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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING http://www.heartlight.org/
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Wednesday, April 29, 2009
MORNING:
"Thou art my hope in the day of evil."
-- Jeremiah 17:17
The path of the Christian is not always bright with sunshine; he has
his seasons of darkness and of storm. True, it is written in God's
Word, "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace;"
and it is a great truth, that religion is calculated to give a man
happiness below as well as bliss above; but experience tells us that if
the course of the just be "As the shining light that shineth more and
more unto the perfect day," yet sometimes that light is eclipsed. At
certain periods clouds cover the believer's sun, and he walks in
darkness and sees no light. There are many who have rejoiced in the
presence of God for a season; they have basked in the sunshine in the
earlier stages of their Christian career; they have walked along the
"green pastures" by the side of the "still waters," but suddenly they
find the glorious sky is clouded; instead of the Land of Goshen they
have to tread the sandy desert; in the place of sweet waters, they find
troubled streams, bitter to their taste, and they say, "Surely, if I
were a child of God, this would not happen." Oh! say not so, thou who
art walking in darkness. The best of God's saints must drink the
wormwood; the dearest of his children must bear the cross. No Christian
has enjoyed perpetual prosperity; no believer can always keep his harp
from the willows. Perhaps the Lord allotted you at first a smooth and
unclouded path, because you were weak and timid. He tempered the wind
to the shorn lamb, but now that you are stronger in the spiritual life,
you must enter upon the riper and rougher experience of God's
full-grown children. We need winds and tempests to exercise our faith,
to tear off the rotten bough of self-dependence, and to root us more
firmly in Christ. The day of evil reveals to us the value of our
glorious hope.
EVENING:
"The Lord taketh pleasure in his people."
-- Psalms 149:4
How comprehensive is the love of Jesus! There is no part of his
people's interests which he does not consider, and there is nothing
which concerns their welfare which is not important to him. Not merely
does he think of you, believer, as an immortal being, but as a mortal
being too. Do not deny it or doubt it: "The very hairs of your head are
all numbered." "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he
delighteth in his way." It were a sad thing for us if this mantle of
love did not cover all our concerns, for what mischief might be wrought
to us in that part of our business which did not come under our
gracious Lord's inspection! Believer, rest assured that the heart of
Jesus cares about your meaner affairs. The breadth of his tender love
is such that you may resort to him in all matters; for in all your
afflictions he is afflicted, and like as a father pitieth his children,
so doth he pity you. The meanest interests of all his saints are all
borne upon the broad bosom of the Son of God. Oh, what a heart is his,
that doth not merely comprehend the persons of his people, but
comprehends also the diverse and innumerable concerns of all those
persons! Dost thou think, O Christian, that thou canst measure the love
of Christ? Think of what his love has brought thee-justification,
adoption, sanctification, eternal life! The riches of his goodness are
unsearchable; thou shalt never be able to tell them out or even
conceive them. Oh, the breadth of the love of Christ! Shall such a love
as this have half our hearts? Shall it have a cold love in return?
Shall Jesus' marvellous lovingkindness and tender care meet with but
faint response and tardy acknowledgment? O my soul, tune thy harp to a
glad song of thanksgiving! Go to thy rest rejoicing, for thou art no
desolate wanderer, but a beloved child, watched over, cared for,
supplied, and defended by thy Lord.
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
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