Category: Devotion of the Day

What to Do with Yourself

We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.
2 Corinthians 1:9

“Coming to the end of self,” a phrase much used in some circles, is not a Bible phrase, but what is meant by it is Biblical. The Scriptures speak of denying self ( Mt. 16:24), judging one’s self ( I Cor. 11:31), the crucifixion of self (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 5:24).

So few Christians ever get out of themselves into Him. They live a changed life but not the exchanged life – “Not I but Christ.” We must come to the end of our experiences, our success, our prayers, our seeking and striving, all that we can see or feel, to where our comeliness is turned to corruption and we can only cry, ‘Woe is me!” There is no liberty and victory until we cease from our own works and settle down in God.

In this day of self-exaltation the Bible teaches self-execution. Not that we execute ourselves but that we submit to the death of self by the hand of God. Paul witnessed his own execution, but there came forth a new Paul, “I live yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”.

What to do with yourself? Agree and submit to your execution!

Fair-Weather Repentance

The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.
Romans 2:4

We ought not wait for the hour of trial, the time of chastening to set our house in order, to take stock of ourselves, to have our commission renewed. God’s goodness not His scourging alone, is meant to lead us to repentance. The day of blessing should bring us to the mourner’s bench, and then we might avert the painful discipline. If we judged ourselves in the sunshine we might not be judged in the shadow.

Thatch your roof in dry weather. Do not wait until the storm breaks. While you have health and loved ones and prosperity, let the Great Physician give you a check up. Do not wait until you are grievously smitten.

Though most of us come to conversion and confession and cleansing in the house of desperation, it need not be so. God’s goodness ought to melt our hearts and break us down and shame our lack of faith and our love grown cold.

Fair-weather repentance might save us many a cloudy day.