Dawn 2 Dusk When the Door Feels Shut, God Isn’t GoneSome days feel like God has stepped back—like the relationship has cooled, the answers have slowed, and the future has narrowed. Lamentations reminds us that even when discipline is real and grief is heavy, God’s heart is not to abandon. His “no” is never the final word for His people, and His silence is not absence. A Hard Season Isn’t a Permanent Sentence There are moments when life feels like exile—familiar comforts gone, prayers seemingly bouncing back, consequences lingering. Lamentations 3:31 confronts that fear with a stabilizing truth: God’s rejection is not forever. He may correct, He may allow a valley, but He does not erase His covenant love. That means you’re not living in a spiritual waiting room where the lights might turn off at any moment. You’re in the hands of a Father who may wound, but never with the intent to discard. Scripture keeps repeating this pattern: God disciplines, then restores. “For the LORD disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.” (Hebrews 12:6). Discipline doesn’t mean you’re disowned; it means you’re being treated like family. And if you’ve been tempted to think, I’ve finally used up His patience—hear this: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life…nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38–39). God’s Love Can Feel Hidden, but It Never Stops Working Pain has a way of making God seem distant. You can still believe true things and yet feel emotionally stranded. Lamentations doesn’t shame that experience—it speaks from inside it. But it also insists that beneath the ache, God is still operating with mercy. The same passage that acknowledges affliction also says, “Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.” (Lamentations 3:22). If you’re still standing, still breathing, still being drawn back to Him, mercy is already at work. And sometimes the most surprising evidence of His love is how He keeps you from settling into sin. If God is unsettling you, convicting you, interrupting you—don’t mistake that for rejection. “Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.” (Revelation 3:19). The aim isn’t punishment for punishment’s sake; it’s rescue. The Shepherd’s rod is not a weapon against the sheep—it’s a tool to bring them back from the cliff. Hope Looks Like Waiting, Not Wishing Waiting can feel passive, but biblical hope is active trust. Lamentations teaches us to sit in the tension: God is just, and God is good; God is holy, and God is compassionate. That means you can repent without despair and grieve without giving up. “The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.” (Lamentations 3:25). Waiting becomes worship when you keep seeking instead of sulking, praying instead of plotting, obeying instead of bargaining. So what do you do today if you feel rejected? You bring your heart into the light and ask God to search it. You cling to what He has already spoken. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9). And you step forward in simple obedience—because hope is often rebuilt through small, faithful choices. “Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.” (Hebrews 10:22). Lord, thank You that You do not cast off forever. Strengthen my faith today—help me repent quickly, wait on You humbly, and obey You boldly. Amen. Evening with A.W. Tozer Choosing God's SideThe points at which God's way and man's intersect are likely to be four (though there may be others), and we will usually find our differences with God to occur somewhere in these four areas. . . . Second, our moral standards. There are probably as many ideas of righteousness as there are people in the world, and it would be futile to argue that one is better than another. The test is not which code is best but whether or not any code agrees with the Scriptures. In the Christian Scriptures, the Lord of the whole earth declares His own moral will for mankind, and it is profound wisdom to seek it and conform to it. Otherwise, we are at the mercy of our own deceitful hearts. For all men of faith, God's will is righteousness. The believing soul will not argue about it; he will accept it and bring the controversy to an end.
The third point of possible controversy is in our way of life. This embraces the whole of our lives on earth as decided by our basic moral ideas. Our way of life is simply our moral code in its daily outflow. p>The fourth is our plans. The Christian who has in principle accepted God's truth as his standard of conduct and has submitted himself to Christ as his Lord, may yet be tempted to lay his own plans and even fight for them when they are challenged by the Word of God or the inner voice of the Spirit. We humans are a calculating, planning race, and we like to say, Tomorrow I will . . . But our Heavenly Father knows us too well to trust our way to our own planning, so He very often submits His own plans to us and requires that we accept them. Right there a controversy is sometimes stirred up between the soul and God. But we had better not insist on our own way. It will always be bad for us in the long run. God's way is best.
