Category: Devotion of the Day

Take Hold Of God!

There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.
Isaiah 64:7.

The prophet is not lamenting that there is none that stirreth up himself. There have never been more “rousements” in our religious life than today. We whip our jaded nerves into a St. Vitus’s dance but it is an end in itself; we do not get through to God. The way out of a spiritual stupor is not by getting into s stew. The stirring up of ourselves is a means to an end, to take hold of God. We must rouse ourselves to employ the means of grace, draw nigh to God that He may draw nigh to us.

We must stir up the gift of God. Like sugar in the lemonade, it may be there but it needs to be set in motion. The ashes need to be scraped off the coals in our hearts and the fire rekindled.

A lot of our religious bustle today does not take hold of God. We get excited and strike in all directions and keep the Lord busy putting back ears we lop off in our misdirected zeal, like Peter at the Saviour’s arrest. It is not merely stepping up our activities nor is it an emotional binge; it is arousing ourselves to employ the means God has provided, the Word, prayer, and all other ways of laying hold of Him.

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

Himself

By him all things consist.
Colossians 1:17.

The supreme experience is to get past all lesser experiences to Christ Himself. Most of us stop short of the Giver because we are forever seeking this or that gift. Many a saint can testify to years of being occupied with this doctrine and that, this blessing and that, but coming one day into the larger place of resting in the Lord Himself, finding in Him their reward, their portion. Anything short of that is fractional, immature, incomplete. We are complete in Him, not in any experience or favorite doctrine. Here is the experience that excels all experiences because it includes them all. The whole is greater than any of the parts.

“Getting through to God” is not a strange emotional experience-although it may indeed move the emotions—but simply arriving at the blessed point where we rest in the Blesser and not in a lesser “blessing.” Then, whatever we may lose, we have Him, and in Him we have everything. All things are ours, and we are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.

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