Month One
DAY 1
WHY BOTHER TO PRAY?
If God is sovereign and things will be as they are going to be anyway, why bother to pray? There are several reasons. The first is really all we need to know: God has told us to pray. It is a commandment, and if we love Him, we obey His commands.
Second, Jesus prayed. People sometimes say that the only reason for prayer is that we need to be changed. Certainly we do, but that is not the only reason to pray. Jesus was not being made more holy by prayer. He was communing with His Father. He was asking for things. He was thanking God. In His Gethsemane prayer He was beseeching the Father to prevent what was about to take place. He was also laying down His own will.
Third, prayer is a law of the universe. As God has ordained that certain physical laws should govern the operation of this universe, so He has ordained the spiritual law. Books simply will not stay put on the table without the operation of gravity—although God could cause them, by divine fiat, to stay. Certain things simply will not happen without the operation of prayer, although God could cause them, by divine fiat, to happen.
The Bible is full of examples of people doing what they could do and asking God to do what they couldn’t do. In other words, the pattern given to us is both to work and pray. Nehemiah and the people of Israel worked hard to build the wall of Jerusalem but were strenuously opposed by Sanballat and Tobiah, who banded together with Arabs, Ammonites and Ashdodites to attack. “So we prayed to our God,” wrote Nehemiah, “and posted a guard day and night against them” (Neh. 4:9).
DAY 2
REFRESHMENT
He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.
PROVERBS 11:25
If you . . . satisfy the needs of the wretched, . . . the LORD will satisfy your needs.
ISAIAH 58:10-11
Do you often feel like parched ground, unable to produce anything worthwhile? I do. When I am in need of refreshment, it isn’t easy to think of the needs of others. But I have found that if, instead of praying for my own comfort and satisfaction, I ask the Lord to enable me to give to others, an amazing thing often happens—I find my own needs wonderfully met. Refreshment comes in ways I would never have thought of, both for others and then, incidentally, for myself.
Lord, be as the dew to me today as You were to Israel, that I may “flower like the lily” (Hos. 14:5).
DAY 3
MY OWN FAULT
Someone who is suffering as a result of his or her own foolishness or failure may read these words. These griefs are hard indeed to bear, for we feel we might easily have avoided them. We have no one to blame but ourselves, and there isn’t much consolation there. Sometimes we imagine that we must bear this kind of trouble alone, but that is a mistake. The Lamb of God, slain for us, has borne all of our griefs and carried all of our sorrows, no matter what their origin. All grief and sorrow is the result of sin somewhere along the line, but Christ received them willingly. It is nothing but pride that keeps me from asking Him to help me to bear the troubles that are my own fault.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, take away mine.
I take Him at His word indeed;
“Christ died for sinners”—this I read;
And in my heart I find a need
Of Him to be my Savior!
(Dora Greenwell)
DAY 4
ONE REASON FOR DARKNESS
Many great saints have experienced what they could only describe as the absence of God, when their souls have entered into a dark night. Abraham was overcome by a horror of great darkness. No doubt this is one of the necessary lessons for some who share most deeply in the sufferings of Christ. He, too, felt that his Father had forsaken Him.
But for the rest of us who are a long way from that most intimate fellowship, there is another, much more common reason for darkness. We find it in the Psalms: “Some sat in darkness, dark as death, prisoners bound fast in iron, because they had rebelled against God’s commands and flouted the purpose of the Most High” (107:10-11).
Before we dignify our own experience of darkness by identifying it with the classic mystic experience, it might be well to see if we have not disobeyed the Lord in some way or have been angry at Him because His purpose has been at odds with our cherished plans. Remember the saga of Israel’s journey to the Promised Land—there were some difficulties along the way for which the Israelites railed against God. What they overlooked was the fact that His goal for them was a rich land where their every dream would come true.
Thank You, Lord, for Your promise: “I am the light of the world. No follower of mine shall wander in the dark; he shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).
DAY 5
REALITIES
Faith . . . makes us certain of realities we do not see.
HEBREWS 11:1
What realities can we be sure of? There is a popular notion about prayer that assumes that the thing asked for ought to be the object of faith—“Lord, give me this or that,” wherefore “this” and “that” become the realities. No. The Bible states the absolutes that we can be certain of: the character of God, His love, His will that we be conformed to His Son’s likeness, His sovereign control of all the universe. When faith latches on to those realities that we do not see with our eyes, it can never be confounded. If it makes the thing asked for its object, faith itself will dissolve if the Lord’s answer is no, not yet or wait.
