Meditate
with a daily devotion
Daily Light's Morning Reading
Walk in love.—EPH. 5:2.
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.—Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.—Love covereth all sins.
When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.—Love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again.—Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth.—Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrar-wise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.—If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.—Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
John 13:34. -I Pet. 4:8. -Prov. 10:12.Mark 11:25. -Luke 6:35. -Prov. 24:17. -I Pet. 3:9. -Rom. 12:18. -Eph. 4:32.I John 3:18.
Spurgeon's Morning Reading
“So foolish was I, and ignorant; I was as a beast before thee.”
Psalm 73:22
Remember this is the confession of the man after God’s own heart; and in telling us his inner life, he writes, “So foolish was I, and ignorant.” The word “foolish,” here, means more than it signifies in ordinary language. David, in a former verse of the Psalm, writes, “I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked,” which shows that the folly he intended had sin in it. He puts himself down as being thus “foolish,” and adds a word which is to give intensity to it; “so foolish was I.” How foolish he could not tell. It was a sinful folly, a folly which was not to be excused by frailty, but to be condemned because of its perverseness and wilful ignorance, for he had been envious of the present prosperity of the ungodly, forgetful of the dreadful end awaiting all such. And are we better than David that we should call ourselves wise! Do we profess that we have attained perfection, or to have been so chastened that the rod has taken all our wilfulness out of us? Ah, this were pride indeed! If David was foolish, how foolish should we be in our own esteem if we could but see ourselves! Look back, believer: think of your doubting God when he has been so faithful to you—think of your foolish outcry of “Not so, my Father,” when he crossed his hands in affliction to give you the larger blessing; think of the many times when you have read his providences in the dark, misinterpreted his dispensations, and groaned out, “All these things are against me,” when they are all working together for your good! Think how often you have chosen sin because of its pleasure, when indeed, that pleasure was a root of bitterness to you! Surely if we know our own heart we must plead guilty to the indictment of a sinful folly; and conscious of this “foolishness,” we must make David’s consequent resolve our own—“Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel.”
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Isaiah 9
9. To Us a Child Is Born
The Righteous Reign of the Coming King
9
But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
2
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.
3
You have multiplied the nation,
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as people exult when dividing plunder.
4
For the yoke of their burden,
and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5
For all the boots of the tramping warriors
and all the garments rolled in blood
shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
6
For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7
His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Judgment on Arrogance and Oppression
8
The Lord sent a word against Jacob,
and it fell on Israel;
9
and all the people knew it—
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—
but in pride and arrogance of heart they said:
10
“The bricks have fallen,
but we will build with dressed stones;
the sycamores have been cut down,
but we will put cedars in their place.”
11
So the Lord raised adversaries against them,
and stirred up their enemies,
12
the Arameans on the east and the Philistines on the west,
and they devoured Israel with open mouth.
For all this his anger has not turned away;
his hand is stretched out still.
13
The people did not turn to him who struck them,
or seek the Lord of hosts.
14
So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail,
palm branch and reed in one day—
15
elders and dignitaries are the head,
and prophets who teach lies are the tail;
16
for those who led this people led them astray,
and those who were led by them were left in confusion.
17
That is why the Lord did not have pity on their young people,
or compassion on their orphans and widows;
for everyone was godless and an evildoer,
and every mouth spoke folly.
For all this his anger has not turned away;
his hand is stretched out still.
18
For wickedness burned like a fire,
consuming briers and thorns;
it kindled the thickets of the forest,
and they swirled upward in a column of smoke.
19
Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts
the land was burned,
and the people became like fuel for the fire;
no one spared another.
20
They gorged on the right, but still were hungry,
and they devoured on the left, but were not satisfied;
they devoured the flesh of their own kindred;
21
Manasseh devoured Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,
and together they were against Judah.
For all this his anger has not turned away;
his hand is stretched out still.
Psalm a Day - Psalm 8
8. Psalm 8
Psalm 8
Divine Majesty and Human Dignity
To the leader: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.
1
O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2
Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
4
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
5
Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
7
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9
O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!