April 28

Morning

Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. — Ps 119:49

Whatever your especial need may be—you may readily find some promise in the Bible suited to it. Are you faint and feeble because your way is rough and you are weary? Here is the promise, “He gives power to the faint.” When you read such a promise, take it back to the great Promiser, and ask Him to fulfill His own Word. Are you seeking after Christ, and thirsting for closer communion with Him? This promise shines like a star upon you, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Take that promise to the throne continually; do not plead anything else but go to God over and over again with this, “Lord, You have said it—do as You have said.”

Are you distressed because of sin, and burdened with the heavy load of your iniquities? Listen to these words, “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, and will no more remember your sins.” You have no merit of your own to plead, why He should pardon you but plead His written engagements and He will perform them.

Are you afraid lest you should not be able to hold on to the end, lest, after having thought yourself a child of God, you should prove a castaway? If that is your state, take this Word of grace to the throne and plead it: “The mountains may depart, and the hills may be removed but the covenant of My love shall not depart from you.”

If you have lost the sweet sense of the Savior’s presence, and are seeking Him with a sorrowful heart, remember the promises: “Return unto Me and I will return unto you.” “For a small moment have I forsaken you but with great mercies will I gather you.” Banquet your faith upon God’s own Word, and whatever your fears or needs, repair to the Bank of Faith with your Father’s hand-written note, saying, “Remember the Word unto Your servant—upon which You have caused me to hope.”

Evening

All the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted. — Ezek 3:7

Are there no exceptions? No, not one. Even the favored race are thus described. Are the best—so bad? Then what must the worst be? Come, my heart, consider how far you have a share in this universal accusation, and while considering, be ready to take shame unto yourself however you may have been guilty.

The first charge is impudence, or hardness of forehead, a lack of holy shame, an unhallowed boldness in evil. Before my conversion, I could sin and feel no remorse; hear of my guilt and yet remain unhumbled; and even confess my iniquity and have no inward humiliation on account of it. For a sinner to go to God’s house and pretend to pray to Him and praise Him—argues a brazen-facedness of the worst kind! Alas! since the day of my new birth I have doubted my Lord to His face, murmured unblushingly in His presence, worshiped before Him in a slovenly manner, and sinned without bewailing myself concerning it. If my forehead were not as an adamant, harder than flint—I would have far more holy fear, and a far deeper contrition of spirit. Woe is me—I am one of the impudent house of Israel!

The second charge is hard-heartedness, and I must not venture to plead innocent here. Once I had nothing but a heart of stone, and although through grace I now have a new and fleshy heart, much of my former obduracy remains. I am not affected by the death of Jesus as I ought to be; neither am I moved by the ruin of my fellow men, the wickedness of the times, the chastisement of my heavenly Father, and my own failures—as I should be. O that my heart would melt at the recital of my Savior’s sufferings and death. Would to God I were rid of this nether millstone within me—this hateful body of death. Blessed be the name of the Lord, the disease is not incurable, the Savior’s precious blood is the universal solvent, and me, even me, it will effectually soften—until my heart melts as wax before the fire!