In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion (Ps. 71:1, KJV).
DAY 6
NO SAND
Around the turn of the century an expression was used that today would be “grit,” “guts” or “gumption.” A man was said to have “sand.”
An unbeliever named Miller approached Mr. Frank Sandford with the scornful remark, “Jesus didn’t have any sand.”
“Didn’t He? Well, He stretched out one hand and said to His captors, ‘Put a spike in there for Miller!’ Then He stretched out the other hand and said, ‘Put another spike in there for Miller!’ I don’t know if you have enough sand to follow Him, but don’t say He didn’t have any sand.”
Lord, give me sand enough to take up my cross daily and follow You. Help me to take lightly this world’s judgments and to take seriously Your call and Your cross.
DAY 7
GOD’S MESSENGERS
How can this person who so annoys or offends me be God’s messenger? Is God so unkind as to send that sort across my path? Insofar as his treatment of me requires more kindness than I can find in my own heart, demands love of a quality I do not possess, asks of me patience that only the Spirit of God can produce in me, he is God’s messenger. God sends him in order that he may send me running to God for help.
The Psalms are full of cries to God about enemies—but it was the enemies who drove the psalmist (for example, in Psalm 64) to cry. If he had had no enemies, he would have had no need of a Protector. God will go to any lengths to bring us to Himself.
Think of him who submitted to such opposition from sinners: that will help you not to lose heart and grow faint. . . . You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. . . . “The Lord disciplines those whom he loves” (Heb. 12:3-4,6).
DAY 8
WHO IS IN CHARGE?
The people of Israel complained loudly against Moses for having brought them out into a wilderness where there was nothing to their liking. “Better to have died in Egypt!” they said.
Moses told them, “It was the LORD who brought you out. It is against the LORD that you bring your complaints, and not against us” (Exod. 16:6,8, emphasis added).
When we are angry or offended, let us be careful to note where our real complaint lies. This person who insults me at the office or on the bus, this husband who rides roughshod over my feelings, this insensitive individual who does not understand or appreciate me—is he not one whom God has put in my life for my good? Who, after all, is really in charge?
Let us beware of rebellion against the Lord. Circumstances are of His choosing, because He wants to bless us, to lead us (even through the wilderness) out of Egypt, that is, out of ourselves. Settle the complaint with God, and it will settle other things. Be offended with God, and you will be offended with everyone who crosses your path.
DAY 9
LEAVE HIM TO ME
When there is deep misunderstanding that has led to the erection of barriers between two who once were close, every day brings the strengthening of those barriers if they are not, by God’s grace, breached. One prays and finds no way at all to break through. Love seems to backfire every time. Explanations become impossible. New accusations arise, it seems, from nowhere (though it is well to recall who is named the accuser of the brethren). The situation becomes ever more complex and insoluble, and the mind goes round and round, seeking the place where things went wrong, brooding over the words that were like daggers, regretting the failures and mistakes, wondering (most painfully) how it could have been different. Much spiritual and emotional energy is drained in this way—but the Lord wants to teach us to commit, to trust and to rest.
“Leave him to me this afternoon,” is what His word is. “There is nothing else that I am asking of you this afternoon but that. Leave him to Me. You cannot fathom all that is taking place. You don’t need to. I am at work—in you, in him. Leave him to Me. Some day it will come clear—trust Me.”
Humble yourselves then under God’s mighty hand, and he will lift you up in due time. Cast all your cares on him, for you [and the other] are his charge (1 Pet. 5:6-7).
DAY 10
MY OWN CANOE
The rule of the universe,” wrote C. S. Lewis to his friend Arthur Greeves, is “that others can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, and one can paddle every canoe except one’s own.”1
This is grace: God’s graciously doing for us what we cannot do and so constructing human life that we are allowed to help—i.e., to give life to others. In our pride we try to save ourselves, but it is impossible. We can only lose by trying. It is when we stop straining to paddle our own canoe and let Another paddle it for us, or give ourselves to paddle someone else’s (bearing his burdens), that we fulfill the law of Christ. The wind carries the seed; the bee, the pollen; the mother, the child. So life is borne and born.
