Category: Devotion of the Day

THE WALL

For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
Isaiah 25:4

How often in the loneliness and strain of our work, when foes, seen and unseen, beset us, we have been conscious of an invisible wall, the angel of the Lord encamping round about us to deliver us. Often we have been helpless, with no strength of our own against the enemy. Yet we have been able to lie down and sleep, conscious that our Keeper never slumbers. “The wall” is a good figure, for we need not be roofed in overhead. Satan can surround us but he cannot roof us over, and we need the upward look unobstructed. Never has God’s wall broken down, nor has the Adversary breached it. Because it is invisible, the devil would have us fear it is not there; but it is. He can come so far but no farther.

If ever we needed a wall, it is now. The hosts of evil are making their worst mad assaults, and no ramparts of our own can avail. But we have a fortress, a hiding place, a Rock of Ages. Are you hid with Christ in God?

LOOK OUT FOR THE DEVIL!

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
I Peter 5:8

We need not be surprised if, right on the heels of a new spiritual beginning, we are beset with double force by the devil. It is a good sign. It is evidence that we are making progress and have aroused him. He will attack body, mind, and spirit to disable, deceive, or discourage. He will make us dull and stupid, will deaden our spirits and lull us into a stupor. A sense of things present will come doubly strong and heaven will seem far away. Unexplainable things will happen and we may fell that God has forsaken us. Right when we expected ecstasy we shall meet melancholy. Instead of raptures, we shall encounter boredom and wonder why we fell more like sighing than shouting.

Be not discouraged. It is a sure sign of progress. The farther you go, the more you may meet with. But greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. Your Ally has conquered your Adversary.