Meditate
with a daily devotion
Daily Light's Evening Reading
Faith as a grain of mustard seed.—MATT. 17:20.
Barak said unto [Deborah], if thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go. God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan.—Gideon . . . feared his father's household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, . . . did it by night. And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand as thou hast said, . . . let me prove, I pray thee. And God did so.
Thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.—Who hath despised the day of small things?
We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly.—Lord, increase our faith.—I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
Judg. 4:8,23. -Judg. 6:27,36,39,40.Rev. 3:8. -Zech. 4:10.II Thes. 1:3. -Luke 17:5. -Hos. 14:5,6.
Spurgeon's Evening Reading
“I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse.”
Song of Solomon 5:1
The heart of the believer is Christ’s garden. He bought it with his precious blood, and he enters it and claims it as his own. A garden implies separation. It is not the open common; it is not a wilderness; it is walled around, or hedged in. Would that we could see the wall of separation between the church and the world made broader and stronger. It makes one sad to hear Christians saying, “Well, there is no harm in this; there is no harm in that,” thus getting as near to the world as possible. Grace is at a low ebb in that soul which can even raise the question of how far it may go in worldly conformity. A garden is a place of beauty, it far surpasses the wild uncultivated lands. The genuine Christian must seek to be more excellent in his life than the best moralist, because Christ’s garden ought to produce the best flowers in all the world. Even the best is poor compared with Christ’s deservings; let us not put him off with withering and dwarf plants. The rarest, richest, choicest lilies and roses ought to bloom in the place which Jesus calls his own. The garden is a place of growth. The saints are not to remain undeveloped, always mere buds and blossoms. We should grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Growth should be rapid where Jesus is the Husbandman, and the Holy Spirit the dew from above. A garden is a place of retirement. So the Lord Jesus Christ would have us reserve our souls as a place in which he can manifest himself, as he doth not unto the world. O that Christians were more retired, that they kept their hearts more closely shut up for Christ! We often worry and trouble ourselves, like Martha, with much serving, so that we have not the room for Christ that Mary had, and do not sit at his feet as we should. The Lord grant the sweet showers of his grace to water his garden this day.
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Numbers 17
17. Budding of Aaron's Staff
The Budding of Aaron’s Rod
17
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:2Speak to the Israelites, and get twelve staffs from them, one for each ancestral house, from all the leaders of their ancestral houses. Write each man’s name on his staff,3and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one staff for the head of each ancestral house.4Place them in the tent of meeting before the covenant, where I meet with you.5And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout; thus I will put a stop to the complaints of the Israelites that they continually make against you.6Moses spoke to the Israelites; and all their leaders gave him staffs, one for each leader, according to their ancestral houses, twelve staffs; and the staff of Aaron was among theirs.7So Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the covenant.
8 When Moses went into the tent of the covenant on the next day, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted. It put forth buds, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds.9Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the Israelites; and they looked, and each man took his staff.10And the Lord said to Moses, “Put back the staff of Aaron before the covenant, to be kept as a warning to rebels, so that you may make an end of their complaints against me, or else they will die.”11Moses did so; just as the Lord commanded him, so he did.
12 The Israelites said to Moses, “We are perishing; we are lost, all of us are lost!13Everyone who approaches the tabernacle of the Lord will die. Are we all to perish?”
New Testament in Four Years - 1 Corinthians 13:8-13
13. Love
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part;10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Psalm a Day - Psalm 120
120. Psalm 120
Psalm 120
Prayer for Deliverance from Slanderers
A Song of Ascents.
1
In my distress I cry to the Lord,
that he may answer me:
2
“Deliver me, O Lord,
from lying lips,
from a deceitful tongue.”
3
What shall be given to you?
And what more shall be done to you,
you deceitful tongue?
4
A warrior’s sharp arrows,
with glowing coals of the broom tree!
5
Woe is me, that I am an alien in Meshech,
that I must live among the tents of Kedar.
6
Too long have I had my dwelling
among those who hate peace.
7
I am for peace;
but when I speak,
they are for war.