God has a wondrous ideal for the old earth. He has never forgotten it amid all the tangle and confusion and strife down here. There’s a glad day coming. It will be a new birthday for the earth, the day of birth into a new life. It comes with the coming of the King. Jesus’ coming is not the end of the world, but the beginning of the better order. Lord Jesus, come quickly. The world needs to recognize and obey its King.

From “The Bent Knee Time” a devotional by Samuel D. Gordon

Lord, Your anger is just. I am a sinner deserving of no good thing, but Your mercy is far greater than my sin. Even when I sin against You, You stand ready to receive me into Your graces. You forgive my transgressions and call me lovely.

My heart is pained because of my sin, because of my acts that offend and sadden You.

Lord Jesus, draw near to me. Holy Spirit, strengthen me that I might overcome every temptation. In Your word O Lord is my hope of salvation.

Praise the Lord!

“Songs in the Morning”. Sandra Bivens Smith. Copyright ©️ 2023.

Lord, throughout the history of man You have shown Yourself to be longsuffering, merciful, gracious and loving. Despite man’s rejection of You, You have never rejected man.

Through my life, even in my darkest and deepest pits of sin, You did not forsake me, You waited for me to come to You. And when I turned, You opened Your arms to receive me.

Lord, thank You that Your word is unchanging, Your nature is eternal, Your life is abundant.

Thank You Lord that your promises will never fail.

“Songs in the Morning”. Sandra Bivens Smith. Copyright ©️ 2023.

It is indeed a memorable moment in the history of the human spirit, when we suddenly wake up to see that the Almighty is the All-Loving Father, that the righteousness of God is no longer a ground of anxiety and fear, but of assured hope; that He has no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live.

What a glad hour it was to Thomas when, after a week of the blackness of darkness, he stood again face to face with Jesus, and learned that His heart was beating in sympathy, and that His pierced hands were held out to him. Dare to believe that the Love which died for you is dealing with all the mysteries, misfits, and dark problems of your life.

Weeping may tarry for the night in which you shut yourself in with yourself, but she is only a lodger! Joy will come in the morning, when you open your heart to Christ.

Adapted from F.B Meyers devotional “Our Daily Walk”

The world owes much of its beauty to cloudland. The unchanging blue of the Italian sky hardly compensates for the changefulness and glory of the clouds. Earth would become a wilderness apart from their ministry. There are clouds in human life, shadowing, refreshing, and sometimes draping it in blackness of night; but there is never a cloud without its bright light. “I do set my bow in the cloud!”

If we could see the clouds from the other side where they lie in billowy glory, bathed in the light they intercept, like heaped ranges of Alps, we should be amazed at their splendid magnificence.

We look at their under side; but who shall describe the bright light that bathes their summits and searches their valleys and is reflected from every pinnacle of their expanse? Is not every drop drinking in health-giving qualities, which it will carry to the earth?

O child of God! If you could see your sorrows and troubles from the other side; if instead of looking up at them from earth, you would look down on them from the heavenly places where you sit with Christ; if you knew how they are reflecting in prismatic beauty before the gaze of Heaven, the bright light of Christ’s face, you would be content that they should cast their deep shadows over the mountain slopes of existence. Only remember that clouds are always moving and passing before God’s cleansing wind.

From “Streams in the Desert” a devotional by Mrs. Charles E. (Lettie) Cowman)

Years ago there was an old German professor whose beautiful life was a marvel to his students. Some of them resolved to know the secret of it; so one of their number hid in the study where the old professor spent his evenings.

It was late when the teacher came in. He was very tired, but he sat down and spent an hour with his Bible. Then he bowed his head in secret prayer; and finally closing the Book of books, he said,

“Well, Lord Jesus, we’re on the same old terms.”

To know Him is life’s highest attainment; and at all costs, every Christian should strive to be “on the same old terms with Him.”

The reality of Jesus comes as a result of secret prayer, and a personal study of the Bible that is devotional and sympathetic. Christ becomes more real to the one who persists in the cultivation of His presence.

From “Streams in the Desert” devotional by Mrs. Charles E. (Lettie) Cowman.

“Almost persuaded” now to believe;
“Almost persuaded” Christ to receive;
Seems now some soul to say,
“Go, Spirit, go Thy way;
Some more convenient day
On Thee I’ll call.”

“Almost persuaded,” come, come today;
“Almost persuaded,” turn not away;
Jesus invites you here,
Angels are lingering near,
Prayers rise from hearts so dear;
O wanderer, come.

