May 15

“The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41

The disciples are in Gethsemane. In every sense, therefore, this is a pre-Pentecost experience. It reminds us that the Christian cannot live by his own willpower. The greatest willpower can only bring to the point of willingness—no further. To be willing cannot give strength to the weak flesh. Something much more than that is needed.

Willpower is like a car without gas. It has to be pushed or towed. Left to itself, it grinds to a halt. To trust to the human will for spiritual ends is therefore to encounter defeat. Spiritual power does not come from the human will, but from the new life in Christ. This life provides another, deeper power beyond our volition, and by that power we find ourselves gloriously carried along in the Lord’s victory.

May 14

“Then he shall minister in the name of Jehovah his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there before Jehovah.” Deuteronomy 18:7

Those who minister to God must not only draw near to him; they must stand before him. It seems to me that nowadays we always want to be moving about: we cannot stand still. There are so many things claiming our attention that we are perpetually on the go. A spiritual person, however, must know how to stand still. He stands before God till God makes his will known.

Brethren, do you not think that any servant should await his master’s orders before seeking to serve him? I wish to address myself especially to my fellow-workers. There are only two types of sin before God in this matter of service. One is the sin of refusing to obey his commands. The other is the sin of going ahead when the Lord has not issued orders. The one is rebellion: the other is presumption. It is standing before the Lord that delivers us from this second sin of doing what he has not commanded. It is our privilege to await his pleasure.

May 13

“Thy name is as ointment poured forth; therefore do the virgins love thee.” Song of Songs 1:3

The Lord Jesus is himself the Anointed One, the Christ. Like sweet and fragrant anointing oil, the Holy Spirit makes known to both God and men the beauties of his holy life. The fact, however, that the sweet ointment of his precious name is spoken of as being poured forth makes us think immediately of our Lord’s death. At his Table we do more than remember that death: we proclaim it (1 Corinthians 11:26).

Our remembrance includes that death but goes beyond it to the Lord himself, for he said, “This do in remembrance of me.” Most of us will agree that nothing is more stimulating to memory than some specific scent—the smell of a hayfield perhaps—associated with a moving experience of the past. So it is that we think gratefully not only of what he has done, but of his Person. The virgins do not merely love mercies and benefits: they love the Person whose name has become so sweet to them.

May 12

 “Now I know that thou fearest God.” Genesis 22:12

One who has become pliable in God’s hand instantly responds to any fresh desire of his. Just at the point when Abraham placed Isaac on the altar and raised the knife to slay him, God called to him to stay his hand and showed him a ram which he should offer instead of his son. This might well have posed a new problem for Abraham. How could he ever discern God’s will if at one moment he told him to do one thing and the next moment the very reverse?

If we attach our own thoughts to the will of God, then of course when he changes his commands our thoughts will remain fixed. We shall then wonder how possibly to be consistent! For Abraham, however, all was perfectly simple and straightforward. His instant obedience was not to reason but to trust God in all circumstances. This left no room for perplexity. In this he gives us a beautiful picture of a man who has been saved from himself, a man who truly fears God.

May 11

“Philip answered him, Two hundred shillings’ worth of bread is not sufficient for them.” John 6:7

Have you noticed that the Gospels record two separate miracles in which Christ feeds a great company of people? Why two, when they were almost identical in nature and in the way they were performed? Is it perhaps because of our slowness to learn even urgent lessons? So many of us, instead of looking to the Lord to bless the bread, are looking down at the five loaves in our hands. They are so pitifully few, and so pitifully small.

We gaze at them, and we calculate, and we keep on wondering how they can ever meet the need. And the more we calculate and the more we wonder, the more laborious our attempts become and the more we are exhausted by the strain. I am comforted when I recall what a Chinese brother once said to me. It was this: “When God wants to perform a small miracle, he places us in difficult circumstances; when he wants to perform a mighty miracle, the circumstances in which he places us are impossible.”

