Bowen's Daily Meditations

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:19 NIV

He knows your need. It seems to you that no one can know it, it is so vast. He knows it better than you do yourself. He does not confound you with others, saying, I know what man needs; but he knows you, yourself, and is acquainted with all the necessities of your individual being, as though every thought, every desire, that had ever trembled in your heart had spent itself...

Consider the speaker, the giver. Who is this shepherd? It is the Lord of Glory. All things were made not only by him, but for him..It is for all to yield the tribute of all they possess to him, and ever to ascribe unto him all glory and honor and wisdom and power. But lo! this Lord of all quits his throne, takes a shepherd's crook, and comes forth with a gift.

Consider then on whom the gift is bestowed! As you ascended high to learn the dignity of the giver, so must you descend...

Acknowledge him as thy guide, thine only, thy necessary guide. Refuse to stir a step without him, as the blind man that stops the moment he misses his guide. Without him thou art in utter darkness, and thy next step may be into a pit. He has made thee thus dependent. It is not enough that the sun shines for thee, the earth upholds thee, and all God's works wait upon thee; all these finite ministers cannot guarantee thee one safe step. God has ordained it. He created thee to be guided by...

The sun is a glorious emblem of God, in his relation to all who know him and trust in him. It seems to exist only to dispense. Its beams know no intermission. They are intercepted but never withheld. We need only that we should be turned towards them, and that there should be no veil before our eyes, no clouds in our atmosphere. They enlighten, they warm, they vivify, they gladden. Their profusion is amazing One hundred millions of square miles of these beams descend each moment on the earth...

"If thou canst do any thing," said the man, "have mercy upon us and help us." The question is not, says Christ, what I can do; but what thou canst believe. All things are possible to me; but this will help thee little. Have faith, and then all things will be possible to thee. My power is given to faith; and fills every channel that faith provides.

Christ has all power in heaven and in earth; and he is with his servants, even unto the end of the world: but something beside these facts...

This was one of the wisest apostolic utterances. The world is unconscious of its unbelief. It thinks that the reason why it has not more faith, is that there is no more evidence given to it. But no accumulation of evidence would remove the difficulty. A change within, a couching of the moral vision; this is that which is necessary.

The Lord answers this prayer, not in general by giving new evidence, but by inclining us to view and appreciate the evidence before our minds. By leading...

The Christian must be weak that he may be strong; weak in the deprivation of those things which the world connects with the idea of strength; deficient in the strength that men seek and extol; emptied of all thoughts of his own independent and personal power; stripped of his own righteousness and wisdom; sensible of the mighty power of the enemy; a mere ruin and a wreck, apart from Christ. Then there is in deed a preparation for strength. A foundation is laid upon which Christ will build....

Sometimes the soul gets angry with the instruction and says, " I will not believe that this is from the Lord my God. The Lord my God is one that loveth me and taketh pleasure in granting the desires of my heart. But this providence is rude and withering; my hopes are blasted, my expectations mocked, my trust belied. What could mine enemy do to me, more severe, more crushing, than this that has come upon me? And shall I be told that it is the Lord my God teaching me to profit?"

" Yes,...

This probably means that time, instead of diminishing the strength and crippling the energies of the people of God, shall be commissioned to convey unto them increase of spiritual strength, and to render them day by day, month by month, year by year, more vigorous and more victorious in the conflict with sin, more energetic in faith, more sublime in patience and fortitude, more meek and lowly of heart, more fervent in admiration of Christ, more self-denying and devoted in his service, more...