Daily Devotionals

Bowen's Daily Meditations

Devotional: March 18th

" I will trust." - Isaiah 12:2

Not in uncertain riches, not in my own sagacity, not in my probity, not in my social position, not in the felicity of circumstances; not in the friendship of the world, not even in the favor of Christians; not in the sacraments, not in my prayers, nor in my repentance, nor in my obedience.

I will trust in Him that became man in order that he might bear my sins in his own body on the tree.

I will trust in him, for he is the most trustworthy being in the universe. Shall a child trust in its parent, a bride in the bridegroom, a soldier in his general, a captive in his deliverer, a patient in his physician, - shall men in all conditions abound in trust towards their fellow-men, and shall I not trust in the Almighty who hath shown himself all-gracious? Is there more than one being existent, of whom it can be said that heaven and earth shall pass away sooner than his least word? There is but one, and in him I will trust.

" Take," says Satan; " trust", says God.

" Almost nobody trusts," says my unbelieving neighbor. For that very reason I will trust. Is it not an infamy that the Lord of heaven and earth, the source of all blessedness, should be untrusted? You lie down to sleep trusting in your breath that it will continue to come and go all night, although a single interruption would be fatal; trusting in the beams over your bead that they will not break; in the wind that it will not blow any inflammable thing into the vicinity of your lamp; in the atmosphere that it will not allow any pestilential influences to come nigh your couch; in ten thousand things without life or sense; and shall not I trust in him in whom I live, and move, and have my being?

I will trust, said Peter; and the sea became as rock beneath his feet. I will trust, said the Syro-Phoenician woman; though the disciples said, send her away; and her daughter was healed. I will take, said Balaam; and became rich for a day, accursed forever. Let me live, said Jonah, and was cast into the sea. I will trust, said he afterward, and all Nineveh bowed at his word. I will trust, said Daniel, and was delivered. I will save my life, said Peter, and denied his Lord. I will trust, said he afterward, and laid him down to sleep; then came the angel of the Lord, and brought him forth from prison. What mean ye to weep and to break my heart? said Paul; I will trust.

-