Meditate
with a daily devotion
Daily Light's Morning Reading
The fruit of the Spirit is temperance.—GAL. 5:22.
Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess: but be filled with the Spirit.
If any man will come after me let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Let us not sleep, as do others: but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober.—Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world: looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.
I Cor. 9:25-27.Eph. 5:18.Matt. 16:24.I Thes. 5:6-8. -Tit. 2:12,13,.
Spurgeon's Morning Reading
“Pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.”
Song of Solomon 7:13
The spouse desires to give to Jesus all that she produces. Our heart has “all manner of pleasant fruits,” both “old and new,” and they are laid up for our Beloved. At this rich autumnal season of fruit, let us survey our stores. We have new fruits. We desire to feel new life, new joy, new gratitude; we wish to make new resolves and carry them out by new labours; our heart blossoms with new prayers, and our soul is pledging herself to new efforts. But we have some old fruits too. There is our first love: a choice fruit that! and Jesus delights in it. There is our first faith: that simple faith by which, having nothing, we became possessors of all things. There is our joy when first we knew the Lord: let us revive it. We have our old remembrances of the promises. How faithful has God been! In sickness, how softly did he make our bed! In deep waters, how placidly did he buoy us up! In the flaming furnace, how graciously did he deliver us. Old fruits, indeed! We have many of them, for his mercies have been more than the hairs of our head. Old sins we must regret, but then we have had repentances which he has given us, by which we have wept our way to the cross, and learned the merit of his blood. We have fruits, this morning, both new and old; but here is the point—they are all laid up for Jesus. Truly, those are the best and most acceptable services in which Jesus is the solitary aim of the soul, and his glory, without any admixture whatever, the end of all our efforts. Let our many fruits be laid up only for our Beloved; let us display them when he is with us, and not hold them up before the gaze of men. Jesus, we will turn the key in our garden door, and none shall enter to rob thee of one good fruit from the soil which thou hast watered with thy bloody sweat. Our all shall be thine, thine only, O Jesus, our Beloved!
Old Testament Chapter a Day - 1 Samuel 3
3. The Lord Calls Samuel
Samuel’s Calling and Prophetic Activity
3
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
2 At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room;3the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.4Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!”5and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down.6The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.”7Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.8The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy.9Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
10 Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”11Then the Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.12On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.13For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.14Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.”
15 Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli.16But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” He said, “Here I am.”17Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.”18So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”
19 As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.20And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.21The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.
New Testament in Four Years - Ephesians 2:19-22
2. Made Alive in Christ
19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,20built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.21In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord;22in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.Psalm a Day - Psalm 68:19-35
68. Psalm 68
19
Blessed be the Lord,
who daily bears us up;
God is our salvation.Selah
20
Our God is a God of salvation,
and to God, the Lord, belongs escape from death.
21
But God will shatter the heads of his enemies,
the hairy crown of those who walk in their guilty ways.
22
The Lord said,
“I will bring them back from Bashan,
I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,
23
so that you may bathe your feet in blood,
so that the tongues of your dogs may have their share from the foe.”
24
Your solemn processions are seen, O God,
the processions of my God, my King, into the sanctuary—
25
the singers in front, the musicians last,
between them girls playing tambourines:
26
“Bless God in the great congregation,
the Lord, O you who are of Israel’s fountain!”
27
There is Benjamin, the least of them, in the lead,
the princes of Judah in a body,
the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.
28
Summon your might, O God;
show your strength, O God, as you have done for us before.
29
Because of your temple at Jerusalem
kings bear gifts to you.
30
Rebuke the wild animals that live among the reeds,
the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples.
Trample under foot those who lust after tribute;
scatter the peoples who delight in war.
31
Let bronze be brought from Egypt;
let Ethiopia hasten to stretch out its hands to God.
32
Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth;
sing praises to the Lord,Selah
33
O rider in the heavens, the ancient heavens;
listen, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice.
34
Ascribe power to God,
whose majesty is over Israel;
and whose power is in the skies.
35
Awesome is God in his sanctuary,
the God of Israel;
he gives power and strength to his people.
Blessed be God!