Meditate
with a daily devotion
Daily Light's Morning Reading
From the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard.DAN. 10:12.
Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.—The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.—Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.—Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.—God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me.
Isa. 57:15. -Psa. 51:17. -Psa. 138:6. -I Pet. 5:6. -Jas. 4:6. -Jas. 4:7.Psa. 86:5-7.
Spurgeon's Morning Reading
“Godly sorrow worketh repentance.”
2 Corinthians 7:10
Genuine, spiritual mourning for sin is the work of the Spirit of God. Repentance is too choice a flower to grow in nature’s garden. Pearls grow naturally in oysters, but penitence never shows itself in sinners except divine grace works it in them. If thou hast one particle of real hatred for sin, God must have given it thee, for human nature’s thorns never produced a single fig. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.”
True repentance has a distinct reference to the Saviour. When we repent of sin, we must have one eye upon sin and another upon the cross, or it will be better still if we fix both our eyes upon Christ and see our transgressions only, in the light of his love.
True sorrow for sin is eminently practical. No man may say he hates sin, if he lives in it. Repentance makes us see the evil of sin, not merely as a theory, but experimentally—as a burnt child dreads fire. We shall be as much afraid of it, as a man who has lately been stopped and robbed is afraid of the thief upon the highway; and we shall shun it—shun it in everything—not in great things only, but in little things, as men shun little vipers as well as great snakes. True mourning for sin will make us very jealous over our tongue, lest it should say a wrong word; we shall be very watchful over our daily actions, lest in anything we offend, and each night we shall close the day with painful confessions of shortcoming, and each morning awaken with anxious prayers, that this day God would hold us up that we may not sin against him.
Sincere repentance is continual. Believers repent until their dying day. This dropping well is not intermittent. Every other sorrow yields to time, but this dear sorrow grows with our growth, and it is so sweet a bitter, that we thank God we are permitted to enjoy and to suffer it until we enter our eternal rest.
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Jeremiah 20
20. Jeremiah's Complaint
Jeremiah Persecuted by Pashhur
20
Now the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.2Then Pashhur struck the prophet Jeremiah, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord.3The next morning when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, The Lord has named you not Pashhur but “Terror-all-around.”4For thus says the Lord: I am making you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon; he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall kill them with the sword.5I will give all the wealth of this city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them, and seize them, and carry them to Babylon.6And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, shall go into captivity, and to Babylon you shall go; there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.
Jeremiah Denounces His Persecutors
7
O Lord, you have enticed me,
and I was enticed;
you have overpowered me,
and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long;
everyone mocks me.
8
For whenever I speak, I must cry out,
I must shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the Lord has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
9
If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
then within me there is something like a burning fire
shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
10
For I hear many whispering:
“Terror is all around!
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
All my close friends
are watching for me to stumble.
“Perhaps he can be enticed,
and we can prevail against him,
and take our revenge on him.”
11
But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble,
and they will not prevail.
They will be greatly shamed,
for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonor
will never be forgotten.
12
O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous,
you see the heart and the mind;
let me see your retribution upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
13
Sing to the Lord;
praise the Lord!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
from the hands of evildoers.
14
Cursed be the day
on which I was born!
The day when my mother bore me,
let it not be blessed!
15
Cursed be the man
who brought the news to my father, saying,
“A child is born to you, a son,”
making him very glad.
16
Let that man be like the cities
that the Lord overthrew without pity;
let him hear a cry in the morning
and an alarm at noon,
17
because he did not kill me in the womb;
so my mother would have been my grave,
and her womb forever great.
18
Why did I come forth from the womb
to see toil and sorrow,
and spend my days in shame?
New Testament in Four Years - Matthew 6:5-8
6. Sermon on the Mount
Concerning Prayer
5 “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.6But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
7 “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Psalm a Day - Psalm 77
77. Psalm 77
Psalm 77
God’s Mighty Deeds Recalled
To the leader: according to Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A Psalm.
1
I cry aloud to God,
aloud to God, that he may hear me.
2
In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;
in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;
my soul refuses to be comforted.
3
I think of God, and I moan;
I meditate, and my spirit faints.Selah
4
You keep my eyelids from closing;
I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
5
I consider the days of old,
and remember the years of long ago.
6
I commune with my heart in the night;
I meditate and search my spirit:
7
“Will the Lord spurn forever,
and never again be favorable?
8
Has his steadfast love ceased forever?
Are his promises at an end for all time?
9
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he in anger shut up his compassion?”Selah
10
And I say, “It is my grief
that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”
11
I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord;
I will remember your wonders of old.
12
I will meditate on all your work,
and muse on your mighty deeds.
13
Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is so great as our God?
14
You are the God who works wonders;
you have displayed your might among the peoples.
15
With your strong arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.Selah
16
When the waters saw you, O God,
when the waters saw you, they were afraid;
the very deep trembled.
17
The clouds poured out water;
the skies thundered;
your arrows flashed on every side.
18
The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
your lightnings lit up the world;
the earth trembled and shook.
19
Your way was through the sea,
your path, through the mighty waters;
yet your footprints were unseen.
20
You led your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.