Music For the Soul The Crown of ServiceWhen thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shall stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake He, signifying by what death He should glorify God. - John 21:18 The enigmatical words draw a contrast between the earlier days of independence, of self-will, of strength which is its own master and its own guide, and the latter days when some unwelcome necessity should be laid upon him, and the constraint of an external hand should lead him whither he would not. They would sound obscure to Peter at first. The whole depth and meaning of them, no doubt, was not originally disclosed to him, or to his brethren. But before the predicted end came, the Apostle had learned what was meant, and told his brethren that he knew that the "putting off of his tabernacle could be a swift process, even as the Lord Jesus had showed him." But still, though they would not be understood in their full depth, these words, no doubt, would be felt to cast something of a sombre shadow over the Apostolic functions and prospects of the future. And so, notice how all that shadow is irradiated with sunlight by the final words, "Follow Me!" which, though no doubt it may have referred to a literal going apart with Jesus at the moment for some unknown purpose, yet is intended to gather up the injunction of service and the prophecy of suffering into one great, all comprehensive command. Treading in Christ’s footsteps, the path of toilsome service becomes easy, and martyrdom itself a trivial pain. That last command puts the crown on the service of life and the suffering of death. He who, living or dying, is the Lord’s, and follows Him, can strenuously do and calmly die. It is the sum of all duty, the one all sufficient command which absorbs into itself all law, and by its grand simplicity rules all life. So this incident yields great truths for us all. The penitent can go back to his Lord and avow his love. Love is the foundation for service. We shall serve Him in the measure in which we love Him; and if thus drawn by His mighty love, and conscious of our own manifold weaknesses, and smitten with the sense of His pardoning mercy, we cleave close to His footsteps, life will be easy, service will be blessed, and that last moment, which to others is as if some bony hand was stretched out to hale them away whither they would not into a dark land, will be to us like what it was to the Apostle Peter himself in the hour of his deliverance from the prison. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself will come to us and say to us, "Rise quickly and follow Me! " And the chains will drop from our hands, and we shall pass through the iron gate that opens of its own accord; and we shall find ourselves in the city, and know that it was not a vision, but the reality of the appearance of that Lord whom we love, though we have denied Him so often and served Him so ill. Spurgeon: Morning and Evening Acts 8:30 Understandest thou what thou readest? We should be abler teachers of others, and less liable to be carried about by every wind of doctrine, if we sought to have a more intelligent understanding of the Word of God. As the Holy Ghost, the Author of the Scriptures is he who alone can enlighten us rightly to understand them, we should constantly ask his teaching, and his guidance into all truth. When the prophet Daniel would interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream, what did he do? He set himself to earnest prayer that God would open up the vision. The apostle John, in his vision at Patmos, saw a book sealed with seven seals which none was found worthy to open, or so much as to look upon. The book was afterwards opened by the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who had prevailed to open it; but it is written first--"I wept much." The tears of John, which were his liquid prayers, were, so far as he was concerned, the sacred keys by which the folded book was opened. Therefore, if, for your own and others' profiting, you desire to be "filled with the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding," remember that prayer is your best means of study: like Daniel, you shall understand the dream, and the interpretation thereof, when you have sought unto God; and like John you shall see the seven seals of precious truth unloosed, after you have wept much. Stones are not broken, except by an earnest use of the hammer; and the stone-breaker must go down on his knees. Use the hammer of diligence, and let the knee of prayer be exercised, and there is not a stony doctrine in revelation which is useful for you to understand, which will not fly into shivers under the exercise of prayer and faith. You may force your way through anything with the leverage of prayer. Thoughts and reasonings are like the steel wedges which give a hold upon truth; but prayer is the lever, the prise which forces open the iron chest of sacred mystery, that we may get the treasure hidden within. Spurgeon: Faith’s Checkbook Blessing on LittlenessThis is a word of cheer to those who are of humble station and mean estate. Our God has a very gracious consideration for those of small property, small talent, small influence, small weight. God careth for the small things in creation and even regards sparrows in their lighting upon the ground. Nothing is small to God, for He makes use of insignificant agents for the accomplishment of His purposes. Let the least among men seek of God a blessing