
pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring: and they
shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.”
(Isaiah 44:3,4)
The wind and ocean air which I inhaled yesterday will not do for today. The
breezes which refreshed me last week will not so refresh me this morning.
The surge of oxygen that cleansed and energized my body metabolism
about a month ago will not suffice for my work this afternoon.
I must be refreshed, rejuvenated, yes refilled each day. There is no other way.
The supply and source is inexhaustible. The movement and flow
is eternal. The dynamic energy never diminishes.
All that is required is that I expose and open myself before Him to be totally available to
His personal impact upon me today. To so live—sensitive to His presence,
aware of His wishes, obedient and open to His will—is to be filled
and stimulated by His Spirit . . . now and on into eternity.
(W. Philip Keller - Songs of My Soul)
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July 22
“After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying,
Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward."
(Genesis 15:1)
In rescuing Lot, Abraham learned that God was his shield in battle and his reward in victory.
The Christian life is a battle but in Christ we can turn aside the piercing
arrows of worry, opposition and failure.
We can repel the fiery darts of fear, loneliness and despair.
In victory we learn that Christ is our reward.
Through Him we have a personal relationship with God—now and forever.
Let’s foster that relationship today.
(George Ferrier)
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing,
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He; Lord Sabaoth, His Name,
From age to age the same, and He must win the battle.
(Martin Luther)
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July 23
“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
(Isaiah 40:31)
Mounting up with wings suggests that the higher we rise, the wider the prospect.
As you have climbed some high hill, have you not noticed how the prospect widens?
Almost every few steps in the ascent opens to your view some feature of the landscape
you had not noticed before—the distant and the near lie extended as a map at your feet.
That which had never been seen before becomes distinct and clear.
So God would have His children mount up with wings as eagles, in order that they may survey the prospect, and the vast extent of their blessings that lie open to view. As eagles! No bird flies higher.
It sores aloft with unfaltering flight and with unflinching eye, gazing, it is said,
upon the glorious orb of day itself.
Have we risen yet on eagle’s wings? Have we taken in the full prospect of our blessing?
Have we comprehended the divine purpose? God said of His people of old:
“I have borne you on eagles’ wings and brought you to MYSELF.”
(Angels in White - Russell Elliot)
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July 24
“Because this woman troubleth me, I will avenge her.”
(Luke 18:5)
We should be careful about what we ask from God;
but when once we begin to pray for a thing we should never give up praying
for it until we receive it, or until God makes it very clear and definite that it is not His will to grant it.
(R. A. Torrey)
It is said of John Bradford that he had a peculiar art in prayer. When asked his secret, he said: “When I know what I want, I always stop on that prayer until I feel that I have pleaded it with God, and until God and I have had dealings with each other upon it. I never go on to another petition until I have gone through the first.”
To the same point Mr. Spurgeon said: “Do not try to put two arrows on the string at once—they will both miss. He that would load his gun with two charges cannot expect to be successful.
Plead once with God and prevail, and then plead again.
Get the first answer and then go after the second. Do not be satisfied with running the colours of your prayers into one another until there is no picture to look at, but just a huge daub—
a smear of colours badly laid on.”
Far better would it be to know what our real needs are, and then concentrate our earnest supplications upon those definite objects, taking them thoughtfully one at a time.
(Springs in the Valley)
“Ask what I shall give thee.” (2 Chronicles 1:7)
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July 25
“He is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead;
that in all things He might have the preeminence.”
(Colossians 1:18)
O Lord! Thou now art risen;
Thy travail all is o’er;
For sin Thou once hast suffered—
Thou livest to die no more;
Sin, death and hell are vanquished
By Thee, the church’s Head;
And lo! we share Thy triumphs,
Thou Firstborn from the dead.
(J. G. Deck)
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July 26
OUR INTELLECTS KEPT FOR JESUS
“And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee:
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore
will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
(2 Corinthians 12:9)
He who made every power can use every power—memory, judgment, imagination, quickness of apprehension or insight; specialties of musical, poetical, oratorical, or artistic faculty; special tastes for reasoning, philosophy, history, natural science, or natural history—all these may be dedicated to Him, sanctified by Him, and used by Him.
Whatever He has given, He will use if we will let Him. Often in the most unexpected ways
and at the most unexpected turns something read or acquired long ago suddenly comes into use.
We cannot foresee what will thus “come in useful”; but He knew, when He guided us to learn it what it would be wanted for in His service. So may we not ask Him to bring His perfect foreknowledge to bear on all our mental training and storing? to guide us to read or study exactly what He knows there will be use for in the work to which He has called or will call us?
(Kept for the Master’s Use - Francis Ridley Havergal)
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July 27
“TODAY”
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
(Psalm 90:12)
Today is not a day to be endured just in order to get over yonder to something better.