May 10

“This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.” Ephesians 5:32

God’s purpose in creating the Church is that she may be the help meet for Christ. He had said, “Let us make man in our image. . . and let them have dominion” (Genesis 1:26). The same pattern is used in the following verse: “In the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” So God created one man, but we might also say that in that act he created two persons. Eve was in Adam at his creation. However, it was by being taken from Adam that Eve was formed.

Now in a different but parallel sense, the Church is formed from Christ, and only that which originates with Christ can be the Church. The Church is the Christ in you, and the Christ in all the Christians around the world throughout all the centuries, put together in one. Without Christ, she has no existence, no life, and no future. But dare we not also say that without her—without you and me—he lacks the help meet for him?

May 9

“And Samuel grew, and Jehovah was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.” 1 Samuel 3:19

Samuel was not only a child given in answer to his mother’s prayer; he was one who very early learned to pray himself. He stands as a complete contrast to the priest Eli, who was not only old in years but dull as to spiritual things, no longer having faculties tuned to communicate with God.

The very first time God called him, Samuel was alert to hear; and although he did not at once recognize that the voice was God’s, he was quick to learn and to obey. This led on to a prayer-life worthy of comparison with that of Moses. Samuel became a living link between the old and the new, between the sad declension of Israel under the judges and the glorious reign of David. If prayer could bridge such a gap then, it can do such things today.

May 8

“Jesus I know, and Paul l know: but who are ye?” Acts 19:15

We talk sometimes about our desire to maintain, like John, the testimony of Jesus on earth. Let us remember that this testimony is based not on what we can say about this or that, but on what Satan can say about us. God has put us in this world, and often he locates us in some specially difficult places, where we are tempted to feel that worldlings have a much easier time than do Christians.

The question is: Of what account are we in the realm of principalities and powers? Evil spirits can see right through the witness of man. They can tell when it is compromised by half-heartedness or insincerity. Because they believe, they know when to tremble. And let me say this: since our most important task is their overthrow, it is better always that we should have the witness of evil powers than the praise of men.

May 7

“Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness.” Galatians 6:1

Discipline is always a remedial measure, and has as its object the recovery of the sinning brother. Even in the most extreme case of church discipline, the end in view is “that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

Where God’s children are concerned, there is mercy in all his judgment; and when we judge any of his children on his behalf, whether we do so as the whole church or as individual members, we should be full of mercy. Even though our outward attitude may have to be one of discipline, our inner attitude should be one of love.

The Lord states very clearly what our object should be in the case of any offense. It is not the winning of our case but the gaining of our brother. Even one in spiritual advance of others dare not take a “better-than-thou” position. We must first locate in ourselves the sin that is manifest in our brother, and not till we have judged that in ourselves dare we judge it in him.

May 6

“And he prayed again; and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.” James 5:18

The Lord had explicitly told Elijah to seek out King Ahab because he was about to send rain on the earth. He did not, however, send this rain until Elijah had prayed. God does not always carry out his will alone; he waits for us to cooperate with him by prayer. It is true that Elijah needed first to know it was God’s will and that his time to act had at last come; but knowing this did not excuse him from that earnest prayer which released the rain.

It is a mistake to think that man initiates anything by prayer. The Bible shows us that it is God who first desires to do certain things, and make his wishes known. Our part is to learn what is his will and then to ask him to perform it. This can truly be called prayer, and it is what God wants from us.

May 5

“Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15, 16

With the parable of the ten virgins, the contrast between the wise and the foolish was over the matter of readiness. Here a similar contrast is made, for the wise are described as those who buy up the opportunity. The unwise are like the child who imagines that by procrastination he may perhaps avoid the need for obedience. If in fact this policy of doing nothing is successful, then in a sense he will have been wise.

If, however, the command is insisted upon and must ultimately be obeyed, then it is sheer folly to delay. The passage goes on to say that to avoid foolishness we must get clear about God’s will. If our God is an unchanging God with an unalterable purpose of good, then it is our wisdom to give him prompt obedience without wasting unnecessary time.

May 4

“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation.” 2 Peter 1:20

The word “private” points not to the interpreter but to the words being interpreted. It means that prophetic Scripture is not to be explained by its own context alone. For example, Matthew 24 should be read in the light of other Scriptures which bear on it. For no prophecy is self-interpreting; a given passage will be understood with the help of many other passages. To attempt otherwise is to fall into “private interpretation.”

