Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: July 30th

The Lord God is my strength. - Habakkuk 3:19.

AND the prophet found that this strength was indispensable, and that every moment he must live in dependence upon it. Thus the Psalmist said, “I will go in the strength of the Lord God.” It will be both instructive and profitable to enter further into this, for it is a very experimental part of a Christian’s religion. Why did not David say he would go in his own strength? Because he knew he had none. The fall deprived us not only of righteousness, but of strength. It is not easy to convince men of this. It has always been found easier to convince them of their guilt than of their weakness. There are few to be found who will not say, “God knows we are all sinners;” perhaps rather to draw in others, than to express their own sins. There are few but will say, “We have done the things we ought not to have done, and left undone those things which we ought to have done;” though they will not add, but in a public assembly, “there is no health in us.” They think it is in their power, and resolve that by-and-by they will attend to those things when they shall have more leisure.

But it is otherwise with the believer: he knows that his own strength is perfect weakness; he has learned this, not only from Scripture, but from his own experience, for he has been led to make the trial, and it has issued in this conviction. The trial has brought him where we always ought to be brought in religion,-on his knees; convinced that he knew nothing and could do nothing without the grace of God, he has therefore been brought to pray, Work in me “to will and to do of thine own good pleasure.”

They pray to be strengthened with all might in their inner man, and then their strength is restored. And as the Christian advances in the divine life, instead of finding his need of divine strength diminishing, he finds it daily increasing, and the increase is a blessed evidence of his faith; he need not be afraid of the increase of this conviction, that he has no strength of his own, for the apostle says, “When I am weak, then am I strong.” Therefore he exhorts the Ephesians, “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might;” and to Timothy he says, “My son, be thou strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am. - John 13:13.

OBSERVE the title they ascribe to him: “Ye call me Master and Lord.” Nothing can be more honourable; and yet he acknowledges that it was just and true. He is then the Master and Lord of his people. They learn in his school as disciples, and they serve in his house as attendants. He is their Master as he teaches them, and he is their Lord as he governs them. In both titles the main idea is authority; the one is the authority of the master over his pupils, and the other is the authority of a lord over his servants. The latter is here principally, though not exclusively, intended.

Let us consider, first, That he is our Lord by creation. He made us, and as our Maker he has an infinitely greater proprietary in us than one creature can have in another creature; for they derive their possession, their power, yea their very existence itself, from him. His life, favour, and visitation preserve and indulge them. If, therefore, he were to call into his presence a monarch or a philosopher, a Boyle or a Newton, and say, “Take that thine own is and go thy way,” what could either of them take away with him? Why, not even his existence.

Secondly, He is our Lord by the claims of redemption. “Know ye not,” says the Apostle to the Corinthians, “that ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price.” And we are not left to conjecture what that price was, for we are told that we are “redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot”-a price to which nothing can ever be added. Now redemption gives him a greater claim than even creation. Redemption advances us to greater blessings than creation. Redemption is accomplished by a much more expensive process than creation.

When he had to make us, he had only to speak; when he had to redeem us, he had to suffer; he made us at the expense of his breath, he redeemed us at the expense of his blood. And where is he when he prefers his claims? Why, in the garden of Gethsemane, on the cross of Calvary. How is he apparelled when he comes effectually to rule in us? Dressed in a garment dipped in blood.

Thirdly, He is Lord of all as Mediator, and even as a partaker of our flesh and blood. “The Father loveth his Son, and hath given all things into his hand.” There is not a being in the universe that is not either his servant or his slave; all the angels of God worship him; devils are under his control; he is King of kings and Lord of lords. They are all raised by his power, governed by his providence, amenable to his authority; they all subserve his purposes: “the very wrath of man praises him, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain.” God has given his Son “the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession.” It is therefore a matter of promise, and therefore he will be able to realize it in due time. He has all the resources of nature and providence at his disposal. “The nation and the kingdom that will not serve him shall perish.” But “he is head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” He reigns over them particularly.

Let us therefore observe, Lastly, that he is our Lord by our own choice and submission. Once he did not rule over us, that is, not as he does now. We were not called by his name. But he opened a passage to our hearts, and made us willing in the day of his power. A look or a word from him was enough, and he knew where to find us and how to call us. He turned and looked upon Peter, and his poor heart was melted, and he went out and wept bitterly. He said to Matthew, as he was sitting at the receipt of custom, “Follow me,” and he arose and followed him. He said to Saul of Tarsus, only, “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest,” and he was disarmed of his enmity, and the lion became a lamb, and at his dear feet he exclaimed, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Thus they gave themselves to his service; and the glory of his dominion is here, that he reigns over the souls of his people; and that he does not govern them only by external rule, but by internal influence; that he enthrones himself in their consciences; and that he puts his laws into their hearts, and so renders their obedience wholly natural, pleasant, and delightful.

He illuminates their understanding, and displays to their view his loveliness as well as his power. And then they run after him, for he draws them with “the cords of a man, and with bands of love.” Thus they call him their Master and Lord, in their addresses to himself, in speaking of him to each other, in their profession of his name, and in joining with his Church in holy communion.