upon his littleness, and he shall find his contracted sphere to be a happy one. Among those who fear the LORD there are little and great. Some are babes, and others are giants. But these are all blessed. Little faith is blessed faith. Trembling hope is blessed hope. Every grace of the Holy Spirit, even though it be only in the bud, bears a blessing within it. Moreover, the LORD Jesus bought both the small and the great with the same precious blood, and He has engaged to preserve the lambs as well as the full-grown sheep. No mother overlooks her child because it is little; nay, the smaller it is, the more tenderly does she nurse it. If there be any preference with the LORD, He does not arrange them as "great and small" but as "small and great." The Believer’s Daily Remembrancer The Lord Trieth the RighteousWhere the Lord gives grace, He always tries it; therefore His own people must expect to pass through the fire. He will try our faith, of what sort it is; our love, of what strength it is. He will also try our patience and our constancy. Let us not therefore be surprised at trials, nor let us be discouraged by them; for He tries out of pure love, with the best design, according to a wise rule, and at the fittest season. He considers our frame, our circumstances, and our foes; He does nothing rashly or unkindly. He would not put us to pain if we did not need it; trials are preservatives or restoratives; they keep us back from evil, or are intended to bring us out of evil into which we have fallen. Thy trials then are from the Lord; His wisdom selected, His love appointed, and His providence brings them about. If you ask, "Why, Lord, am I tried thus?" the answer is, "To humble thee, and to prove thee, and to do thee good at thy latter end." Receive every trial as from God, and go to Him for strength to bear it, grace to sanctify it, and deliverance from it; and so all will be well. It is not for His pleasure, but for your profit, that you are so tried. Often the clouds of deepest woe, A sweet love-message bear; Dark though they seem, we cannot find A frown of anger there. Bible League: Living His Word “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”— John 15:11 ESV Jesus taught his disciples, and taught us by extension, so that we would have His joy and our joy would be full. What did he say? He said, first of all, that the Father in heaven is like a vinedresser, He Himself is like a vine, and we are like branches of the vine. Although the Father removes every branch that doesn’t bear fruit, He prunes the branches that do bear fruit. This is not a bad thing. He prunes them so that they will bear even more fruit (John 15:1-2). Second, He said that branches cannot bear fruit apart from the vine. Indeed, apart from the vine, branches can do nothing. Branches should draw spiritual sustenance from the vine so they will not just bear fruit, they will bear much fruit. Branches that don’t abide in the vine are worthless. As a result, they are thrown away and burned (John 15:4-6). Third, He said “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you,” (John 15:7). The prayers of the branches will be answered so that they will bear fruit. It is so important to God that His branches bear fruit, that He answers the prayers that come before Him for that purpose. Finally, Jesus said “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love,” (John 15:9-10). If we obey Jesus’ commands, especially His command to abide in Him, then we will also abide in His love. That love flows from the Father to the Son, and then to us. It’s our spiritual connection to Jesus, our spiritual abiding in Him, that produces all this in our lives. It’s the reason for the good works that we do, it’s the reason our prayers are answered, and it’s the reason why the love of the Father is present in our lives. Jesus is very joyful about all of this. He told us about it so we will be just as joyful as He is. Daily Light on the Daily Path Psalm 97:11 Light is sown like seed for the righteous And gladness for the upright in heart.Psalm 126:5,6 Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. • He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. 1 Corinthians 15:27 For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. 1 Peter 1:3,6,7 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, • In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, • so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion Don't worry about the wickedor envy those who do wrong. Insight We should never envy evil people, even though some may be extremely popular or excessively rich. No matter how much they have, it will fade and vanish like grass that withers and dies. Challenge Those who follow God live differently from the wicked and, in the end, will have far greater treasures in heaven. What the unbeliever gets may last a lifetime, if he is lucky. What you get from following God lasts forever. Devotional Hours Within the Bible Samuel Anoints DavidSaul had failed because he would not accept God’s way for his life but insisted upon having his own way. The result was that he wrecked everything. God set him aside. He continued to reign until his death but he no more had God’s help and blessing. It was a sad hour in Samuel’s life when the Lord sent him to anoint another in Saul’s