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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Sunday, December 9, 2007
MORNING:
"Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto
you."
-- Isaiah 30:18
God often DELAYS IN ANSWERING PRAYER. We have several instances of this
in sacred Scripture. Jacob did not get the blessing from the angel
until near the dawn of day-he had to wrestle all night for it. The poor
woman of Syrophenicia was answered not a word for a long while. Paul
besought the Lord thrice that "the thorn in the flesh" might be taken
from him, and he received no assurance that it should be taken away,
but instead thereof a promise that God's grace should be sufficient for
him. If thou hast been knocking at the gate of mercy, and hast received
no answer, shall I tell thee why the mighty Maker hath not opened the
door and let thee in? Our Father has reasons peculiar to himself for
thus keeping us waiting. Sometimes it is to show his power and his
sovereignty, that men may know that Jehovah has a right to give or to
withhold. More frequently the delay is for our profit. Thou art perhaps
kept waiting in order that thy desires may be more fervent. God knows
that delay will quicken and increase desire, and that if he keeps thee
waiting thou wilt see thy necessity more clearly, and wilt seek more
earnestly; and that thou wilt prize the mercy all the more for its long
tarrying. There may also be something wrong in thee which has need to
be removed, before the joy of the Lord is given. Perhaps thy views of
the Gospel plan are confused, or thou mayest be placing some little
reliance on thyself, instead of trusting simply and entirely to the
Lord Jesus. Or, God makes thee tarry awhile that he may the more fully
display the riches of his grace to thee at last. Thy prayers are all
filed in heaven, and if not immediately answered they are certainly not
forgotten, but in a little while shall be fulfilled to thy delight and
satisfaction. Let not despair make thee silent, but continue instant in
earnest supplication.
EVENING:
"My people shall dwell in quiet resting places."
-- Isaiah 32:18
Peace and rest belong not to the unregenerate, they are the peculiar
possession of the Lord's people, and of them only. The God of Peace
gives perfect peace to those whose hearts are stayed upon him. When man
was unfallen, his God gave him the flowery bowers of Eden as his quiet
resting places; alas! how soon sin blighted the fair abode of
innocence. In the day of universal wrath when the flood swept away a
guilty race, the chosen family were quietly secured in the
resting-place of the ark, which floated them from the old condemned
world into the new earth of the rainbow and the covenant, herein
typifying Jesus, the ark of our salvation. Israel rested safely beneath
the blood-besprinkled habitations of Egypt when the destroying angel
smote the first-born; and in the wilderness the shadow of the pillar of
cloud, and the flowing rock, gave the weary pilgrims sweet repose. At
this hour we rest in the promises of our faithful God, knowing that his
words are full of truth and power; we rest in the doctrines of his
word, which are consolation itself; we rest in the covenant of his
grace, which is a haven of delight. More highly favoured are we than
David in Adullam, or Jonah beneath his gourd, for none can invade or
destroy our shelter. The person of Jesus is the quiet resting-place of
his people, and when we draw near to him in the breaking of the bread,
in the hearing of the word, the searching of the Scriptures, prayer, or
praise, we find any form of approach to him to be the return of peace
to our spirits.
"I hear the words of love, I gaze upon the blood,
I see the mighty sacrifice, and I have peace with God.
'Tis everlasting peace, sure as Jehovah's name,
'Tis stable as his steadfast throne, for evermore the same:
The clouds may go and come, and storms may sweep my sky,
This blood-sealed friendship changes not, the cross is ever nigh."
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
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