Daily Devotionals

Spiritual Treasury For The Children of God

Devotional: November 15th

My God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus.- Philippians 4:19.

Paul, though an eminent saint, and a great apostle, was yet a man of like passions, a poor sinner, even as others. Yet, with what amazing boldness and confidence he speaks of what his God shall do! Though he had never been admitted into the secret counsels of the glorious trinity; yet the holy Spirit had well instructed him, in the covenant transactions of Jehovah. He well knew the nature of the everlasting covenant: that it was "ordered in all things" in infinite wisdom and eternal love: that all the graces and blessings contained in it, are sure to all the heirs of promise. As soon might a God of truth prove false, a God of faithfulness be unjust, as any one of his promises in Jesus to his people fail.

Such is the security of the covenant; such the confidence of faith. God the Father is the fountain; the Son the treasury; and the Spirit; the dispenser of all grace. Believers’ needs are God’s concerns. They shall have a rich supply for all their wants. The value of their supplies, are enhanced to the highest degree. Not only riches, but riches in glory; glorious riches. They receive all from glory, and all comes to them through the glorified man Jesus Christ. He is their "Friend who loveth at all times: their brother who was born for adversity." In the hour of our distresses and in the time of our need, we too often forget that we have such a God and Saviour to trust in and call upon. Instead of looking to a throne of grace, we pore over our dunghill of corruptions; here we are sure to find nothing but misery, poverty, and sin. Is there such an inexhaustible fund of riches in Christ Jesus? Is it for the poor and needy? Dishonorable thought of Jesus, ever to imagine he is an unconcerned spectator of our wants, or that he will withhold when we need. Nay, but he "knows how to have compassion." He is touched with a tender sympathy, "a feeling sense of our infirmities."- Hebrews 4:15. "Trust in him at all times, ye people, pour out your hearts before him, God is a refuge for us;" and the Psalmist adds, "Selah."- Psalms 62:8. Consider this well, spread it before your minds, just as we put N. B. for Nota Bene; take special notice of this, it is of the greatest importance. "Lord help our unbelief."

When in the light of faith divine

We look on things below,

Honor, and gold, and sensual joy

How vain and dangerous too.

God is mine all-sufficient aid,

My portion and my choice;

In him my vast desires are fill’d,

And all my pow’rs rejoice.

In vain the world accosts my ear,

And tempts my heart anew:

I cannot buy your bliss so dear,

Nor part with heav’n for you.

Thine heart lifted thee up to boast. 2. Chron. 25:19.

How despicable, how contemptible does pride make a man look in the eyes of his enemies? Amaziah sets out with the first step to idolatry, confidence in an arm of flesh. He next falls into the most gross and absurd idolatry. Reproof leaves him under it. As he had forsaken the Lord, the Lord cast him off. His destruction is near. “A haughty spirit goes before a fall. Let him who thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.” One sin brings on another. When the Lord leaves a man, he exposes his pride, and makes himself ridiculous. Amaziah, being flushed with success at his victory over the Edomites sends a message to Joash, king of Israel, saying, “Come let us see one another in the face.” A challenge to war. Face me, if you care. Alas! he little thought that the Lord was departed from him, that he was given up to hardness of heart, and to seek his own destruction. How different his language from that of David, to the boasting Goliath, “I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts,” (1 Samuel 17:45.) Joash, according to the custom of the Easterns, answers him by a proverb, “The thistle sent to the cedar, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife: and lo, a wild beast passed by and trod down the thistle.” Intimating that there was as contemptible a comparison between Amaziah and himself, as between that low, base weed a thistle, and a tall stately cedar. However what Amaziah wanted in strength, he possessed in pride, which proved his overthrow. Christian, learn to know thyself. Be not high-minded, though thy Lord gives thee to tread down all the power of the enemy, yet he says, “notwithstanding, rejoice not in this, that evil spirits are subject unto thee.” No. Why not? Is not this matter of joy? Doubtless. But take heed of vain glorying here. Beware, lest thy heart be lifted up to boast. The worst evil, pride, may be excited by the best of causes. Know thyself to be like that very contemptible thistle in Lebanon: that vile, prickly weed, in which dwells no good, and has no strength to stand against the foot of an enemy. But, the Lord points thee to incessant cause of joy. “Rather rejoice because thy name is written in heaven.” Therefore, the everlasting love of the God of heaven is fixed on thee. The invincible arm of the God of heaven is engaged to keep thee. And know, to excite thy humility, thou hast done nothing to deserve this. “Thou, O Lord God, art a God full of compassion, and gracious,” (Psalms 86:15.)

Is this a time for us to boast,

When sin within us dwells?

Forbid it, O thou Lord of hosts

For ‘tis the pride of hell.