place. We see here another glimpse of the nobleness of Samuel. It grieved him to have Saul rejected. Some men in Samuel’s place would have been quite satisfied at Saul’s failure. But Samuel had a generous heart. It should grieve us to see even the worst man do wrong and come under the Divine condemnation. Samuel seems also to have been afraid. “If Saul hears it, he will kill me,” he said. The Lord then reproved him for his hesitancy. “How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from being king?” Our first duty even in sorrow is submission to the Divine will. When God renders a decision, we should accept it as final, however it may cut into our hopes or plans. It ought to have been enough for Samuel to know that the Lord had rejected Saul. When God acts, His servants should be silent. It ought to be enough for anyone in private or public sorrow that the Lord has so ordered it. Grief is not unfitting, for Jesus wept; yet grieving may become sin. It is sin when it is unsubmissive. Even when no ray of light can be seen God’s wisdom and love should be trusted. The best cure for grief and disappointment, is found in promptly taking up one’s duty. “Labor is rest from the sorrows that greet us; Rest from all petty vexations that meet us.” The Lord smoothed the way for Samuel, as he went upon his errand. He sent him to Jesse, telling him He had provided a king among Jesse’s sons. God’s choice of the king was not to be made public. Indeed, no one but Samuel himself knew the meaning of his visit to the Bethlehem home, or of the anointing that took place. Samuel’s errand to Bethlehem was an act of worship, a sacrifice, and a feast. Samuel was not to worry about how the matter would come out. One step at a time, was enough for him to know. God usually does not show us all our way at once. He gives us our work piece by piece . “The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come in peace?” Samuel replied, “Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.” The elders of the town were somewhat disturbed when the old prophet came to their town. They feared that his coming meant punishment to them for something they had done. Like these Bethlehemites, we, too, are sometimes terrified by the coming to us of God’s messengers. They do not all wear gentle faces as they approach us; ofttimes they come in a garb of sternness or of pain. Yet they come always with a blessing for us. Sickness is one of those dark-visaged prophets. We cannot welcome it. Yet if we ask this messenger in our trembling: “Do you come in peace?” the answer is: “Yes, peaceably.” Sickness always brings messages of peace, of blessing, of good to those who will receive them, and God’s messenger should always be received with reverence and trust. The same is true of all the hard things in our lot. We do not like to have to struggle and deny ourselves. Boys and young men who are poor, ofttimes think they scarcely have a fair chance in life when they see the sons of rich men reveling in ease and luxury, with plenty of money and with no necessity to toil and save. Yet really, the stern prophet of poverty who comes to the sons of the poor brings a holier message and a truer blessing than the smiling-faced, silken-robed messenger brings to the youth of the fine mansion! The best things in life can be drawn out only by work and discipline. Hence, whatever compels a boy or a young man to toil, to deny himself, to depend upon his own efforts is a blessing to him. The prophet of necessity comes, therefore, to him peaceably. In all of life it is the same. We never should turn away from our doors, any prophets whom God sends, however stem they may appear. They all come to bring us some good, to give us more life, to make better men of us. “The beautifully grained wood that makes our finest furniture is not taken from the trees that grow in peaceful, sheltered situations but from those that are in exposed places, beaten about by the storms. So it is that the noblest natures, are those that have had to contend with many trials.” Samuel began at once to look at Jesse’s sons, in order to discover the one who was to be the king. “Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, Surely this is the LORD’s anointed!” 1 Samuel 16:6. Eliab was a splendid specimen of a man just the man for a king. He was tall and majestic in his bearing. If physical strength was still to be the requisite for kingliness, no better man could have been found. But there are many men with splendid bodies who are far from regal in their souls! Intellectual capacity is also one of God’s noble gifts but many a man with a superb mind is most unkingly in his character. What could such men as Byron and Burns and Napoleon have been before God if they had not so prostituted their magnificent power? Neither physical beauty like that of Apollo, nor intellectual greatness like that of a Bacon, makes a man great in God’s eyes. God looks for moral and spiritual greatness, and many a poor cripple or hunchback is more kingly in His sight than the man or the woman whom people turn to gaze after on the street, attracted by beauty of person and grace of movement. “Man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart.” When soldiers are needed, those who offer themselves are measured and weighed and their health is tested. When