DAY 11
HE WILL IF YOU WILL
All through the Bible we see the interworking of the will of God and the will of man. It was God, Creator and Sovereign, who conceived freedom for man—the glorious likeness to Himself in “the dignity of causality,” to use Saint Thomas Aquinas’s phrase. All things are so arranged in God’s universe that He may work His will through man’s exercising His gift of a free will. It is a gift, and one that, while it confers staggering power on us humans, also limits the Almighty. Here lies the tremendous mystery—that God should be all-powerful yet refuse to coerce. He summons us to cooperation. We are honored in being given the opportunity to participate in His good deeds. Remember how He asked for help in performing His miracles: Fill the water pots, stretch out your hand, distribute the loaves.
This little word of Paul’s to the Corinthian Christians contains the whole kernel of that truth: He will deliver us if you will cooperate by praying (see 2 Cor. 1:11).
Is there something you are hoping for today? Perhaps there is a condition you must fulfill before the Lord can grant it. He will if you will.
DAY 12
HE COULD NOT BECAUSE THEY WOULD NOT
The other side of the coin of this amazing matter of cooperation with God is that there are things even God cannot do. He cannot because He has chosen to assign certain powers to His people. If they will not, His hands are tied.
He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief (Matt. 13:58, KJV).
How often would I have gathered [you] . . . and ye would not (Matt. 23:37, KJV).
Some would argue that although it is proper to say that God will not and does not, it is not proper to say that He cannot. I would reply that given the terms of His relationship to us, the people He loved and called, He cannot force us, for He cannot deny Himself. To force us would be to deprive us of the freedom He granted when He made us, and thus to deny Himself.
Yet we pray, “Make me to do Thy will!” And so we should, for in that prayer we express our will to cooperate with Him.
Our wills are ours, to make them thine.
(Lord Alfred Tennyson)
DAY 13
WHO AM I?
This was Moses’ question when God said He would send him to Pharaoh to bring release for the enslaved Israelites. The early part of Moses’ life shows him to be a champion—that is, a defender and protector (of the man being wronged, of the shepherd girls), but this was not the strength he was to depend on. The real question for Moses, as for us, is not Who am I? but Who is it who summons us? It is the Lord, the I am, the same yesterday and today and forever. He is with us. This is what matters. This is our reason for confidence.
Today we may find ourselves summoned to a task that we know is quite beyond us. “Me, Lord?” we quaver, “Who am I?” God answers, “I am with you.”
The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge (Ps. 46:11, KJV).
DAY 14
THE GLORY OF GOD
When God’s power is manifested in the world, in His creation or in His people, God is glorified. When we pray that our lives may glorify Him, we are asking that the self may be put down, for it is not possible to show the power of God and at the same time to glorify what George MacDonald called “the bastard self.” We must be prepared to lose ourselves, whatever that may entail, that God may be all in all. Losing an argument for His sake, losing something we held dear, losing face, reputation, a position of power or superiority, losing a claim on someone or on his affection or respect—can these be a part of the answer to our prayer to glorify God in our lives? Assuredly they can, for assuredly the Son Himself laid aside all such assets when He came to do the will of the Father.
“I have glorified thee on the earth” (John 17:4, KJV), He said—and that glory was manifested through weakness, loss and suffering. What a privileged position we are called to share.
Lord, lift up our eyes, away from ourselves and our small losses, up to that glory yet to be revealed. Teach us that it is only out of weakness that we are made strong, only as we suffer that we may reign, only as we lose that we may gain.
DAY 15
A BOND SLAVE OF CHRIST
Abraham was a very wealthy man who had many servants. He himself, knowing well what makes a good servant, was a faithful and obedient servant of God.
Nowadays most of us have never had servants and therefore have almost no notion of what it means to be one. It means first of all to have a master—that is, to belong to someone else. He can do what he wants with you; you are there to do for him. You are at his disposal. It is not for you to reason why he asks something of you; it is yours only to do it. So long as you are in his service, you are not your own (see 1 Cor. 6:20).
Abraham was a man full of faith, obedient to his Lord, readily at His command.
Master, help me to live today according to Your desires, and when I reach home may You be able to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant”
(Matt. 25:23, KJV).
DAY 16
WATCHING QUIETLY, PRAYING SILENTLY
The man whom Abraham sent to find a wife for his son Isaac had been long in Abraham’s service. No doubt he had learned much of trust and obedience through watching his master walk with God. He set out on his mission, confident that God would help him. Beside the Well of Aram of Two Rivers he halted his camels and was praying silently when a beautiful young woman appeared with her water jar on her shoulder. She responded to his request as he had prayed she would, and he watched quietly to see whether the Lord had made his journey successful (see Gen. 24:21).
