“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved,
bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind,
meekness, long-suffering . . .”
(Colossians 3:12)
That is the end of all true “doing to death”—the end is life, not death; a life of uttermost love,
love that cannot help loving any more than the sun can help shining,
or the river flowing, or the trees putting forth green leaves.
The bond that holds God’s children together is love, just love.
One unkind deed, one unkind word, one thought even that
moves towards unkindness, is fatal to the quality of
love we must have if His love is to be in us.
It is not a little thing to love like this.
Lord, evermore give us this love.
(Edges of His Ways - Amy Carmichael)
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November 22
"Hezekiah . . . broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made.”
(2 Kings 18:4)
It is always good to look back on times of blessing and deliverance.
There is, however, a danger of remaining there and living on past blessings.
The children of Israel had even come to worship the brazen serpent,
the provision, rather than the provider.
God wants us to move on and experience His enabling and deliverance
today and in the future, as we endeavour to serve Him.
Remember, His mercies are new every morning.
(Brian Russell)
New mercies, each returning day, hover around us while we pray;
New perils past, sins forgiven, new thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.
(John Keble)
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November 23
"I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles."
(Psalm 34:4,6)
Once we overheard a conversation that passed between two Christians that we shall not easily forget. One was aged, and had been prosperous, but in the decline of life misfortune overtook him through the dishonesty of another. We can see him now as he stood in the doorway, his shining face set off by an abundance of white hair.
As they parted, his friend said to him, quoting from Psalm 34, “Well, remember, ’This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him our of all his troubles.’ “ “Ah,” he said (and they were the last words we ever hear him utter), “He has done a greater thing for me than that: “He has delivered me from all my fears.”
Yes, it is surely a greater thing to be delivered from all our fears than saved out of all our troubles. It is those fears that cast such a dark cloud over many a life. And yet how often they are groundless fears! But if trouble actually does come, and the trial is upon us, then let us remember the words of the Psalm already quoted
He cried just as if he had fallen into some pit, or was being washed out to sea. And this is just how we must cry to God in our trouble.
"What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee” (Psalm 56:3).
“I will trust and not be afraid.” (Isaiah 12:2).
“Trust in Him at all times.” (Psalm 62:8).
(Angels in White - Russell Elliot)
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November 24
“Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth . . .”
(Hebrews 12:6)
Everybody is not passing smoothly through this life,
though some may be more so than others. . . .
But, after all, it is only “for a season”
and if “need be.”
Do not make yourself uneasy:
the One who holds the reins of the need-be is God.
He does not take pleasure in afflicting.
If there is the need for it we go through the
trial, but it is only for a moment.
(J. N. Darby)
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November 25
"For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and
he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
(Luke 14:11)
There are two ways in which God humbles us.
By the discovery of what is in our hearts, and by the discovery of what is in His heart—
and nothing so humbles us as to discover what is in His heart—but humble myself
as I may, I do not believe I ever get down to my true level—to the place in which God sees me.
It should be a continual process.
There is a difference between being humble, and being humbled.
I am humble when I am in God’s presence, occupied with what He is.
I am humbled when I am compelled to look at myself,
for self is always a sad sight.
(W.T.P. Wolston)
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November 26
“My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.”
(Song of Solomon 5:10)
To know Jesus is present salvation, peace, and happiness.
To know that my sins are blotted out by these “ruddy” drops—
yes, blotted out, I say blotted out for ever, is perfect blessedness.
They have no existence now before God, the Judge of sin.
Pardoned I am—I know I am, God says it.
But to know that my sins are blotted out is a deeper thought still.
Christ abolished sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
Like the pebble that has been cast into the depths of the sea, our sins are
untraceable—they are buried in the deep waters of God’s forgetfulness.
And God has been so glorified in the work of His blessed Son,
that it is now a righteous thing with God, as well as
gracious, to bless all who believe in Jesus.
He can now indulge His love by meeting in grace the chief of
sinners, who bows to the name of the once lowly,
but now exalted Son of man.
(Andrew Miller)
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November 27
"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
(Psalm 91:1)
“JESUS,”
was always conscious of His Father’s
presence and the most natural thing was to speak to Him.
So closely is the life of the road connected with the invisible goal that prayer
has been established as a special means of communication between the two.
Prayer is that preparation for the travelers’ benefit so unique
that it stands alone in the tale of their blessings.
It is cooperation with God.
In prayer we align ourselves to the purposes of God
and He is able to do things through us that He could not do otherwise.
(S. D. Gordon - Traveling Toward Sunrise)
Prayer is so simple;
It is like quietly opening a door
and slipping into the very presence of God.
There is the stillness
To listen to His voice,
Perhaps to petition,
Or only to listen;
It matters not
Just to be there
In His presence
Is prayer.
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November 28
"Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?
Let hin show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts,
glory not, and lie not against the truth.”
(James 3: 13,14)
A wise man is a man of faith, a man subject to and taught of God. Such
an one will manifest his true spiritual state by good behaviour.
His speech will be with meekness of wisdom.
This will be when faith is in the ascendency and the old, corrupt
nature is kept in the place of death by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God.
Where it is otherwise one may well be ashamed before God and man.
If bitter envying and strife are ruling in the heart it indicates an unsubdued will and life out of
harmony with God. For this there is no reasonable excuse, for abundant provision has
been made in order that one may be freed from such bondage.
God waits to bestow all needed wisdom to enable us to rise triumphantly
above the evil tendencies of our natural hearts.
We shall always fail if we seek to be guided by our own
minds or by the wisdom of the flesh.
(H.A. Ironside)
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November 29
“I being in the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master’s brethren.”
(Genesis 24:27)
Abraham’s servant had been charged with a difficult assignment—
“Find Isaac a wife”.
He needed to convince a young woman to travel to a place
she’d never been,
marry someone she didn’t know,
and live in a land she’d never seen!
Facing such a daunting task, the servant prayed for guidance and direction.
His journey proved successful, and he rejoiced,
knowing it was God who had led him.
Wise is the Christian who first seeks, then commits to the Master’s way.
It is here we learn what trusting God is all about, and it’s here
we’ll experience His divine interventions!
(D. Manera)
I have held many things in my hands, and have lost them all;
But whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.
(M. Luther)
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November 30
“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
(1 Peter 1:7-8)
JOB - Above this book you may write:
“Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace:
Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.” (Cowper)
Its keywords are found in two New Testament texts:
“Patient in tribulation” (Romans 12:12).
“Thy will be done” (Matthew 6:10).
The noble book of Job, that gave to the ancient world the first hint of the solution of
the mystery of pain, by detaching from it the hitherto inescapable association
of a curse; which teaches man to believe that the divine author of all
we suffer and all we enjoy is our ever blessed Lord.
For there is no strength without trial, no wisdom without experience of God and evil;
no refinement without pain; no progress without self-dissatisfaction;
nothing permanent that costs us nothing.
(The Wonderful Word - George Henderson)
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December 1
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