GOD’S WORD FOR MAY 23

OUR PERSONAL PROMISES:

  JESUS, YOU……  ARE THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE —John 11:25

    JESUS, YOU……WILL RAISE ME UP ON THE LAST DAY —John 6:40

      JESUS, YOU…… ARE MY LIGHT —John 8:12, Ps 18:28

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THE WORD FOR TODAY

Numbers 28:23

 “You shall offer these besides the burnt offering of the morning, which is for a regular burnt offering.”

Andrew Murray concludes today the chapter on “Day by Day”—teaching us to trust Jesus and our Father to keep us abiding every day, day by day,  and especially settling that in our minds in the mornings.  We’re reading from his book, “Abide in Christ”

The day’s portion for its day was given to Israel in the morning very early.  The portion was for use and nourishment during the whole day, but the giving and the getting of it was the morning’s work.  This suggests how greatly the power to spend a day correctly, to abide all day in Jesus, depends on the morning hour.  If the firstfruits are holy, the lump is holy.  During the day hours of intense occupation in the rush of business or the throng of men come times when only the Father’s keeping can maintain an unbroken connection with Jesus.  The morning manna  was fed all the day; it is only when the believer secures his quiet time in the morning, renewing loving fellowship distinctly and effectually with his Savior in secret, that the abiding can be kept up all the day.  But what cause for thanksgiving that it may be done!  In the morning, with its freshness and quiet, the believer can look out upon the day.  He can consider its duties and its temptations and pass them through beforehand, as it were, with his Savior, throwing all upon Him who has undertaken to be everything to him. 

Christ is his manna, his nourishment, his strength, his life:  he can take the day’s portion for the day, Christ as his  for all the needs the day may bring, and go on in the assurance that the day will be one of blessing and of growth,.

And then, as the lesson of the value and the work of the single day is being taken to heart, the learner is unconsciously being led on to get the secret of “….day by day continually”  (Exodus 29:38).  The blessed abiding grasped by faith for each day apart is an unceasing and ever increasing growth.  Each day of faithfulness brings a blessing for the next, makes both the trust and the surrender easier and more blessed.

 So the Christian life grows: as we give our whole heart to the work of each day, it becomes all the day and from that every day.  So each day separately, all the days continually, day by day successively, we abide in Jesus. 

The days make up the life: what once appeared too high and too great to attain is given to the soul that was content to take and use every day its portion, “As the duty of every day required” (Ezra 3:4). Even here on earth the voice is heard:

“Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.  Enter into the joy of the Lord.” (Matthew 25:23).

Our daily life becomes a wonderful interchange of God’s daily grace and our daily praise: 

“Daily He loads us with benefits” (Psalm 68:19);

“That I may daily perform my vows” (Psalm 61:8).

We learn to understand God’s reason for daily giving, as He most certainly gives, not only enough, but also fully enough, for each day.  We get into His way, the way of daily asking and expecting only enough, but most certainly fully enough, for the day,,

We begin to number our days not from the sun’s rising over the world, or by the work we do or the food we eat, but the daily renewal of the miracle of the manna – the blessedness of daily fellowship with Him who is the Life and Light of the world.,

The heavenly life is as unbroken and continuous as the earthly; the abiding in Christ each day has for that day brought its blessing., 

We abide in Him every day, and all the day.

 Lord, please make this the portion of each one of us.

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