Very possibly we often miss what God wants to show us because we don’t take time to pray silently and watch quietly. It was by doing those two things, along with the obvious practical things (let us not leave those undone), that the servant was able to say, “I have been guided by the LORD” (v. 27).
DAY 17
PEDESTALS
A student asked me whether I thought it was a “problem” that we tend to place missionaries on pedestals. My answer was that indeed we do, but servants of the Lord ought to be models of the truth they proclaim. Paul was bold enough to say, “Be ye followers of me” (1 Cor. 4:16, KJV).
At the same time let us always remember that the “excellency of the power” (2 Cor. 4:7, KJV) is never ours but God’s. It is foolish to imagine that the missionary, or whoever the hero is, is sinless. God uses sinners—there is no one else to use.
Pedestals are for statues. Usually statues commemorate people who have done something admirable. Is the deed worth imitating? Does it draw me out of myself, set my sights higher? Let me remember the Source of all strength (“The LORD is the strength of my life,” says Psalm 27:1 [KJV]) and, cheered by the image of a human being in whom that strength was shown, follow His example.
DAY 18
INVISIBLE BLESSINGS
Being very much of the earth—earthy—we always want tangible, visible things: proofs, demonstrations, something to latch on to. If we always had them, of course, faith would be “struck blind.” When Jesus hung on a cross, the challenge was flung at Him: Come down! He stayed nailed, not so that spectators would be satisfied (that miracle, His coming down, would have been a great crowd-pleaser), but that the world might be saved.
Many of our prayers are directed toward the quick and easy solution. Long-suffering is sometimes the only means by which the greater glory of God will be served, and this is, for the moment, invisible. We must persist in faith. God has a splendid purpose. Believe in order to see it.
Our troubles are slight and short-lived; and their outcome an eternal glory which outweighs them far. Meanwhile our eyes are fixed, not on the things that are seen, but on the things that are unseen (2 Cor. 4:17-18).
DAY 19
EXCHANGE
This morning I was thinking of a friend who is gravely ill. She is greatly loved by many and has had a unique ministry because of her gifts of friendship and hospitality. Must she suffer?
The answer is yes. For the Lord who loves her suffered and wants her to fellowship with Himself. The joy of thus knowing Him comes not in spite of but because of suffering, just as resurrection comes out of death. I have a Savior because I am a sinner, and beauty is given to the child of God in exchange for ashes.
We want to avoid suffering, death, sin, ashes. But we live in a world crushed and broken and torn, a world God Himself visited to redeem. We receive His poured-out life and, being allowed the high privilege of suffering with Him, may then pour ourselves out for others.
How can one’s illness help another? By being offered to Him who can transform it into blessing.
You have been granted the privilege not only of believing in Christ but also of suffering for him (Phil. 1:29).
DAY 20
WASTELANDS
There are dry, fruitless, lonely places in each of our lives, where we seem to travel alone, sometimes feeling as though we must surely have lost the way. What am I doing here? How did this happen? Lord, get me out of this!
He does not get us out. Not when we ask for it, at any rate, because it was He all along who brought us to this place. He has been here before—it is no wilderness to Him, and He walks with us. There are things to be seen and learned in these apparent wastelands that cannot be seen and learned in the city—in places of comfort, convenience and company.
God does not intend to make it no wasteland. He intends, rather, to keep us—to hold us with His strength, to sustain us with His sure words—in a place where there is nothing else we can count on.
God did not guide them by the road towards the Philistines, although that was the shortest; . . . God made them go round by way of the wilderness towards the Red Sea (Exod. 13:17-18).
Imagine what Israel, and all of us who worship Israel’s God, would have missed if they had gone by the short route—the thrilling story of the deliverance from Egypt’s chariots when the sea was rolled back. Let’s not ask for shortcuts. Let’s keep alert for the wonders our Guide will show us in the wilderness.
DAY 21
ALL THINGS SERVE THEE
The Lord’s decrees (His promises, His plans, His every word) stand fast, no matter what news we receive. A child has run away. A mother has cancer. A business has failed. The events in our private lives and the great catastrophes in the world do not budge the solid ground on which the Christian takes his position. How can this be? Are there not conditions that harm and hinder and destroy? Not in the end. There is nothing, on Earth or in hell or heaven, in time or eternity, that can alter in any final sense what God has promised—because all things serve Him.
