Daily Devotionals for August 5, 2024

Memory is frequently the bond slave of despondency. Dispairing minds call to remembrance every dark foreboding in the past, and dilate upon every gloomy feature in the present; thus memory, clothed in sackcloth, presents to the mind a cup of mingled gall and wormwood. There is, however, no necessity for this. Wisdom can readily transform memory into an angel of comfort. That same recollection which in its left hand brings so many gloomy omens, may be trained to bear in its right a wealth of...

For Reading and Meditation:     Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Today our exploration of Ecclesiastes comes to an end. We have traveled with Solomon over many roads, and have listened to a wide variety of reflections. The world does not have the resources to meet the needs of the soul, he has been saying, and any attempt to try to find meaning in life apart from God is...

THE Lord's people knew their God as a covenant God, reconciled to them, at peace with them, and dwelling among them, through the work of Jesus. He has made a covenant in which they are interested, from which all their blessings flow, and on which their confidence is founded. Of this covenant, God is ever mindful. He is mindful of the engagements of Jesus as our Surety; of the relationship in which He was pleased to manifest Himself, as our Father; of the state in which He viewed us, as poor...

In this hour of all-but-universal darkness one cheering gleam appears: within the fold of conservative Christianity there are to be found increasing numbers of persons whose religious lives are marked by a growing hunger after God Himself. They are eager for spiritual realities and will not be put off with words, nor will they be content with correct `interpretations' of truth. They are athirst for God, and they will not be satisfied till they have drunk deep at the Fountain of Living Water....

"The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide." Psalms 37:31

Put the law into the heart, and the whole man is right. This is where the law should be; for then it lies, like the tables of stone in the ark, in the place appointed for it. In the head it puzzles, on the back it burdens, in the heart it upholds.

What a choice word is here used, "the law of his God"! When we know the LORD as our own God His...

Here is a precious truth for thee, believer. Thou mayest be poor, or in suffering, or unknown, but for thine encouragement take a review of thy "calling" and the consequences that flow from it, and especially that blessed result here spoken of. As surely as thou art God's child today, so surely shall all thy trials soon be at an end, and thou shalt be rich to all the intents of bliss. Wait awhile, and that weary head shall wear the crown of glory, and that hand of labour shall grasp the...

The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants; and none of them who trust in him shall be desolate" (Ps. 34:22).

We can only trust our Father to the degree that we know Him. And He only reveals Himself to us by His means. That is by the Word, by the Spirit, and hence by the Son - in that sequence.

"Could it be...

Matthew 22:1-14

Christ is soon to be condemned by the rulers and put to death - but as He stands now in the holy city, He speaks as the Judge, pronouncing the doom upon the people who are rejecting Him as their Messiah. "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son." The marriage feast suggests two great thoughts concerning gospel blessings. The figure of a feast pictures...

He will perfect my happiness. " My people shall be satisfied with my goodness." He will perfect his own image in me. He will make me perfect in wisdom; perfect to know and to do his will; perfect to glorify the Redeemer; perfect in beauty and in strength.

The thought of humanity being again clothed with perfection is something altogether wonderful. It was a light thing to call a world into existence out of nothing; but to take a nature that had become earthly, sensual, devilish, and...

Games 1:20) The picture is not an unfamiliar one. A church business meeting is in progress. A decision must be made. It is not about some great doctrine of the faith, but perhaps about building an addition, or painting the kitchen, or distributing some funds. A disagreement develops, anger rises, tempers flare and shouting erupts. A few strongminded vocal individuals finally prevail, then leave with the delusion that they have forwarded the work of God. Whatever else they have forwarded,...

Among the innocent victims of this effete and degenerate age, there is none so pure and so beautiful as love.

Next to the word God with its various forms, there is no word so fair in all the language. Yet it may be said without qualification that this beautiful word has so suffered in the house of its friends as now to be scarcely recognizable. For the great mass of mankind, love has lost its divine meaning. The novelist, the playwright, the psychoanalyst, the writer of popular love...

As you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. § I beseech you … , brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have...

O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. § Not as I will, but as You will. § Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes...