Daily Devotionals

Devotional: October 18th

GOD GUIDES HIS PEOPLE INTO WORK

He guideth me in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake. - Psalms 23:3

The quiet mercies of the preceding verse are not in themselves the end of our Shepherd’s guidance; they are means to an end, and that is - work. Life is not a fold for His sheep to he down in, but a road for them to walk on. All our blessings of every sort are indeed given us for our delight. They will never fit us for the duties for which they are intended to prepare us, unless they first be thoroughly enjoyed. The highest good they yield is only reached through the lower one. But, then, when joy fills the heart, and life is bounding in the veins, we have to learn that these are granted, not for pleasure only, but for pleasure in order to power. We get them, not to let them pass away like waste steam puffed into empty air, but that we may use them to drive the wheels of life. The waters of happiness are not for a luxurious bath where a man may lie, till, like flax steeped too long, the very fiber be rotted out of him; a quick plunge will brace him, and he will come out refreshed for work. Rest is to fit for work; work is to sweeten rest. All this is emphatically true of the spiritual life; its seasons of communion, its hours on the mount, are to prepare for the sore sad work in the plain. And he is not the wisest disciple who tries to make the Mount of Transfiguration the abiding place for himself and his Lord.

It is not well that our chief object should be to enjoy the consolations of religion; it is better to seek first to do the duties enjoined by religion. Our first question should be, not " How may I enjoy God?" but "How may I glorify Him?" " A single eye to His glory " means that even our comfort and joy in religious exercises shall be subordinated, and, if need were, postponed, to the doing of His will. While, on the one hand, there is no more certain means of enjoying Him than that of humbly seeking to walk in the ways of His commandments, on the other hand, there is nothing more evanescent in its nature than a mere emotion, even though it be that of joy in God, unless it be turned into a spring of action for God. Such emotions, like photographs, vanish from the heart unless they be fixed. Work for God is the way to fix them. Joy in God is the strength of work for God, but work for God is the perpetuation of joy in God. Here is the figurative expression of the great evangelical principle, that works of righteousness must follow, not precede, the restoration of the soul. We are justified, not by works, but for works; or, as the Apostle puts it, which sounds like an echo of this psalm, we are " created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." The basis of obedience is the sense of salvation. We work, not for the assurance of acceptance and forgiveness, but from it. First the restored soul; then the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake who has restored me, and restored me that I may be like Him.

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