A word in the book of Revelation shows this truth most gloriously. Ten great kings will join their powers with an enormously powerful beast to wage war on the Lamb. God does not intervene to prevent that war.
But the Lamb will defeat them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and his victory will be shared by his followers, called and chosen and faithful (Rev. 17:14).
All things serve Him. That is, everything will at last be seen to be under His control, contributing to His eternal purposes—and (here is another marvel) the Lamb’s victory will be ours as well.
Lord, who has called and chosen us—make us faithful. Enable us to keep our eyes on the final victory.
DAY 22
A MANSION PREPARED
Jesus told His disciples of the place He was going to prepare for them. The collect for the fourth Sunday in Advent reminds us of the place we ought to prepare for Him: “Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at His coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for Himself.”
A mansion in me for Him? What sort of mansion must it be? It must be swept clean of all evil, a task we cannot do by ourselves, but only by receiving daily the grace of God in ridding our conscience of guilt.
Come—not to find, but make this troubled heart A dwelling worthy of Thee as Thou art.
(Bishop Handley Moule)
DAY 23
A CHANCE TO DIE
To be transformed into the image of Christ, I must learn His character, love His obedience to the will of the Father, and begin, step-by-step, to walk the same pathway. For Christ the pathway of obedience began with emptying Himself. I must begin at the same place.
[He] made Himself nothing (Phil. 2:7).
You must arm yourselves with a temper of mind like his (1 Pet. 4:1).
If anyone wishes to be a follower of mine, he must leave self behind (Matt. 16:24).
What does this mean? Is it mere words? How can one leave self behind, make himself nothing? The answer will not come in a vacuum. If a man or woman honestly wishes to be a follower, the opportunity will present itself. Christ will say, “Here is your chance. Now, in this situation, you must make your choice. Will it be self? Or will you choose Me?”
An older missionary said something to Amy Carmichael when she was a young missionary that stayed with her for life. She had spoken of something that was not to her liking. His reply was, “See in it a chance to die.”
DAY 24
THE EIGHT CLOTHES
Only certain costumes suit Christians. To be otherwise dressed is inappropriate.
Put on the garments that suit God’s chosen people, his own, his beloved: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience (Col. 3:12, emphasis added).
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14, RSV, emphasis added).
You have all put on Christ as a garment (Gal. 3:27, emphasis added).
You must . . . put on the new nature of God’s creating (Eph. 4:23-24, emphasis added).
You have discarded the old nature with its deeds and have put on the new nature (Col. 3:10, emphasis added).
Put on love (Col. 3:14, RSV, emphasis added).
The clothes we wear are what people see. Only God can look on the heart. The outward signs are important. They reveal something of what is inside. If charity is there, it will become visible outwardly; but if you have no charitable feelings, you can still obey the command. Put it on as simply and consciously as you put on a coat. You choose it; you pick it up; you put it on. This is what you want to wear.
Do you want to dress like a Christian? Put on Christ. The act of honest obedience—the fruit of love for Christ—is your part. Making you Christlike through and through is His part.
DAY 25
OUTLANDISH TEACHINGS
There is no end to the “new” methods offered for success, self-realization, fulfillment, understanding and happiness. Seminars, conferences and workshops abound. Go to so-and-so, get counseling, begin a new exercise program or a new diet, earn another degree, find another job, husband, house or color scheme. If it’s new, it’s good.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. So do not be swept off your course by all sorts of outlandish teachings; it is good that our souls should gain their strength from the grace of God (Heb. 13:8-9).
Fixity of heart is a rare thing and probably always has been. It is easier to follow after the world in its futile pursuit of happiness simply because we are like sheep and we go astray. To stay quietly by the Shepherd seems harder, but in the end we find there (and nowhere else) our soul’s real strength.
Blaise Pascal wrote, “I have discovered that all the unhappiness of man arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.” Try spending a half hour in a room alone, without music, without television, without even reading. Can you find any peace or happiness there? If not, perhaps you have not begun to learn what is truly important.