“Almost persuaded,” harvest is past!
“Almost persuaded” doom comes at last!
“Almost” cannot avail;
“Almost” is but to fail!
Sad, sad, that bitter wail,
“Almost,” but lost!

Philip P. Bliss (b. Clearfield County, PA, 1838; d. Ashtabula, OH, 1876) left home as a young boy to make a living by working on farms and in lumber camps, all while trying to continue his schooling. He was converted at a revival meeting at age twelve. Bliss became an itinerant music teacher, making house calls on horseback during the winter, and during the summer attending the Normal Academy of Music in Genesco, New York. His first song was published in 1864, and in 1868 Dwight L. Moody advised him to become a singing evangelist. For the last two years of his life Bliss traveled with Major D. W. Whittle and led the music at revival meetings in the Midwest and Southern United States. Bliss and Ira D. Sankey published a popular series of hymn collections entitled Gospel Hymns. The first book of the series, Gospel Songs, was published in 1874. Bliss’s tragic death at the age of thirty-eight happened near the end of 1876. Philip P. Bliss and his wife were traveling to Chicago to sing for the evangelistic services led by Daniel W. Whittle at Dwight L. Moody’s Tabernacle. But a train wreck and fire en route claimed their lives.

There is nothing that pleases the Lord so much as praise. There is no test of faith so true as the grace of thanksgiving.

Are you praising God enough? Are you thanking Him for your actual blessings that are more than can be numbered, and are you daring to praise Him even for those trials which are but blessings in disguise? Have you learned to praise Him in advance for the things that have not yet come?

From “Streams in the Desert” a devotional by Mrs. Charles E. (Lettie) Cowman)

Frequently we pray that God would not forsake us in the hour of trial and temptation, but we too much forget that we have need to use this prayer at all times. There is no moment of our life, however holy, in which we can do without his constant upholding. Whether in light or in darkness, in communion or in temptation, we alike need the prayer, “Forsake me not, O Lord.” “Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe.”

A little child, while learning to walk, always needs the nurse’s aid. The ship left by the pilot drifts at once from her course. We cannot do without continued aid from above; let it then be your prayer to-day, “Forsake me not. Father, forsake not thy child, lest he fall by the hand of the enemy. Shepherd, forsake not thy lamb, lest he wander from the safety of the fold. Great Husbandman, forsake not thy plant, lest it wither and die. ‘Forsake me not, O Lord,’ now; and forsake me not at any moment of my life. Forsake me not in my joys, lest they absorb my heart. Forsake me not in my sorrows, lest I murmur against thee. Forsake me not in the day of my repentance, lest I lose the hope of pardon, and fall into despair; and forsake me not in the day of my strongest faith, lest faith degenerate into presumption. Forsake me not, for without thee I am weak, but with thee I am strong. Forsake me not, for my path is dangerous, and full of snares, and I cannot do without thy guidance. The hen forsakes not her brood, do thou then evermore cover me with thy feathers, and permit me under thy wings to find my refuge.

‘Be not far from me, O Lord, for trouble is near, for there is none to help.’ ‘Leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation!'”

From C.H. Spurgeon’s devotional “Morning and Evening”

Let us seek the quiet heart in our prayers. Prayer must arise within us as a fountain from unknown depths. But we must leave it to God to answer in His own wisest way. We are so impatient, and think that God does not answer. A child asked God for fine weather on her birthday, and it rained! Some one said, “God didn’t answer your prayer.” “Oh yes,” she replied, “He did, God always answers, but He said No!” God always answers! He never fails! Be still! If we abide in Him, and He abides in us, we ask what we will, and it is done. As a sound may dislodge an avalanche, so the prayer of faith sets in motion the power of God.

In times of difficulty—be still! Your enemies are plotting your overthrow! They laugh at your strong confidence! But have you not heard His voice saying: “This is the way, walk in it”? Then leave Him to deal with your foes from whatever quarter they come. He is your Rock, and rocks do not shake. He is your High Tower, and a high tower cannot be flooded. You need mercy, and to Him belongs mercy. Do not run here and there in panic! Just quietly wait, hushing your soul, as He did the fears of His friends on the eve of Gethsemane and Calvary. “Rest in the Lord, wait patiently for Him.” “Be still, for He will not rest, until He has finished the thing this day.”

Adapted from F.B. Myer’s “Our Daily Walk” devotional.