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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Sunday, February 10, 2008
MORNING:
"I know how to abound."
-- Philippians 4:12
There are many who know "how to be abased" who have not learned "how to
abound." When they are set upon the top of a pinnacle their heads grow
dizzy, and they are ready to fall. The Christian far oftener disgraces
his profession in prosperity than in adversity. It is a dangerous thing
to be prosperous. The crucible of adversity is a less severe trial to
the Christian than the refining pot of prosperity. Oh, what leanness of
soul and neglect of spiritual things have been brought on through the
very mercies and bounties of God! Yet this is not a matter of
necessity, for the apostle tells us that he knew how to abound. When he
had much he knew how to use it. Abundant grace enabled him to bear
abundant prosperity. When he had a full sail he was loaded with much
ballast, and so floated safely. It needs more than human skill to carry
the brimming cup of mortal joy with a steady hand, yet Paul had learned
that skill, for he declares, "In all things I am instructed both to be
full and to be hungry." It is a divine lesson to know how to be full,
for the Israelites were full once, but while the flesh was yet in their
mouth, the wrath of God came upon them. Many have asked for mercies
that they might satisfy their own hearts' lust. Fulness of bread has
often made fulness of blood, and that has brought on wantonness of
spirit. When we have much of God's providential mercies, it often
happens that we have but little of God's grace, and little gratitude
for the bounties we have received. We are full and we forget God:
satisfied with earth, we are content to do without heaven. Rest assured
it is harder to know how to be full than it is to know how to be
hungry-so desperate is the tendency of human nature to pride and
forgetfulness of God. Take care that you ask in your prayers that God
would teach you "how to be full."
"Let not the gifts thy love bestows
Estrange our hearts from thee."
EVENING:
"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions,
and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed
thee."
-- Isaiah 44:22
Attentively observe THE INSTRUCTIVE SIMILITUDE: our sins are like a
cloud. As clouds are of many shapes and shades, so are our
transgressions. As clouds obscure the light of the sun, and darken the
landscape beneath, so do our sins hide from us the light of Jehovah's
face, and cause us to sit in the shadow of death. They are earth-born
things, and rise from the miry places of our nature; and when so
collected that their measure is full, they threaten us with storm and
tempest. Alas! that, unlike clouds, our sins yield us no genial
showers, but rather threaten to deluge us with a fiery flood of
destruction. O ye black clouds of sin, how can it be fair weather with
our souls while ye remain?
Let our joyful eye dwell upon THE NOTABLE ACT of divine mercy-"blotting
out." God himself appears upon the scene, and in divine benignity,
instead of manifesting his anger, reveals his grace: he at once and for
ever effectually removes the mischief, not by blowing away the cloud,
but by blotting it out from existence once for all. Against the
justified man no sin remains, the great transaction of the cross has
eternally removed his transgressions from him. On Calvary's summit the
great deed, by which the sin of all the chosen was for ever put away,
was completely and effectually performed.
Practically let us obey THE GRACIOUS COMMAND, "return unto me." Why
should pardoned sinners live at a distance from their God? If we have
been forgiven all our sins, let no legal fear withhold us from the
boldest access to our Lord. Let backslidings be bemoaned, but let us
not persevere in them. To the greatest possible nearness of communion
with the Lord, let us, in the power of the Holy Spirit, strive mightily
to return. O Lord, this night restore us!
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MORNING & EVENING from HEARTLIGHT /\/\
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
and preacher Charles Spurgeon. It's part of HEARTLIGHT Magazine,
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