Category: Devotion of the Day

Devotion of the Day

STRENGTH FOR THE DAY

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Philippians 4:13

As thy days, so shall thy strength be.
Deuteronomy 33:25

Red-letter days and lofty experiences tend to fade. Resolutions, though penned in blood, soon lose their original drive. Spiritual stimulants, like shots in the arm, may serve a purpose, but living by shots in the arm, whether physically or spiritually, is abnormal. The trolley car does not run all day on one big push of power at the start. Its slender arm reaches up and keeps constant contact with the current.

Christ is our strength and He is with us all the days and is ever available. He will not give us tomorrow’s strength today, nor will yesterday’s grace suffice. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,” but also sufficient unto the day is the strength thereof with which to meet the evil.

Believe Him for today’s strength today!

Devotion of the Day

WHEN SELF-DEFENSE IS A SIN

And he, willing to justify himself, said…
Luke 10:29

Endless are the devices by which we try to justify ourselves. When Samuel faced Saul returning from battle and disobedient to God, Saul tried to argue the case and explain why he had not exterminated the Amalekites as God had commanded. It is a mark of the disobedient heart to defend itself. David, when confronted by Nathan, did not argue, he broke into the penitence of the Fifty-first Psalm. Saul said, “I have sinned,” but true repentance does not substitute sacrifice for obedience. The sacrifice God wants is a broken spirit. David offered that sacrifice. But Saul tried to substitute a burnt-offering.

When the voice of God confronts you with your sin, do not offer God an argument. You cannot justify yourself, anyway. One could finish the text above with dozens of alibis men offer to explain themselves. But when a man really does business with God all arguments and excuses are forgotten in the honest confession, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.” God justifies freely by His grace, and we are “just-as-if-we’d-never-sinned.”