Category: Devotion of the Day

ANTIDOTE TO SELF-PITY

Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
II Corinthians 12:9

After Paul emerges from his height-to-depth experience of the third heaven and thorn in the flesh to rest in the sufficient grace of Christ, he takes pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions, distresses for Christ’s sake, for when he is weak then he is strong. He rejoices in the very weakness that drives him to Christ. He does not grumble, he glories. And he does not go on a spree of self-pity. What an opportunity to feel sorry for himself with this trouble that God would not take away!

If God grants you neither a third-heaven experience nor the removal of your thorn, rejoice in whatever He uses to bring you to simple daily dependence on Christ. But do not merely gory in infirmities. Finish the sentence…“that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” All else is incidental to that. Let us major on His strength, not on our weakness.

GOD’S STIMULANT

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.
Ephesians 5:18

How this poor world seeks release and escape through drink but instead of happiness reaps a headache! God has provided a stimulant for His people in the power of the Holy Spirit. And there is no wretched “morning after” with a dark brown taste! “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it” (Prov. 10:22). The early Christians were accused of being full of new wine. They had the wine of heaven, of which all the wines of earth are but poor imitations.

And, mind you, the thought here is that of a stimulant, not a sedative. Unless something stirs us we are worthless. All the world’s excitements fail to afford a proper stimulus. And a lot of our modern religious “rousements” are but substitutes for the wine of the Spirit, often the old Adam whooping it up in church.

Every other wine runs easily to excess. Only the Christian filled with the Spirit has an adequate stimulant to carry him through these days.