Daily Devotional for July 23
If any provide not for his own,...he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8)
"THE faith" includes thoughts of love, sympathy, interest and care for others, especially for them of the household of faith....How it gives us an insight into our Lord's sympathetic nature, to find Him thinking in the interest of others at the very time when He Himself was overwhelmed in trouble! His own agony did not hinder Him from thinking of His mother, and making provision for her comfort....We note the choice of John: it was doubtless because, first of all, of his loving, tender disposition; secondly, his zeal for the Lord and the Truth; and thirdly, his courage in pressing near to be with his dying Master in His closing hours, at the risk of his own life. Let us note these characteristics, as being those which the Lord approves, that noting them we may cultivate them in ourselves, and thus be granted special opportunities for service by this same Master. Z.'99-127 R2474:6
⤡ Fullscreen Mode
The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. (Nahum 1:7)
WHILE appreciating very gratefully this special love and care for us as his people, in the comfort, encouragement, and protection afforded us by our Heavenly Father in the midst of the world's great tribulation, we would come far short of having his Spirit if we would regard the matter with self-complacency, forgetful of his great love for the whole world also, which, veiled behind the clouds of his righteous indignation against their sins, in wisdom strikes the heavy blow which will shatter all their idols and humble their pride in the dust....If God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son,...he loves them still, and it is his love that wields the rod for their correction. So also he would have his people regard his judgments, and while rejoicing in the sunshine of his favor,...he would have them share his Spirit toward the world; and while the blows of his righteous indignation fall heavily upon them, he would have us point them to the cause of their calamities, and to the only remedy. `Z'95-72` R1787:3 (Hymn 171)
⤡ Fullscreen Mode