Devotion of the Day

Take it Easy

I will say to my soul, Soul, …take thine ease.
Luke 12:19

The rich fool was no fool as a farmer, he was a success. He was religious because he talked to his soul. So many seem not to know they have souls! But his clock was too slow. He said, “Many years,” but God said, “This night.”

He was never a bigger fool than when he told his soul to take it easy. No man ought ever tell his soul that. Too many souls are taking it easy. I do not believe in soul-sleeping after death, but plenty of souls are sleeping now.

The rich fool gave his soul the wrong advice. He put it on vacation. God does not give the soul a vacation, He gives it a vocation.

“Take it easy” is a familiar parting word nowadays which nobody heeds by relaxing and living sensibly in this age of stomach ulcers and aspirin tablets. But it is no proper word for our souls. Rather, “Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve and press with vigor on,” ought to be the theme song of stupefied saints at ease in Zion. And while the sinner orders his soul to take it easy he may gain the world but he loses his soul. He is forever damned because he took it easy and neglected so great salvation.

The daily devotions are from Day by Day by Vance Havner. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1953.

Devotion of the Day

The Secret Ingredient

The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.
Psalm 25:14

Everything has that mysterious “something” nowadays, whether washing powder or gasoline or vitamin pills or shaving cream or tooth paste – everything has that new added element that no other brand has. This magic X has a wonderful unpronounceable name not yet in any dictionary. We smile, but thousands of gullible mortals will buy truckloads of the hokum and find it no better than something else they fell for months ago.

But there is a secret ingredient that makes one brand of people different from all others. It is not some new religious fad or ism, although these too shout their magic formulas today. There are among us here and there those who have a deep inner peace and joy, “who ply their daily task with busier feet because their secret souls a holier strain repeat.”

No double-jointed theological jawbreaker is needed to name that secret ingredient. It is simply the grace of God, peace with God, and the peace of God in the trustful and obedient heart. “His secret is with the righteous” (Proverbs 3:32).

The daily devotions are from Day by Day by Vance Havner. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1953.