Daily Devotionals

Devotional: August 29th

“Christ is all.”

There is a tendency for us Christians to spend a great deal of our time looking for new spiritual experiences that will somehow guarantee permanent victory or freedom from the ups and downs of daily living. We rush around to conventions, conferences, seminars and workshops in search of the elusive magic formula that will smooth out the rough places of life. Glossy brochures assure us that Dr. So-and-So will share a great new breakthrough that will make us radioactive with the Spirit. Or some zealous neighbor insists on dragging us to the Municipal Auditorium to hear about a recently discovered shortcut to the abundant life.

The lures are legion. One preacher offers the royal road to fulfillment. Another advertises the threefold secret of victory. Now we go to a seminar on keys to the deeper life. The next week there is a convention on five easy steps to holiness. We surge forward for an altarcall experience by which we will receive the filling of the Spirit. Or we become obsessed with healing of the body as if that were the most important thing in life. One minute we are off on a Christian psychology kick, the next on healing of the memories. We compass land and sea for some new spiritual high.

There is no doubt that many of these speakers are sincere and that there is value in some of the things that they say. But we return to the nitty-gritty of life to find that there is no short cut to holiness, that the problems are still there, and that we must live day by day in dependence on the Lord.

Eventually we should learn that it is better to be occupied with the Lord Jesus than with experiences. There is no disappointment in Him. We have all we need in Him. He is the all-sufficient One.

A. B. Simpson spent the early part of his life in the quest for experiences, but he found that they didn’t satisfy. Then he wrote the lovely hymn entitled “Himself,” the first verse and chorus of which are as follows:

Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord;

Once it was the feeling, now it is His Word;

Once His gifts I wanted, now the Giver own;

Once I sought for healing, now Himself alone.

All in all forever, Jesus will I sing;

Everything in Jesus, And Jesus everything.

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