Morning:Psalm 33:21 “Our heart shall rejoice in Him.”
This is not an option for a Christian, it’s a guarantee from the Spirit that we have saving faith—we shall rejoice in Him (i.e. it’s a promise). There is nothing else that a Christian can find more joy in than coming to know God, and knowing that glorious supernatural reality in contrast to the fallen natural reality we experience here on earth. Here on earth we are, as Spurgeon points out, a kind of creature in a cage. Once we were at home in this cage, but now we have been given a new nature and cannot wait to live forever in our natural habitat. And we can live in hope of that future grace when, finally, we will enjoy the glory of God face to face forever. This causes new songs to spring forth into new ecstasies of rejoicing as we draw closer to that glorious day. And, as mentioned, all of this in spite of the fallen reality we experience every day here on earth. We, as Christians, will not be immune to sickness, death, hate, evil desires, anger, greed, lust, pride, physical abuse, mental abuse, pain, idolatry or any other kind of present evil. We may be the victims of such sin, or we may be the active agent in bringing those sins forth. Being a Christian does not save us from these evils; being a Christian saves us from wasting an opportunity to glorify God in spite of them. When we fall into sin, let us not waste an opportunity to rejoice in the joy of our salvation for “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities” Psalm 103:10. And when we are the victims of such sin let us remember that we believe, like Paul, that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” Romans 8:18.
Truly, the presence of Jesus is all the heaven we desire. He is at
once
The glory of our brightest days;
The comfort of our
nights.
Rejoice this morning in the joy of your salvation, and the glory that is set before you, in doing so you will magnify God to a sinful and fallen world.
Evening:Psalm 28:1 “Unto thee will I cry O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.”
In times of war communication is vital. If a soldier signals a distress call to his commanding officer and that officer does not respond to the call, then the soldier has the right to be a little worried. He may start pleading over his communication device for a response, and if the danger gets to an extreme, to the point where his life is in jeopardy, he may even start screaming into the device. He is desperate for an answer, and feels completely helpless without that which his life depends on communicating back to him. John piper makes the point that this life is war and our communication to our commanding king is prayer. At times our life may even depend upon that communication. As Christians when we pray we desire some kind of answer from God, but often there is silence, this silence should move us to a state of pleading before the throne of God, for we depend upon his word. We cry out to God because we know to whom we call: a loving Father, a compassionate friend, a forgiving savior, and the commanding king of kings. We do not call upon one whom we cannot place our trust, for He has proven his perfections over and over again.
Ours is an urgent case of dire necessity; surely the Lord will speak peace to
our agitated minds, for He never can find it in His heart to permit His own
elect to perish.
Psalm 69:13 “But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.”