Truly God’s Word is one. He has set it in writing in the Bible: hence we have no need to speak independently, but can check our words by what has already been spoken by God. No doubt God the Holy Spirit gives us new insights and discoveries of his will, but our safeguard is that all can he founded on what God has already spoken. We should never move away from that.

May 3

“I coveted no man’s silver or gold, or apparel.” Acts 20:33

Paul made no contract with the church in Ephesus, or with any other church, that he should receive a certain remuneration for a certain period of service. That God’s servants should look to human sources for the supply of their needs has no precedent in Scripture. We do read there of a Balaam who sought to make merchandise of his gift of prophecy, but he is denounced in no uncertain terms. We read also of a Gehazi who sought to make gain of the grace of God, but he was stricken with leprosy for his sin.

No servant of God should look to any human agency for the meeting of his temporal needs. If they can be met by the labor of his own hands, well and good; Otherwise he should be directly dependent on God alone for their supply.

May 2

“He spoke unadvisedly with his lips.” Psalm 106:33

After more than thirty years of proving God in the wilderness, the people of Israel were still rebellious, and quick to blame Moses and Aaron for the lack of water.

For his part God was ready to meet their needs, and commanded his servant to take his rod and speak to the rock that it might give water. Moses took the rod, but he was so provoked by the people’s unjust accusations that he spoke to them in anger and then struck the rock twice. He erred; yet the water flowed freely from the rock.

Because of this, God reprimanded his servant. It was as though he remonstrated, “l saw that my people were thirsty and was willing to provide water for them, so why did you scold them?”

Clearly Moses had given the people the wrong impression of God as fierce and unmerciful. Let us be warned by this never to draw God into human failure by giving to others the impression that the faulty attitudes we display are his.

May 1

“Having put off from himself [margin] the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly.” Colossians 2:15

How did the Lord Jesus put Satan to shame? By shaking off from himself the powers of evil as he rose from the dead. Resurrection implies a realm beyond the touch of death. Men die, animals and plants die; all living things are subject to death. There is no exception, for death has spread like a net over this entire world. It has entered into every living thing. But here is a Man who came out of death, for death could not retain him.

The life we receive at the time of new birth is this resurrection life. This life has no relationship whatever to Satan. Always remember that his attacks on us can never exceed his attacks on our Lord at the cross. There all his efforts were exerted and all proved of no avail. He was overcome, and from that day he is the defeated foe. We give thanks to God because he has given us the victory in Christ.

April 30

“l say unto you, This man went down to his house justified.” Luke 18:14

At most the publican could only plead for forgiveness. God heard his prayer, but gave him much more than he had asked for, since Jesus said that he returned home “justified.”

Do you see how far this exceeded the sinners expectations? He asked for mercy; he could never think of justification. But God said that he was justified. This means that it was as if he had never sinned. Not only was he no longer sinful: now he was actually righteous.

The salvation which God accomplishes is not according to our limited measure but to his infinite grace. Man has his small ideas of how God will act on his behalf, but God likes to hear his cry and answer his prayers. But what he brings to pass accords with his own disposition as the lavish dispenser of unmerited favor. Let us praise him!

April 29

“For to me to live is Christ.” Philippians 1:21

On the evening of April 29, 1920, I was alone in my room, struggling to decide whether or not to believe in the Lord. At first I was reluctant, but as I tried to pray I saw the magnitude of my sins and the reality and efficacy of Jesus as the Savior.

As I visualized his hands stretched out on the cross, they seemed to be welcoming me and he was saying, “I am waiting here to receive you.” Realizing the effectiveness of his blood in cleansing my sins and being overwhelmed by such love, I accepted him there.

Previously I had laughed at people who had accepted Jesus, but that evening the experience became real for me and I wept and confessed my sins, seeking the Lord’s forgiveness. As I made my first prayer, I knew peace and joy such as I had never known before. Light seemed to flood the room and I said to him, “O Lord, you have indeed been gracious to me!”