Category: Devotion of the Day

Got Any Mountains?

Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
Mark 11:23.

Can we confidently claim and expect the conversion of our loved ones? Well, it must be in God’s will. “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us” (Jn. 5:14). Does He will the conversion of every one? “The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Pt. 3:9).

Then He will remove this mountain, but we must expect the mountain to move. “All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Mt. 21:22). And the verse following our text says, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”

We pray hoping, but hoping is not faith. Faith takes God’s word for the deed and in its geography lists the mountain as “disappeared.”

Got any mountains you think are unsinkable?

Spoken Against

This child is set…for a sign which shall be spoken against.
Luke 2:34.

As concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against.
Acts 28:22.

Blessed are ye when men shall…say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Matthew 5:11.

The Saviour was spoken against. The Sect of His followers was spoken against. The Saints of any age are spoken against. We share His shame and reproach. They hated Him and they will hate us. The world hath hated us because we are not of the world. But if we be reproached as Christians, let us be happy and not ashamed (I Pt. 4:13-16).

The Beatitude of the Spoken Against has two qualifications. We are blessed not merely because we are spoken against. The charges must be false—sometimes what “they say” is true!—and it must be for Christ’s sake.

The trend today is to try to make the Saviour, the Sect, and the Saints popular. But such is not the Scriptural reputation they bear. When the persecuted become the popular they are powerless. The church prospers in persecution, but pines in prosperity.