OCTOBER 7

OUR PERSONAL PROMISES

Ps 119:17

“Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word.”

2 Peter 1:3

“as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,”

Psalm 68:19

“Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation!”

(That word also means “carries our burdens”)

Hebrews 13:5

“…I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Isaiah 27:3

“I the Lord do keep it.  I will water it every moment:  lest any hurt it, I keep it night and day.”

Psalm 51:6

“…In secret You will make wisdom known to me.”

This month we will read choices from Charles Spurgeon’s (known affectionately as the “prince of preachers”)  devotional, “Beside Still Waters.”   It’s no secret that this world system is getting more evil by the day.  We have to stand strong in the Lord and look to Him more than ever to get through, and to be guided through, what is in the future……..known and allowed  by Him alone…..as well as whatever personal things we are experiencing in our lives.

PASTOR SPURGEON:

David takes great pleasure in acknowledging his duty to God, and he counts it joy to be in God’s service.  He pleads because  a servant has some influence on a master.  Yet in this case, the wording eliminates a legal claim, for he seeks a favor and not a reward.  Let my wages be according to your goodness and not according to my merit.  Reward me according to Your liberality and not according to my service.  “My father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare.” (Luke 15:17).  He will not let one of His household perish with hunger.  If the Lord will only treat us as He treats the least of His servants, we will be deeply content.  All his true servants are sons, princes of the blood, heirs of life eternal.

David’s great needs required a bountiful provision, and his little desert could never give such a supply.  Thus, he throws himself on God’s grace and looks to the Lord and His great goodness for the great things he needs.  He begs for heavy grace, like the one who prayed, “Oh Lord, you must give me great mercy, or no mercy, for little mercy will not help me.”

Without abundant mercy, David could not live.  It takes great grace to keep a saint alive.  Even life is a gift of divine bounty to such undeserving ones as we.  Only the Lord can keep us alive, and it is mighty grace that preserves the life we have forfeited by sin.

It is right to want to live.  It is proper to pray to live, and it is just to ascribe prolonged life to God’s favor.  Spiritual life, without which natural life is mere existence, is also to be sought from the Lord’s bounty.  It is the highest work of divine grace, and in it God’s bounty is gloriously displayed.  The Lord’s servants cannot serve Him in their own strength.  They cannot even live unless His grace abounds toward them.

Published by liveinthelightofourlord

View all posts by liveinthelightofourlord