Daily Devotionals

Bowen's Daily Meditations

Devotional: October 7th

" We may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." - Hebrews 13:6.

Here we have an admirable expression of Christian confidence. It is pure confidence in God, viewed as the source not only of one’s own strength, but of all strength, so that there remains nothing in the world worthy to excite alarm. " The Lord is my helper," saith the believer. " I am not counting upon some future alliance with him; but speak from a deep and satisfying experience of his presence and faithfulness. I have been shorn of all my former conceit of strength; and have hearkened to the proposal of the Infinite One, a proposal to be unto me strength, wisdom, righteousness. On the day that I became bankrupt, I entered into the possession of all riches."

If the Lord be thy helper, and if all the power of man is inferior to that which accompanies thee, then why dost thou not do some great, some world-surprising thing? Thou hast no occasion to fear aught that man may attempt. To all the waves of hostility thou art able to say, " Thus far shall ye come and no farther." Ride now victoriously through the earth and establish thy beneficent dominion throughout all lands, giving men relief from the oppressions under which they have languished for so many ages. A similar suggestion was once made to the Lord Jesus Christ. Had he been willing to set aside the will of God, and to put himself under the guidance of that evil spirit of expediency that rules in the counsels of the princes of this world, had he accommodated himself to the expectations of the Jews and presented himself as a temporal and political Messiah, all the kingdoms of the world might have been his, but he would have been simply the vicegerent of the God of this world. " God is my helper: and I may avail myself of his power without limit."

But why does He help me? Because I have yielded myself unto his guidance. He giveth his power to those only who first accept of his wisdom. He giveth strength to those who have renounced all ambitious and selfish views; who have committed themselves unto him to be taught, moulded and used by him.

Nevertheless, when we call to mind that God delighteth in mercy; that the Lamb of God hath taken away the sin of the world; that the Triune God has a sublime enterprise on foot, looking forward to the transference of all kingdoms unto his Son; when we consider certain of the promises, as, for instance, this, " Greater works than these shall ye do;" and this, "He that overcometh, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron;" when we remember the words of Daniel, " The people of the saints of the most High God shall take the kingdom and possess the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven;" when we allow these soul-kindling declarations to come home to our consciousness; does it not seem as though he, who in genuine faith is able to speak of God as his helper, and to look disdainfully upon all that man can do against him, should go forth clothed in a transcendent power and obtain some world-wide display of the glory of his Lord?

" When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"

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