Daily Devotionals

Bowen's Daily Meditations

Devotional: December 1st

" The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers." - 1 Peter 3:12.

This is a truth quite distinct from that of the omniscience of God. That God should be omniscient is one thing; that his omniscience should be for me, is another thing. Yes, it is a sublime proposition that omniscience and omnipotence should enter into everlasting alliance with the weakness and blindness of a creature. The righteous ones here spoken of are they that fling away their own righteousness as dross, and make themselves very insignificant. It is not because they are wise that heavenly wisdom wings its way to them; not because they are good and strong that divine goodness and power are their perpetual auxiliaries. You need not envy them the attention they receive from the King of kings; they would never have been noticed by him if they had had any such righteousness as you boast of.

How hard it is for you to see what is the true life divinely appointed for man and hastily relinquished by him. Man’s perfection is something utterly different from what man considers it to be. Man goes on building himself up in goodness. He expects or aims to carry his edifice to the skies. A little more and I shall be there, he says as often as he puts down one new stone. He does not take note that the heavens are rising above him. though a thousand giants should undertake to help with his tower, and should carry it to the height of a mile, would he be any nearer the heavens? Mount Blanc would look down in pity and tell him of the moon a quarter of a million of miles high. The moon would look down in pity and tell him of the sun a hundred millions of miles high. The sun would look down in pity and tell him of Saturn a thousand millions away. And Saturn would say, " We are in the lowest depths of the heavens. Ascend to us and your elevation will be, in comparison with the starry heavens, as the tiniest ant-hill in comparison with Chimborazo." For six thousand years humanity has been possessed by this mad dream of a perfection starting from earth and growing up into the heavens. It is a forlorn error. No, the perfection of humanity is in giving way to God. Cast down, cast down that paltry edifice; give up the notion of your own independent goodness; and make room for the goodness of God in you. Let God work in you to will and to do of his good pleasure. And think not that this self-renunciation is death; it is the true life; the life of God in the soul is life indeed; the energy of God is energy indeed; and the moral beauty of God is moral beauty indeed.

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