Without delight we are not fit to receive a mercy. Delight in a mercy wanted makes room for desire, and large desires make room for mercy. If no delight in begging, there will be no delight in enjoying. If there is no cheerfulness to enliven our prayers when we need a blessing, there will be…
Time is limited. Earthly life ends with a period or even an exclamation point, not with an ellipsis. We are granted threescore and ten years, or, if strong enough, fourscore. Anything beyond that is an excess of superabundance. Eighty years. That number lends each person 29,200 days. If a day were a dollar, we would…
When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas. ((2 Timothy 4:13)) We are taught in this passage how similar one child of God is to another.56 We look on Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as being great and blessed—we think that they lived in a higher region than we do. We…
Because people delight in that in which they trust, [turn] from all other objects of delight to God as the true object. “Delight yourself in the Lord”; place all your pleasure and joy in him. Trust is the spring of joy and of supplication. When we trust him for sustenance and preservation, we will receive…
“Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” ((Colossians 4:6)) Words are powerful. They can hurt or help. Some words are gracious, others are angry. Some words are spoken graciously, others are tinged with a bad attitude. Some words are judiciously chosen,…
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” ((Matthew 27:46-47)) I find in [Jesus Christ] the loneliness of grandeur.45 Jesus was supremely lonely, because he…
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. ((Psalm 73:26)) I find in [Mary] the loneliness of love.41 The mother of Jesus was the bride of loneliness. Had her husband, Joseph, been spared to her through the years, it might have been very different…
Then Thomas … said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” ((John 11:16)) I find in Thomas the loneliness of doubt. Thomas is always a solitary figure, as doubters very generally are. You never think of Peter as being much alone—he was too ardent and impetuous for…
In Colossians Paul wrote, “in all things that He Himself would become to have the preeminence.” ((Col 1.18)) I would confess that Jesus is my Savior and Lord. That is a fact of being born again. But, experientially, is Jesus my Lord? Does He have the preeminence in my thoughts, my work, my play, my…
“And they began laughing at Him…” ((Luke 8:53a)) Current western society laughs at Jesus and His followers. We speak of sin and it responds with freedom of choice. We speak of eternal hell and it responds with, “Live for today, for tomorrow we die.” Jesus and His followers are not taken seriously. But one day…