May 31

“And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.” Exodus 34:8

Moses first worships, then he prays. He first acknowledges the rightness of God’s ways, and then he seeks God’s grace. Unlike us, he does not at once beseech God, on the ground of his grace, to reverse his decision.

We are always trying to persuade God to change his way of working. Without considering his ways, we just open our lips and ask him to remove the pressure here, the sickness there, the domestic problems elsewhere. To pray after this fashion is not to worship God.

We have lost sight of our place before God. We are making ourselves too big. Moses was not like that. Before he prayed, he first acknowledged God’s sovereignty and, with bowed head, accepted his ways. Thereafter he prayed that if he had found grace in God’s sight, God would still go up in the midst of his people.

The acceptance of God’s ways does not rule out prayer nor eliminate grace. But there is an order here: we first capitulate to God, then we pray to him. Prayer may be the expression of my will; worship precedes it, and is the acceptance of the will of God.

May 30

“Friendship of the world is enmity with God.” James 4:4

Notice what this statement says. It does not suggest that we should treat the people of the world as enemies. Jesus never made hostility to the world a condition for loving him. It does mean, though, that when you become a believer, former deep friendships and intimate relationships can no longer exist exactly as they did before.

You may still love a former friend, but your desire now is to win him to Christ. You may go out to him, but with the new purpose of sharing with him the good news that has brought you such release. This is what Cornelius did in inviting his relatives and close friends to his home to hear Peter speak.

Tell your former friends what has happened. Tell them you have believed in the Lord Jesus. Should they react unfavorably, know that it is better to be unwelcomed than to be drawn by them away from the Lord.

If possible maintain some association, for this is good, but do not crave for intimate friendship. You belong to the Lord Jesus and are there to represent him. Sooner or later you will see them either turn to him themselves or forsake you. Rarely is it any other way.

May 29

“And he made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God and Father.” Revelation 1:6

At Sinai God told the people of Israel that he would set them up as a kingdom of priests. China is a nation of etiquette and India of philosophy, but Israel’s role was unique. Everyone, man or woman, adult or child, was to be a priest toward God and toward mankind. Because of their failure, however, what was intended for the whole nation of Israel had to be reserved for the tribe of Levi.

Now, through Christ, the promise has been restored. His Church in the world is a kingdom of priests. Under the Old Covenant all who were disabled, lame, or blemished were barred from priestly service; but today, we, the base, the unclean, the blind and crippled, are called by God to be priests. With the New Covenant, the voice from heaven comes to tell us that all saved ones are chosen to serve him and doing so, to draw mankind back to him.

May 28

“Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7

A child of God must not be inordinately curious. There are byways he need not explore, where Satan stands ready to entice the inquisitive with false information.

At first the Christian may be attracted to such knowledge as beneficial, but unless these dangerous thoughts are cut off at the outset they will get out of hand afterwards. We must resist all vain speculations.

When such a thought has once been resisted in Jesus’ name, the matter is completely closed. Should the thought return a second time, it may be ignored. Resist the devil once, and the promise is that he will flee. You should believe what God says, that Satan has fled away. You need not resist him again, for to do so is to discredit the first resistance.

Each new resistance means deeper distrust of God’s word, until you become occupied with “resisting Satan” from dawn to dusk. The more you think about it, the more confused will you become. No! Simply turn away to Jesus and forget all else.

May 27

“Now ye are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof.” 1 Corinthians 12:27

The living consciousness of our fellowship in Christ is a very precious thing. It awakens in us a growing and deepening sense of “belonging.” The nature of the butterfly, always “going it alone,” gives place to the nature of the bee, always operating from the hive, always working, not for itself but for the whole. It means that we see our own standing before God, not as isolated units but as members one of another.

Units have no special use, exercise limited ministry, can easily be overlooked or left out. Whether we are present or not is no one’s concern. A unit scarcely affects even statistics. But members are otherwise. They cannot be passive in the Body; they dare not merely stand looking on. None of them can ever say, “I don’t count.”

May 26

“There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me.” 2 Corinthians 12:7

The amazing fact apparent in the Bible is that it is relatively easy for a “heathen” to be healed, but that healing for a Christian is not as easy. The New Testament overwhelmingly shows us that whenever an unbeliever came to Jesus for healing, he was cured immediately.

Now the gift of healing is surely for the Christian no less than for the unbeliever; yet the Bible tells of believers who were not healed. Among these are some of the most godly—Trophimus, Timothy, and Paul. Each of these three excellent brothers in Christ had to endure sickness.

It is clear that sickness is different from sin in its outworking. Sin does not produce any fruit of holiness, whereas sickness does. Do not look upon sickness or pain as something terrible. In whose hand is the knife? Remember that it is in God’s hand.

Why should we be anxious over infirmity, as though it were in the control of the enemy? Without God’s permission Satan can make no one sick. All infirmities are measured to us by God for the sake of the enrichment they can bring.

May 25

“My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to accomplish his work.” John 4:34

A wonderful feature of spiritual ministry is that it refreshes the one who engages in it. Take, for example, the incident of Jesus at the well of Sychar. He was genuinely thirsty when he asked the woman for a drink, but in his concern for her as a needy sinner he ignored his own condition. Instead he engaged her in a conversation that ministered the water of life to her soul.

Then the disciples returned. To their surprise, the Lord looked so refreshed that they began to ask one another where this provision had come from. The answer was, of course, that in giving another to drink of the living water, he himself had found his own thirst satisfied. Life in the Spirit and ministry in the Spirit are always like this.

May 24

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God.” 2 Corinthians 10:5

One sphere of Satan’s operations is man’s thought-life. He arouses imaginations which must first be suppressed before we can bring our thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ. We need to know what satanic temptation is.

The devil will inject into your mind a thought, a fancy, which appears to be your own. Attracted by it, you accept and use it as though it were yours, though in actual origin it is his. Many sins are first committed in the mind’s imagination. Many unpleasantnesses among Christian brothers and sisters arise from fancies.

As Martin Luther suggested, “You cannot forbid a bird from flying over your head, but you can prevent it from making a nest in your hair.” Refuse to let evil thoughts find a resting-place in you.

May 23

“He sent a man before them; Joseph was sold for a servant.” Psalm 105:17

Of the many typical servants of God in the Old Testament, Joseph is perhaps the most perfect. Yet while the Scripture reveals no apparent flaw in his character, we know well that his was no easy pathway.

From a comparatively early age, his life was a series of bitter trials. He was the victim of much injustice. In spite of his faithfulness, he was dogged by one trouble after another. When did his troubles begin? Surely with his dreams. In them he saw what God was going to do and recognized his own place in God’s plan.

It was his dreams that started things off. They represent spiritual vision. By them he saw what his brothers could not see. “This dreamer cometh,” they said, and hated him. But because he saw, Joseph could stand fast through all those grim experiences, and by him God was able to fulfill his plan for his earthly people.

May 22

“The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God.” Romans 8:16

A man’s regeneration can never be produced by the activities of his soul. To be penitent, to express sorrow for sin, even with tears, and then to make a decision for Christ do not in themselves save a man. Confession, decision, or any other religious act must not be construed as producing new birth.

Rational judgment, intellectual understanding, mental acceptance, the pursuit of the good and true—all these are excellent activities of man’s soul. They may bring him to the point of hunger for God. But although they may function as servants, man’s ideas and feelings and choices cannot hold office as masters.

In this matter of salvation, their role is only secondary. The biblical reality of new birth belongs to a deeper realm. It is nothing less than the awakening of divine life in a man’s spirit through the entry of the Holy Spirit of God.