DAY 26
WHAT MAKES GOD’S WORK SHINE
Brother Masseo asked Saint Francis of Assisi why all the world should go running after him, who was neither handsome nor learned nor even of noble birth. At this, Francis was overjoyed, and after kneeling to thank God, said, “Why me? Why me? The all-seeing God, looking down and finding nothing viler on Earth, quite naturally fixed His gaze on me. For to make His work shine forth in men’s eyes, the Lord takes what is not learned, strong, and noble, so that the glory may go to the sole Author of all good.”
We are only pots—common ones of clay—so that the splendid power may belong to God and not to us (see 2 Cor. 4:7).
DAY 27
NOTHING IS LOST
Paul was a man who suffered the loss of everything, according to his own claim. Yet any loss he counted pure gain. The key to this transforming of earthly losses into heavenly gains is love. What do we love? If our hearts are set on people and possessions and position, the loss of those will indeed be irreparable. To the man or woman whose heart is set on Christ, no loss on Earth can be irreparable. It may shock us for the moment. We may feel hurt, outraged, desolate, helpless. That is our humanity. But the Lord can show us the long view, the incalculable gain in spiritual and eternal terms, if we love Him above all. Everything that belongs to us belongs also to Him. Everything that belongs to Him belongs also to us. What, then, can we finally lose? If we lose not Christ Himself, we have finally lost nothing, for He is our treasure and He has our hearts.
DAY 28
THE TOKEN OF INTEGRITY
With a servant, a warrior, a child, a subject,” writes Andrew Murray in The New Life, “obedience is indispensable, the first token of integrity.”
God is my Master, my Captain, my Father, my King. I am servant, warrior, child, subject. What have I to do in any of these cases but obey?
Integrity means wholeness, unbroken condition, the quality of being unimpaired and sound. An integer is something that is complete in itself, an entity. No one can serve two masters. Divided loyalty will mean impaired obedience. “A soldier on active service will not let himself be involved in civilian affairs; he must be wholly at his commanding officer’s disposal” (2 Tim. 2:4).
O Christ, be Master and Captain of my life. Give me a whole heart united to do Your bidding and to do nothing else. Let me hear Your voice and no other. Make my life an integer for Your glory. Amen.
DAY 29
THE WORK OF THE ACCUSER
One of the names of the enemy is the accuser. It is his doing, when we have sought God’s guidance and been as obedient as we knew how and then remain in an agony of doubt as to whether God did guide, whether we really did obey. There is no end to the “proofs” the accuser can present to sow doubt in our minds. “Hath God said . . . ?” (Gen. 3:1, KJV) was the first seed he sowed in the mind of Eve, and he has had a great deal of practice at that kind of planting ever since.
It is to be expected that every decision made with the desire to be obedient to God will be attacked. Spread your doubts before the Lord. Pray for correction of any wrong in thinking or doing and for His word of assurance as to the action you must take. If there is nothing else required of you at this moment, leave it at that. Trust God. Put the whole weight of your doubts and cares on Him—that will foil the accuser.
It is God who pronounces acquittal. . . . It is Christ . . . who . . . pleads our cause (Rom. 8:33-34).
DAY 30
MAN OF DUST
As we have worn the likeness of the man made of dust, so we shall wear the likeness of the heavenly man.
1 CORINTHIANS 15:49
What a word of hope for us when we are discouraged with our own sinfulness! The old Adam is always there, rising in rebellion against the new life that Christ has given us. There is constant struggle, daily reminders that we are yet very unholy, very un-Christlike, very dusty. But a day will come when even I, with all my glaring faults, will wear the likeness of the heavenly Man. This gives me ammunition to fire at the accuser. I shall be like Christ—just wait! You’ll see!
DAY 31
OUT OF ALL PROPORTION
When my husband, Addison, was near death from cancer, depression often seemed to overwhelm him like great black waves, and he was at times convinced (we know the source of this conviction) that his sins were unforgivable.
“Do you really think God can forgive my sins?” he would ask, for he felt that his sins were out of all proportion to the light that had been given him as a Christian (a Christian home, a Christian education, a wide sphere of Christian service).
The popular notion of somehow “balancing” our good deeds against our sins will not hold much reassurance for any of us when we face the final truth. Then we need grace, infinite grace, and plenty of it.
It is there for us—mighty waves, deeper and stronger than our blackest despair.
I had to remind my husband of what he knew very well intellectually: that his particular sins could not possibly exhaust the grace of God.
God’s act of grace is out of all proportion to [our] wrongdoing (Rom. 5:15, emphasis added).