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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Monday, May 19, 2008
MORNING:
"I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as
servants upon the earth."
-- Ecclesiastes 10:7
Upstarts frequently usurp the highest places, while the truly great
pine in obscurity. This is a riddle in providence whose solution will
one day gladden the hearts of the upright; but it is so common a fact,
that none of us should murmur if it should fall to our own lot. When
our Lord was upon earth, although he is the Prince of the kings of the
earth, yet he walked the footpath of weariness and service as the
Servant of servants: what wonder is it if his followers, who are
princes of the blood, should also be looked down upon as inferior and
contemptible persons? The world is upside down, and therefore, the
first are last and the last first. See how the servile sons of Satan
lord it in the earth! What a high horse they ride! How they lift up
their horn on high! Haman is in the court, while Mordecai sits in the
gate; David wanders on the mountains, while Saul reigns in state;
Elijah is complaining in the cave while Jezebel is boasting in the
palace; yet who would wish to take the places of the proud rebels? and
who, on the other hand, might not envy the despised saints? When the
wheel turns, those who are lowest rise, and the highest sink. Patience,
then, believer, eternity will right the wrongs of time.
Let us not fall into the error of letting our passions and carnal
appetites ride in triumph, while our nobler powers walk in the dust.
Grace must reign as a prince, and make the members of the body
instruments of righteousness. The Holy Spirit loves order, and he
therefore sets our powers and faculties in due rank and place, giving
the highest room to those spiritual faculties which link us with the
great King; let us not disturb the divine arrangement, but ask for
grace that we may keep under our body and bring it into subjection. We
were not new created to allow our passions to rule over us, but that
we, as kings, may reign in Christ Jesus over the triple kingdom of
spirit, soul, and body, to the glory of God the Father.
EVENING:
"And he requested for himself that he might die."
-- 1 Kings 19:4
It was a remarkable thing that the man who was never to die, for whom
God had ordained an infinitely better lot, the man who should be
carried to heaven in a chariot of fire, and be translated, that he
should not see death-should thus pray, "Let me die, I am no better than
my fathers." We have here a memorable proof that God does not always
answer prayer in kind, though he always does in effect. He gave Elias
something better than that which he asked for, and thus really heard
and answered him. Strange was it that the lion-hearted Elijah should be
so depressed by Jezebel's threat as to ask to die, and blessedly kind
was it on the part of our heavenly Father that he did not take his
desponding servant at his word. There is a limit to the doctrine of the
prayer of faith. We are not to expect that God will give us everything
we choose to ask for. We know that we sometimes ask, and do not
receive, because we ask amiss. If we ask for that which is not
promised-if we run counter to the spirit which the Lord would have us
cultivate-if we ask contrary to his will, or to the decrees of his
providence-if we ask merely for the gratification of our own ease, and
without an eye to his glory, we must not expect that we shall receive.
Yet, when we ask in faith, nothing doubting, if we receive not the
precise thing asked for, we shall receive an equivalent, and more than
an equivalent, for it. As one remarks, "If the Lord does not pay in
silver, he will in gold; and if he does not pay in gold, he will in
diamonds." If he does not give you precisely what you ask for, he will
give you that which is tantamount to it, and that which you will
greatly rejoice to receive in lieu thereof. Be then, dear reader, much
in prayer, and make this evening a season of earnest intercession, but
take heed what you ask.
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MORNING & EVENING from HEARTLIGHT /\/\
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
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