Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

December 9– Evening

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

“My people will dwell in quiet resting places.”

—Isaiah 32:18

Peace and rest do not belong to the unregenerate; they are the peculiar possession of the Lord’s people and of them only. The God of Peace gives perfect peace to those whose hearts are fixed upon him. Before mankind fell into sin, God gave him the Garden of Eden as his quiet resting place. Sadly, that beautiful place of innocence became blighted. In the day of universal wrath, when the flood swept away a guilty race, the chosen family was quietly secured in the resting-place of the ark as they floated from the old, condemned world of sin into the new earth of the rainbow and the covenant. The people of Israel rested safely beneath their blood-besprinkled houses in Egypt when the destroying angel struck down the first-born in every household without the mark.

Now, in our time, we rest in the promises of our faithful God, knowing that his words are full of truth and power. We rest in the doctrines of his word, which offer great consolation. We rest in the covenant of his grace, which is a haven of delight. More highly favored are we than David in the cave of Adullam or Jonah beneath his vine, for no one can invade or destroy our shelter. The person of Jesus is the quiet resting-place of his people, and, when we draw near to him in the breaking of the bread, in the hearing of the word, the searching of the Scriptures, prayer, or praise, we find any way in which we approach him to return to us peace to our spirits.

“I hear the words of love and gaze upon the blood;
I see the mighty sacrifice, and I have peace with God.
This everlasting peace, sure as Jehovah’s name,
Is stable as his steadfast throne and will always be the same:
The clouds may go and come, and storms my way may veer.
This blood-sealed friendship will not change; the cross is always near.”[M&E]