Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: May 8th

Keep me from evil. - 1 Chronicles 4:10.

A MAN who utters this prayer must know that he is liable to fall into temptation and sin. He may neglect or he may restrain prayer before God: this is sin. He may trust in man, or make flesh his arm: and this is sin. He may fall into vice; indeed, there is nothing too vile for him to fall into, if left to himself. The believer is most sensible of his danger when he thinks of Satan, the adversary of his soul, who goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He is peculiarly sensible of it when he thinks of the world in which he lives, which is full of evil. What errors are there in it to deceive! what smiles to seduce! what frowns to menace! what examples to pervert! “The whole world lieth in wickedness.”

The Christian is also sensible of his danger when he thinks of himself; for, though there is a difference between him and others, and between himself formerly and now, and though there is a work begun in him, yet he is only sanctified in part. He knows there are internal traitors, holding correspondence with external enemies; therefore, having so much sin dwelling within him, he feels that he stands in jeopardy every hour. And there is nothing in which we may have any concern through the day which may not prove the occasion of our falling into sin: “Yea, our table may become a snare;” and the things ordained for our welfare may become “a trap.” Knowledge may puff up; liveliness and enlargement in duty may engender spiritual pride. Even Paul, with all his progress, was in danger of being elated by his manifestations, and therefore he says, “Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me.” No wonder, therefore, the Christian, knowing the character of his enemies, and sensible of his own weakness, should pray, with Jabez, “Keep me from evil;” or that our Lord should teach his disciples, when they pray, to say, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;” and in his own prayer for them to say, “Keep them from the evil.”

The wisdom of the just. - Luke 1:17.

TO be religious is to be wise. It is so in the estimation of him whose judgment is always according to truth. Scripture is express on the subject. Hence the design of John’s ministry was to “turn the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.” Hence Solomon says, “The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil, that is understanding.” It is not so, indeed, in the opinion of the world, the blind world. Yet while the men of the world rail and vilify the truly wise, they often feel convictions very different from their language; like Balaam, who while cursing Israel, was compelled to exclaim, “How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel; let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.”

So then wisdom will be justified of all her adversaries hereafter, and wisdom is justified of all her friends and all her children now. “They know that they have chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from them.” “They know whom they have believed, and why they have believed him, and they are persuaded that he is able,” and faithful, “to keep that which they have committed to him against that day.” They are all children of the light and of the day; they are not of the night nor of darkness. There are many things, indeed, of which they are ignorant, but they are “made wise unto salvation.” They have “an unction from the Holy One, and know all things.” Not all things absolutely, but all things relatively-all things essential, all things which are necessary to their real welfare. They were once blind; they will acknowledge it; but they now see and are thankful. They know what is “the hope of their calling and the riches of the glory of their inheritance.” They know all things comparatively: their knowledge is different from the knowledge of the same thing which they once had, for now in God’s “light they see light,” and the Holy Spirit “leads them into all truth.”

They have, therefore, other views of themselves, and other views of the Saviour, than they once had. Their knowledge discriminates between things that differ-between those truths which are essential and those which are circumstantial- between those truths which are fundamental and those which are ornamental-between treasures and treasuries. Their knowledge is practical. They are wise to propose the noblest end, and wise to pursue it by the most suitable means-wise to secure in the only opportunity the things which belong to their peace. “He that gathereth in summer is a wise son; but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.”