Meditate
with a daily devotion
Daily Light's Evening Reading
Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.—PSA. 97:11.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
That which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Spurgeon's Evening Reading
“Understandest thou what thou readest?”
Acts 8:30
We should be abler teachers of others, and less liable to be carried about by every wind of doctrine, if we sought to have a more intelligent understanding of the Word of God. As the Holy Ghost, the Author of the Scriptures is he who alone can enlighten us rightly to understand them, we should constantly ask his teaching, and his guidance into all truth. When the prophet Daniel would interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, what did he do? He set himself to earnest prayer that God would open up the vision. The apostle John, in his vision at Patmos, saw a book sealed with seven seals which none was found worthy to open, or so much as to look upon. The book was afterwards opened by the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who had prevailed to open it; but it is written first—“I wept much.” The tears of John, which were his liquid prayers, were, so far as he was concerned, the sacred keys by which the folded book was opened. Therefore, if, for your own and others’ profiting, you desire to be “filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,” remember that prayer is your best means of study: like Daniel, you shall understand the dream, and the interpretation thereof, when you have sought unto God; and like John you shall see the seven seals of precious truth unloosed, after you have wept much. Stones are not broken, except by an earnest use of the hammer; and the stone-breaker must go down on his knees. Use the hammer of diligence, and let the knee of prayer be exercised, and there is not a stony doctrine in revelation which is useful for you to understand, which will not fly into shivers under the exercise of prayer and faith. You may force your way through anything with the leverage of prayer. Thoughts and reasonings are like the steel wedges which give a hold upon truth; but prayer is the lever, the prise which forces open the iron chest of sacred mystery, that we may get the treasure hidden within.
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Genesis 17
17. The Covenant of Circumcision
The Sign of the Covenant
17
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless.2And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.”3Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him,4“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.5No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.6I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.7I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.8And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”
9 God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.10This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.11You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.12Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring.13Both the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.14Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
15 God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.16I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”17Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”18And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live in your sight!”19God said, “No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.20As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.21But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.”22And when he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.
23 Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all the slaves born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him.24Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.25And his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.26That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised;27and all the men of his house, slaves born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
New Testament in Four Years - Romans 6:1-4
6. Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
Dying and Rising with Christ
6
What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?2By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?4Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Psalm a Day - Psalm 32
32. Psalm 32
Psalm 32
The Joy of Forgiveness
Of David. A Maskil.
1
Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
2
Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3
While I kept silence, my body wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.Selah
5
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the guilt of my sin.Selah
6
Therefore let all who are faithful
offer prayer to you;
at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters
shall not reach them.
7
You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.Selah
8
I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
9
Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle,
else it will not stay near you.
10
Many are the torments of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord.
11
Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.