Category: Devotion of the Day

ALONE, YET NOT ALONE

Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
John 16:32

Blessed paradox of the Saviour and the Saint! Our Lord was a solitary soul, yet not alone. And the Christian who presses into the deeper things of God will often be lonely but never alone. Paul was lonely in the Roman prison: “All men forsook me.” But he was not alone: “The Lord stood with me.”

“He that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone.” Jacob may fancy himself alone in a strange land, with a stone for a pillow, but he will make a discovery: “Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not.”

Live as though He were with you, for He is. You have His word for it and you can be confident of His promise, though you may not be conscious of His presence.

Even through the Valley of Death’s Shadow, “I will fear no evil, FOR THOU ART WITH ME.” Alone yet not alone!

PLEASING GOD

I do always those things that please him.
John 8:29

We live to please someone, ourselves, other people or God. Jesus “pleased not himself” (Rom. 15:3). We are not to live to please men. “Do I seek to please men?” (Gal. 1:10). “Not as pleasing men but God” (I Thess. 2:4). We are to please our neighbor for his good to edification (Rom. 15:2). Paul said he pleased all men, seeking, not his profit, but theirs, that they might be saved (I Cor. 10:33).

We are to please God, as our Lord said in our text. God was pleased in His Son (Mt. 3:17). He was not pleased with the Israelites in the wilderness (I Cor. 10:5). We had better take warning from them, for “these things happened unto us for ensamples.” Enoch pleased God (Heb. 11:5). We cannot please God in the flesh (Rom. 8:8). It is impossible without faith (Heb. 11:6). But as we submit to God He works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). Then we are to live so as to please Him who hath chosen us to be soldiers (II Tim. 2:3,4). And if we please Him we get answers to our prayers (I Jno. 3:22).

Whom are you living to please?