Category: Devotion of the Day

REMEMBER THE HEATHEN!

Ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?
Nehemiah 5:9

The world is watching us and we ought to walk circumspectly, because the days are evil. Abram and Lot must be ware of strife, because the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwell in the land, and “we be brethren” (Gen. 13:7, 8). David’s sin gave occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme (II Sam. 12:14). Paul wrote to Jews, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you” (Rom. 2:24). Young women are to be taught to live right, “that the word of God be not blasphemed” (Titus 2:5). Peter exhorts believers to a manner of life honest among the Gentiles, “That whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation” (I Pt. 2:12).

The Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Gentiles live all around us. Lest we bring reproach on the cause we represent we do well to deny ourselves that which may not hurt us but would give occasion to the adversary to blaspheme. The fact that we are free from the law gives us no grounds for foolishly running into license. And God help Abram and Lot and their herdmen to behave before the heathen, for “we be brethren.”

MINUS TO PLUS

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
II Corinthians 12:10

Paul turned his stumbling-blocks into stepping-stones. John Bunyan in Bedford jail, Fanny Crosby in a prison of blindness “out of weakness were made strong.” Long is the list of saints through the ages who have turned minus to plus by the grace of God.

Paul gloried in infirmities. We glory in strength. Paul gloried in tribulation. Most of us grumble. The Christian does not resent his affliction. He does not merely resign himself to it. He rises above it and transmutes it into a blessing. He is “more than conqueror.”

This kind of book-keeping turns liabilities into assets. This world cannot understand it. What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ,” says Paul. And then what seems loss he turns to gain!

We hear of people who “lose the savings of a lifetime.” But what you really save in a lifetime is what you lay up in heaven, and you cannot lose that. And out of earth’s darkest day you can coin heavenly wealth.

Turn your minus to plus!