Daily Devotionals

Bowen's Daily Meditations

Devotional: August 8th

"Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life." - Revelation 2:10.

The meaning is not. Be thou faithful all thy days; but, have thou that faithfulness which characterizes the martyr disciple, leads him to count not his life dear unto himself, and enables him at any moment to lay it own freely in the service of his Master. The expression does not refer to length of service, but to entireness of consecration. Be thou unrebukably faithful in all possible situations and circumstances.

Christ requires of every disciple that he should have the spirit of a martyr. At the very outset he informs those who come unto him that they are to take up their cross and follow him. And if at any time he should summon any number of his followers, and send them upon a service where death is certain, not one of them has any right to complain. It was so written in the bond. They gave him from the very first their early life, to receive from him a heavenly life.

We are to be faithful unto death, this day, and every day. We are to live a life of entire consecration crucified unto the world and the world unto us. And if we have sufficient faith to let him day by day, and in all things dispose of us, take what he will, give what he will, send where he will, we need not envy those who literally suffered martyrdom for his name’s sake. For us, too, there is laid up a crown of life. Not merely do we obtain a true life in exchange for the false life of this earth; but a glorious life; a life that shall be to us more ennobling and exalting than all the crowns of earth.

-