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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Tuesday, October 9, 2007
MORNING:
"Able to keep you from falling."
-- Jude 24
In some sense the path to heaven is very safe, but in other respects
there is no road so dangerous. It is beset with difficulties. One false
step (and how easy it is to take that if grace be absent), and down we
go. What a slippery path is that which some of us have to tread! How
many times have we to exclaim with the Psalmist, "My feet were almost
gone, my steps had well nigh slipped." If we were strong, sure-footed
mountaineers, this would not matter so much; but in ourselves, how weak
we are! In the best roads we soon falter, in the smoothest paths we
quickly stumble. These feeble knees of ours can scarcely support our
tottering weight. A straw may throw us, and a pebble can wound us; we
are mere children tremblingly taking our first steps in the walk of
faith, our heavenly Father holds us by the arms or we should soon be
down. Oh, if we are kept from falling, how must we bless the patient
power which watches over us day by day! Think, how prone we are to sin,
how apt to choose danger, how strong our tendency to cast ourselves
down, and these reflections will make us sing more sweetly than we have
ever done, "Glory be to him, who is able to keep us from falling." We
have many foes who try to push us down. The road is rough and we are
weak, but in addition to this, enemies lurk in ambush, who rush out
when we least expect them, and labour to trip us up, or hurl us down
the nearest precipice. Only an Almighty arm can preserve us from these
unseen foes, who are seeking to destroy us. Such an arm is engaged for
our defence. He is faithful that hath promised, and he is able to keep
us from falling, so that with a deep sense of our utter weakness, we
may cherish a firm belief in our perfect safety, and say, with joyful
confidence,
"Against me earth and hell combine,
But on my side is power divine;
Jesus is all, and he is mine!"
EVENING:
"But he answered her not a word."
-- Matthew 15:23
Genuine seekers who as yet have not obtained the blessing, may take
comfort from the story before us. The Saviour did not at once bestow
the blessing, even though the woman had great faith in him. He intended
to give it, but he waited awhile. "He answered her not a word." Were
not her prayers good? Never better in the world. Was not her case
needy? Sorrowfully needy. Did she not feel her need sufficiently? She
felt it overwhelmingly. Was she not earnest enough? She was intensely
so. Had she no faith? She had such a high degree of it that even Jesus
wondered, and said, "O woman, great is thy faith." See then, although
it is true that faith brings peace, yet it does not always bring it
instantaneously. There may be certain reasons calling for the trial of
faith, rather than the reward of faith. Genuine faith may be in the
soul like a hidden seed, but as yet it may not have budded and
blossomed into joy and peace. A painful silence from the Saviour is the
grievous trial of many a seeking soul, but heavier still is the
affliction of a harsh cutting reply such as this, "It is not meet to
take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs." Many in waiting
upon the Lord find immediate delight, but this is not the case with
all. Some, like the jailer, are in a moment turned from darkness to
light, but others are plants of slower growth. A deeper sense of sin
may be given to you instead of a sense of pardon, and in such a case
you will have need of patience to bear the heavy blow. Ah! poor heart,
though Christ beat and bruise thee, or even slay thee, trust him;
though he should give thee an angry word, believe in the love of his
heart. Do not, I beseech thee, give up seeking or trusting my Master,
because thou hast not yet obtained the conscious joy which thou longest
for. Cast thyself on him, and perseveringly depend even where thou
canst not rejoicingly hope.
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
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