Daily Devotional

December 11, 2017

Careful Habits Ensure Good Health

I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord. Jer. 30:17.

The mind does not wear out nor break down so often on account of diligent employment and hard study, as on account of eating improper food at improper times, and of careless inattention to the laws of health. . . . Irregular hours for eating and sleeping sap the brain forces. The apostle Paul declares that he who would be successful in reaching a high standard of godliness must be temperate in all things. Eating, drinking, and dressing all have a direct bearing upon our spiritual advancement.

Health is a blessing which few appreciate. . . . Many eat at all hours, regardless of the laws of health. Then gloom covers the mind. How can men be honored with divine enlightenment when they are so reckless in their habits, so inattentive to the light which God has given in regard to these things. . . . Life is a holy trust, which God alone can enable us to keep, and to use to His glory. But He who formed the wonderful structure of the body will take special care to keep it in order if men do not work at cross-purposes with Him.

Health, life, and happiness are the result of obedience to physical laws governing our bodies. If our will and way are in accordance with God’s will and way; if we do the pleasure of our Creator, He will keep the human organism in good condition, and restore the moral, mental, and physical powers, in order that He may work through us to His glory. . . . If we co-operate with Him in this work, health and happiness, peace and usefulness, are the sure result.

He did not die for us in order that we might become slaves to evil habits, but that we might become the sons and daughters of God, serving Him with every power of the being.

My dear young friends, advance step by step, until all your habits shall be in harmony with the laws of life and health.

From Devotional: Our Father Cares, p. 29, 30.

Daily Devotional

December 10, 2017

Jesus Is A Friend That Is Closer Than A Brother

There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Prov. 18:24.

Disappointments you will have, but ever bear in mind that Jesus, the living, risen Saviour, is your Redeemer, your Restorer. He loves you, and it is better to share His love than to sit with princes and be separated from Him. . . .

Come daily to Jesus, who loves you. Open your heart to Him freely. In Him there is no disappointment. You will never find a better counselor, a safer guide, a more sure defense.

Through all your trials . . . you have had a never-failing Friend, who has said, “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”

But how often is the Lord neglected for the society of others, and for things of no value! . . . We dare not let His name languish on our lips, and His love and memory die out of our hearts. “Well,” says the cold, formal professor, “this is making Christ too much like a human being;” but the Word of God warrants us to have these very ideas. It is the want of these practical, definite views of Christ, that hinders so many from having a genuine experience in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is the reason that many are fearing and doubting and mourning. Their ideas of Christ and the plan of salvation are vague, dreary, and confused. . . . If ever there was a time when men needed the presence of Christ at their right hand, it is now, so that when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.

Communion with Christ—how unspeakably precious! Such communion it is our privilege to enjoy, if we will seek it.

The everlasting assurance shall be yours that you have a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

From Devotional: Our Father Cares, p. 28, 29.

Daily Devotional

December 9, 2017

We Are To Overcome As Christ Overcame

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33.

Satan made stronger attacks upon Christ than he will ever make upon us. There was much at stake with him, whether Christ or himself should be conqueror. If Christ resisted his most powerful temptations, and Satan did not succeed in leading Him to sin, he knew that he must lose his power, and finally be punished with everlasting destruction. Therefore Satan worked with mighty power to lead Christ to do a wrong action, for then he would gain advantage over Him. . . . You can never be tempted in so determined and cruel manner as was our Saviour. Satan was upon His path every moment.

Will man take hold of divine power, and with determination and perseverance resist Satan, as Christ has given him example in His conflict with the foe in the wilderness of temptation? God cannot save man against his will from the power of Satan’s artifices. Man must work with his human power, aided by the divine power of Christ, to resist and to conquer at any cost to himself. In short, man must overcome as Christ overcame. And then, through the victory that it is his privilege to gain by the all-powerful name of Jesus, he may become an heir of God and joint-heir with Jesus Christ. This could not be the case if Christ alone did all the overcoming. Man must do his part; he must be victor on his own account, through the strength and grace that Christ gives him. Man must be a co-worker with Christ in the labor of overcoming, and then he will be partaker with Christ in His glory.

The Saviour overcame to show man how he may overcome. All the temptations of Satan, Christ met with the Word of God. By trusting in God’s promises, He received power to obey God’s commandments, and the tempter could gain no advantage.

From Devotional: Our Father Cares, p. 28.

Daily Devotional

December 8, 2017

Love For Others

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. Eph. 5:1, 2.

You are to follow God as dear children, to be obedient to all His requirements, walking in love as Christ also hath loved us. . . . Love was the element in which Christ moved and walked and worked. He came to embrace the world in the arms of His love. . .

We are to follow the example set by Christ, and make Him our pattern, until we shall have the same love for others as He has manifested for us. He seeks to impress us with this profound lesson of love. . . . If your hearts have been given to selfishness, let Christ imbue you with His love. He desires that we shall love Him fully, and encourages, yes, even commands, that we shall love others as He has given us an example. He has made love the badge of our discipleship. . . . This is the measurement to which you are to reach,—”Love one another; as I have loved you.” What height, what depth and breadth of love! This love is not simply to embrace a few favorites, it is to reach to the lowliest and humblest of God’s creatures. Jesus says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” . . .

The love and sympathy which Jesus would have us give to others does not savor of sentimentalism, which is a snare to the soul; it is a love that is of heavenly extraction, which Jesus exemplifies by both precept and example. But instead of manifesting this love, how often we are alienated and estranged one from another. . . . The result is estrangement from God, a dwarfed experience, a blighting of Christian growth. . . .

The love of Jesus is an active principle, uniting heart with heart in bonds of Christian fellowship. Every one who enters heaven will on earth have been perfected in love; for in heaven the Redeemer and the redeemed will be objects of our interest.

From Devotional: Our Father Cares, p. 27.

Daily Devotional

December 7, 2017

We Are Changed From Glory To Glory

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Cor. 3:18.

When enlightened by the Spirit of God, the believer beholds the perfection of Jesus, and beholding this perfection, he rejoices with joy unspeakable. In self he sees sin and helplessness; in the Redeemer sinlessness and infinite power. The sacrifice that Christ made in order that He might impart to us His righteousness—this is a theme upon which we may dwell with deeper and still deeper enthusiasm. Self is nothing; Jesus is everything. . . .

The transforming power of grace can make me a partaker of the divine nature. On Christ the glory of God has shone, and by looking upon Christ, contemplating His self-sacrifice, remembering that in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, the believer is drawn closer and closer to the Source of power. . . .

How essential that we have the enlightenment of the Spirit of God; for thus only can we see the glory of Christ, and by beholding become changed from character to character in and through faith in Christ. . . . He has grace and pardon for every soul. As by faith we look to Jesus, our faith pierces the shadow, and we adore God for His wondrous love in giving us Jesus the Comforter. . . .

The sinner may become a child of God, an heir of heaven. He may rise from the dust, and stand forth arrayed in garments of light. . . . At every step of advance, he sees new beauties in Christ, and becomes more like Him in character.

The love that was manifested toward him in the death of Christ, awakens a response of thankful love, and in answer to sincere prayer, the believer is brought from grace to grace, from glory to glory, until by beholding Christ, he is changed into the same image.

From Devotional: Our Father Cares, p. 26, 27.