Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

December 27– Morning

 by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“Can swamp-grass grow without mud.” 

—Job 8:11

Vegetation that grows in a swamp is usually spongy and hollow, and the same is true of the hypocrite; there is no substance or stability in him. Reeds are shaken about by every wind just as some people yield to every influence. And, unless I deceive myself, I had better consider whether or not I, too, am a hypocrite.

Swamp-grass by nature lives in mud and owes its very existence to it; let the mud become dry, and the blades of grass wither very quickly. Is that how I am? Do I only serve God when I’m in good company or when religion is profitable and respectable? Do I love the Lord only when temporal comforts are received from his hands? If so, then I’m a hypocrite, and, like the withering grass, I will perish when death deprives me of outward joys. But can I honestly say that, when bodily comforts have been few and my surroundings stark, I have still held fast my integrity? If so, then I have hope that there is genuine, vital godliness in me.

When the Lord does the planting, his shrubs flourish even in the year of drought. A godly man often grows best when his worldly circumstances decay. He who follows Christ for his money-bag is a Judas, and those who follow for loaves and fishes are children of the devil; but those who attend to him out of love for him are his own beloved ones.

Lord, let me find my life in you and not in the mire of this world’s favor or gain. [M&E]