The grass looks greener in the next pasture, but it is hard to tell which is our most important day.
One day has one kind of opportunity, another has another. Let us buy up all the opportunities,
for the days are evil. We are apt to put a red circle around the wrong day.
God’s calendar does not look like ours.
The big day on ours may be without special significance on His. And the ordinary day,
when “nothing much happened,” may, if redeemed to His glory,
be a great day in His sight.
Do not try to evaluate any day, just make the most of it. What seems a dry and tedious interval,
a desert stretch between here and yonder, while you burn with a fever to be into the
middle of next week, may afford greater opportunity to know God and
glorify Him than the glamorous day you are burning to reach.
Besides, this is the only day you can be sure of. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow.”
And today is the only day of its kind. God never makes two alike.
There will never be another day like it. You may call it
“just another day,” but it isn’t.
Make it count for God!
(Day by Day with Vance Havner)
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July 28
"In the world ye shall have tribulation:
but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
(John 16:33)
The Lord does not hold out to us the prospect of exemption from
trial and tribulation; quite the opposite.
He tells us we shall have to meet both the one and the other;
but He promises to be with us in them, and this is infinitely better.
(Food for the Desert)
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July 29
“Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give;
not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”
not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”
(2 Corinthians 9:7)
When the English government sought to reward General Charles George Gordon for his brilliant services in China, General Gordon declined all money or titles, but finally accepted a gold medal inscribed with the record of his thirty-three engagements.
It was his most prized possession.
But after his death the medal could not be found.
Eventually it was learned that he had sent it to Manchester during a severe famine, directing that it should be melted down and used to buy bread for the poor.
Under the date of its sending, these words were found written in his diary:
"The last and only thing I had in this world that I valued I
have given over to the Lord Jesus Christ.”
It is not what you have that matters,
It is what you do do with what you have.
—Sir Wilfred Grenfell
(Mountain Trailways for Youth)
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July 30
THE LITTLE DOORS
“Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life.”
(Matthew 7:14)
Oh, strait and narrow is the door, the little door of loss,
By which we enter in to Christ, the low door of the cross;
But when we put away our pride, and in contrition come,
We find it is the only way that leads to God and home.
Oh, strait and lowly are the doors by which Christ comes to us;
We bar the entrance gates of joy, and when He finds them thus,
By strange, small doors of woe and want, of trial and of pain,
He enters in to share our lives to our eternal gain.
The narrow doors He brings us to, the little doors and low,—
What large rooms they will open on, if we will only go;
The strange, small doors of work and want, strait doors of grief and pain,
What riches they will lead us to, what everlasting gain!
(The Life of Annie Johnson Flint - Poems)
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July 31
"And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering [shroud] cast over all people . . .” (Isaiah 25:7)
A brutal car wreck devastated Mary Ann Franco. Though she survived, the injuries left her completely blind. “All I coud see was blackness,” Franco explained. Twenty-one years later, she injured her back in a fall. After waking from surgery (which had nothing to do with her eyes), miraculously, her sight had returned!
For the first time in more than two decades, Franco saw her daughter’s face. The neurosurgeon insisted there was no scientific explanation for her restored vision. The darkness that seemed so final gave way to beauty and light.
The Scriptures, as well as our experience, tell us that a shroud of ignorance and evil covers the world, blinding all of us to God’s love (Isaiah 25:7). Selfishness and greed, our self-sufficiency, our lust for power or image—all these compulsions obscure our vision, making us unable to clearly see the God who “. . . Thou hast done wonderful things.” (v.1)
Left to ourselves, we experience only darkness, confusion, and despair. We often feel trapped—groping and stumbling, unable to see our way forward. Thankfully, Isaiah promises that God will ultimately "destroy in this mountain the face of the covering [shroud] cast over all people” (v.7).
God will not leave us hopeless. His radiant love removes whatever blinds us, surprising us with a beautiful vision of a good life and abundant grace.
(Winn Collier)
“The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7)
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"Our Daily Bread” RBC Ministries, Copyright (2019), Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted permission.
August 1
THE BLIND MAN
“And He took the blind man by the hand,
and led him out of the town."
(Mark 8:23)
Lead me, my Saviour; take me by the hand,
For Thou can’st see those steps unseen by me.
I cannot walk by sight; ’tis well that Thou hast planned
How I may walk secure by faith in Thee.
Lead me, my Master; let me feel Thy hand,
E’en while Thy face as yet I cannot see.
What though “without the city” I must take my stand,
No-one is lonely while in touch with Thee.
Lead me, Lord Jesus, till at last Thy hand
From my dark blindness sets me gladly free.
The way Thou leadest now I then shall understand,
And, best and brightest, then I’ll gaze on Thee.
(Bells and Pomegranates - James M. S. Tait)
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