Daily Devotionals

Spiritual Treasury For The Children of God

Devotional: January 15th

Mine iniquities are gone over my head; as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.- Psalms 38:4.

Those who think lightly of sin, and account iniquity a trifling thing, evidently shew that the god of this world hath blinded their eyes to the infinite atonement of Jesus, and hardened their hearts through the deceitfulness of sin; therefore they are insensible of grief, and without feeling of godly sorrow for sin. When Jesus is known in the heart, sin is truly abhorred, forsaken, and overcome. But it is most distressing to the regenerate soul when the load of guilt and the burden of sin are suffered to lie, day after day, upon the conscience. O the insupportable agony of such a state, none know but those who have experienced it! One would ask, Is not this contradictory to that comforting assertion, "There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus?"- Romans 8:1 - inconsistent with that triumphant challenge, "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?"- Romans 8:33. No; for though charge and condemnation for sin may be brought by Satan, the accuser of the brethren; the law may condemn, and our own spirits must confess we are sinners; yet our covenant God hath no condemnation against us. For he hath laid all our iniquities upon Jesus; and this is the full and free charter of his covenant concerning his children: "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."

Jesus is the only balm in Gilead, the only physician for sindistressed, sore burdened, heavy laden souls. We may seek rest, but all in vain, from any other object. Nothing can quiet and relieve the distressed soul but this one truth, Jesus hath atoned for all the sins of his people; so that the Lord has discharged all their sins, and will remember no sin, no, not one sin against them. O when one beholds this general release, every debt crossed by Jesu’s blood, and God acquitting from every accusation of law and conscience, then our souls return to their rest. This is the faith of God’s elect. So the Spirit bears witness to Jesus. So he is glorified and delighted in, as "the chiefest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely." And while our hearts are kept simple, loving, faithful to him, we live upon his grace, and feast upon his love; and holy longings inspire our hearts, that we may fully enjoy him in glory. O then,

Sin, (my worst enemy before)

Shall vex my eyes and ears no more:

My inward foes shall all be slain,

Nor Satan break my peace again.

Then shall I see, and hear, and know

All I desir’d and wish’d below;

And ev’ry pow’r find sweet employ

In that eternal world of joy.

Who remembered us in our low estate, for his mercy endureth for ever. Psalms 136:23.

O my soul, never, never forget these two things, thy Lord’s memory, and his mercy. The one was towards thee from eternity: the other endures for ever. What hast thou to do in this little space of time, but to love, serve, and delight in thy mindful, ever merciful Lord? (1st.) Consider thy low estate. Never lose sight of that. Never forget it, lest thou grow vain in thy imagination, and unmindful of our Lord’s love. At hell’s dark door we lay. Lower we could not be, unless shut up in the bottomless pit. Most awful state! O tremble at the thought! dead in sin. A child of wrath by nature. Under the curse of the law, and the power of the devil. Blind to our danger. Insensible of our destruction. Not a desire to escape damnation. Nay, we sported ourselves with our own deceivings. Yet, (2d.) He remembered us. Who? Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit. The Father loved us from eternity, before we fell. He remembered and pitied us when fallen. The Son was mindful of us in eternity, and engaged to redeem us from our low estate. The Spirit, with equal love, seeing we could never rise, nor come out of the horrible pit into which we were fallen, undertook to quicken our dead souls, to come to Jesus for all the blessings of salvation. O what love and remembrance is here! Study it, O my soul, all thy days. A whole eternity will be swallowed up in wonder, love, and praise. (3d.) Mercy is the effect of his long remembrance. Why does God delight in mercy? Because God is love. Never look at your mercies, but remember they all flow from God’s love. Consider that precious word, “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love, wherewith he loved us,” (mind great love is the cause of rich mercy. See when it abounded to us, and the effects of it) “even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ; by grace ye are saved.” (Ephesians 2:4-5.) Therefore, (4th.) “his mercy endureth for ever.” Some talk of the mercy of God, without scriptural views of his love. Hence they make mercy to endure but for a few days or years to poor sinners, then it comes to an end, and they who were once the objects of mercy, become the subjects of God’s curse or damnation. Thus they give the lie to the Spirit of truth. But his mercy endureth for ever, because the love of the Father, Son, and Spirit, changes not. (5th.) Study to improve thy Lord’s memory of thee, and his mercy to thee. Did he remember thy person in love, in thy low estate, and will he remember thy sins no more? (Hebrews 8:12.) Then in thy lowest state of dejection remember him. Look to him, and call upon him, that thou mayest walk worthy of the Lord. (Colossians 1:10.)