the Third Week after Easter
Click here to join the effort!
Daily Devotionals
Our Daily Homily - Volume 2
Psalms 139:24—See it there be any way of grief in me. (R.V., marg.)
The A.V. Says "wicked way"; but the R.V. marg. gives "way of grief." We may be in a way that causes God grief, even though it is not what men might term a way of wickedness. We may be grieving our blessed Lord more than we know, substituting an ideal religious standard, or absorption in his work, or the conception which our friends persist in holding concerning us, for that direct personal fellowship with Himself, which alone is religion. Ah! how much we may have grieved the Spirit of Christ! Not always consciously. Often in pleading for us, the Lord must needs say, "Forgive; they know not what they do." But we are unwilling that his tender heart should suffer, or his face be overcast with grief, because of our waywardness; therefore we say, "Search us and know us; try us and show us the ways of grief." Be prepared for his revelations, searching and startling.
Lord, that is what we want! We have been going in ways of grief. We desire to go in the way everlasting—the way of eternal life; the way which we shall never need to retrace; the way that touches the deepest life possible to the creature. But we cannot find it for ourselves, nor even see the next step; therefore we stretch out poor, groping hands, and cry, "Lead us, as a woman may lead her blind child. We do not ask to see the distant way. Show us the next thing, and the next, and the next, till thy grief is turned to gladness." May I venture to hope that God will answer my prayer, and lead me in the way everlasting? Certainly! Not only may you hope, you must hope. It is as much your duty to hope always, and for the best things, as to look for forgiveness and grace to help in your time of need.