God wants soldiers He applies moral measurements. In these modern days a great deal of attention is paid to physical looks. Some of the boys would rather stand well in the games than in their classroom. They think more of fine muscles than of a fine mind or a beautiful soul. Physical health is good God wants us to take care of our bodies and make the very most of their strength, keeping them in health and vigor. It may be well, however, to inquire what really makes a man muscle, or mind and heart. Eliab was a fine fellow in his body but he was not the man the Lord chose when He wanted a king. Evidently his heart had not in it the kingly qualities. We do not know in what qualities Eliab was lacking. We know only that he was not a man after God’s heart. God knows who has the ability for any particular task and whom He can trust with sacred responsibilities. One by one Jesse’s sons were looked upon by Samuel all but one. But the one the Lord was looking for, had not yet appeared, and Samuel asked Jesse: “Are these all your children?. .. There remains yet the youngest,” said Jesse, “and, behold, he is keeping the sheep.” The shepherd lad did not seem to his father, to be of any importance. He was only a boy, while his brothers were fine young men. He could look after sheep well enough, and thus he was not present for Samuel that day. It was not thought even worth while, to call him in for the feast or for the religious service. Apparently he came very near being overlooked. He would have been overlooked altogether, if it had not been for Samuel. It is often the case that those the Lord chooses for important places in His Kingdom, are the ones whom men have overlooked. The stones which the human builders have rejected, God has built at length into the very foundations of the walls of His great temple. He knows the men He wants, and He recognizes their worth, though clad in shepherds’ garb or in fishermen’s plain dress. There ought to be encouragement here for boys who are in lowly or obscure places. They may think they have no chance in life, that nobody will ever discover their talents and abilities but God knows all about them. He knows, too, where He wants to use them, what place He made them for, what work is theirs in His infinite plan and He will also find a way to bring them out and lead them to what He wants them to perform. This is our Father’s world, and there is no danger that we shall be lost in its vastness, however little we may be. The way to be sure of recognition and promotion to a higher place, is to be faithful and energetic in the lowly place in which one begins. God will find you there when He wants you. He found Elisha plowing in the field. Jesus found His disciples fishing. The Lord found David keeping sheep . It is interesting to know that God has a place for every life. We are not born in this world and then left to find our way through it into whatever place we may be able to scramble to. We are made by God, thought about before we are born, and given the qualities that will fit us for the place we are meant to fill, and the talents for doing the work that we are made to do. We ought not to have to scramble to get a place in which to live and make our career. If only we do God’s will day by day we shall come at length to our place. David was born to be a king. Samuel found him caring for sheep. But he was led at length to the throne. We may trust God with guidance in the making of our career if we simply obey and follow Him. When the one the Lord had chosen among Jesse’s sons appeared, he was anointed. “Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him. .. and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David.” Thus the boy was set apart for God. The oil was the symbol the real anointing was the coming of the Divine Spirit upon him. That is what we all need to fit us for our duty. Natural gifts and capacities have their place but they are of no avail unless the anointing of God is upon us. Power must come down from above. The Divine Spirit alone, can take these poor earthly lives of ours and make them ready for Divine service. This lesson is very important for the boys who are keeping sheep or working on farms and in shops and factories and stores, or plodding on in school, sighing for places of influence and power. Bow your heads to obey the Spirit of God, and His anointing will fit you for whatever place God made you to fill. Probably David did not then know to what God meant to call him. He knew only this: that he was now set apart for some service for the Lord. You do not know what God made you for. You may be sure, however, that it was for something very noble. Any place in God’s plan is glorious. Then even the lowliest place is noble, as the world rates places if it is God’s assignment. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingNumbers 5, 6 Numbers 5 -- Purity of the Camp; the Adultery Test NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Numbers 6 -- The Vow of the Nazirite and the Priestly Blessing NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Mark 4:1-20 Mark 4 -- Parables of the Sower, Lamp on a Stand, Seed Growing Secretly, Mustard Seed; Jesus Calms the Sea NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. |
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