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Lona211
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« on: February 09, 2009, 03:51:55 am » |
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Monday, February 9, 2009 MORNING: "And David enquired of the Lord." -- 2 Samuel 5:23 When David made this enquiry he had just fought the Philistines, andgained a signal victory. The Philistines came up in great hosts, but,by the help of God, David had easily put them to flight. Note, however,that when they came a second time, David did not go up to fight themwithout enquiring of the Lord. Once he had been victorious, and hemight have said, as many have in other cases, "I shall be victoriousagain; I may rest quite sure that if I have conquered once I shalltriumph yet again. Wherefore should I tarry to seek at the Lord'shands?" Not so, David. He had gained one battle by the strength of theLord; he would not venture upon another until he had ensured the same.He enquired, "Shall I go up against them?" He waited until God's signwas given. Learn from David to take no step without God. Christian, ifthou wouldst know the path of duty, take God for thy compass; if thouwouldst steer thy ship through the dark billows, put the tiller intothe hand of the Almighty. Many a rock might be escaped, if we would letour Father take the helm; many a shoal or quicksand we might wellavoid, if we would leave to his sovereign will to choose and tocommand. The Puritan said, "As sure as ever a Christian carves forhimself, he'll cut his own fingers;" this is a great truth. Saidanother old divine, "He that goes before the cloud of God's providencegoes on a fool's errand;" and so he does. We must mark God's providenceleading us; and if providence tarries, tarry till providence comes. Hewho goes before providence, will be very glad to run back again. "Iwill instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go," isGod's promise to his people. Let us, then, take all our perplexities tohim, and say, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Leave not thychamber this morning without enquiring of the Lord. EVENING: "Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil [or,the evil one]." -- Luke 11:4 What we are taught to seek or shun in prayer, we should equally pursueor avoid in action. Very earnestly, therefore, should we avoidtemptation, seeking to walk so guardedly in the path of obedience, thatwe may never tempt the devil to tempt us. We are not to enter thethicket in search of the lion. Dearly might we pay for suchpresumption. This lion may cross our path or leap upon us from thethicket, but we have nothing to do with hunting him. He that meetethwith him, even though he winneth the day, will find it a sternstruggle. Let the Christian pray that he may be spared the encounter.Our Saviour, who had experience of what temptation meant, thusearnestly admonished his disciples-"Pray that ye enter not intotemptation." But let us do as we will, we shall be tempted; hence the prayer"deliver us from evil." God had one Son without sin; but he has no sonwithout temptation. The natural man is born to trouble as the sparksfly upwards, and the Christian man is born to temptation just ascertainly. We must be always on our watch against Satan, because, likea thief, he gives no intimation of his approach. Believers who have hadexperience of the ways of Satan, know that there are certain seasonswhen he will most probably make an attack, just as at certain seasonsbleak winds may be expected; thus the Christian is put on a doubleguard by fear of danger, and the danger is averted by preparing to meetit. Prevention is better than cure: it is better to be so well armedthat the devil will not attack you, than to endure the perils of thefight, even though you come off a conqueror. Pray this evening firstthat you may not be tempted, and next that if temptation be permitted,you may be delivered from the evil one.
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