Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

February 17– Morning

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

“Isaac lived by the well named ‘Lahai-roi.'” 

—Gen 25:11

 

Years before Isaac ever came to this well, his father Abraham’s concubine, Hagar, had once found deliverance there, and her son Ishmael drank from the water so graciously revealed by God on their journey. But this was a merely casual visit— the kind that people of the world pay to the Lord in times of need when it serves their own interests. They cry to him in trouble but forget him in prosperity.

But Isaac lived by that well and made the all-seeing God his constant source of supply. The daily living of a man’s life reveals the dwelling place of his soul and is the truest test of his spiritual condition. Perhaps it was Hagar’s experience with God that struck Isaac’s mind in the first place and led him to revere the well. Then, its mystical name became dear to him, and evenings of reflection at its brim made him familiar with it. He met his wife Rebecca there, which made his spirit feel at home near the spot. But best of all, the fact that he enjoyed fellowship with the living God there made him select that hallowed ground for his dwelling.

Let’s learn to live in the presence of the living God. Let’s pray to the Holy Spirit that today and every day we may live with the God who sees and knows us. May the Lord Jehovah be as a well to us, delightful, comforting, unfailing, and springing up unto everlasting life. The “bottle of the creature” cracks and dries up, but the “well of the Creator” never fails; happy is the one who lives by that well and, by doing so, has abundant and constant supplies near at hand. [M&E]