Morning & Evening Daily Devotional Reading– January 22

by Charles H. Spurgeon, Revised and Edited by William C. Neff

“What is the vine tree compared with other trees, or a branch among the trees of the forest?”

—Ezekiel 15:2

These words are meant to humble God’s people; they are called God’s vine, but, by nature, they aren’t anything special. They, by God’s goodness, have become fruitful, having been planted in good soil; the Lord has cultivated them, and they bring forth fruit to His glory. But what are they without their God? What are they without the continual influence of the Holy Spirit, producing fruitfulness in them?

O believer, learn to reject pride, seeing that you have no ground for it! Whatever you are, you have nothing to make you proud. The more you have, the more you’re in debt to God; and you shouldn’t be proud of that which makes you a debtor. Consider your origin; look back to what you were. Consider what you would have been without divine grace.

When you look at yourself now, doesn’t your conscience blame you? Don’t your thousand wanderings from the Lord stand before you and tell you that you’re unworthy to be called His son? And if He has made you anything, don’t you know that it is grace that has made you such? O, great believer, you would have been a great sinner if God had not intervened to make you different. O, you who are valiant for truth, you would have been as valiant for error if grace hadn’t laid hold upon you.

Therefore, don’t be proud, you who have been blessed by God. At one time you didn’t have a single thing, except your own sin and misery. It would be a strange infatuation if you should think of exalting yourself. Like a poor beggar, dependent on the bounty of your Savior, how could you possibly be proud? [M&E]