Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

June 12– Morning

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

“You are being weighed in the balances and are found lacking.” 

—Daniel 5:27

 

It is good to weigh ourselves frequently on the scales of God’s Word. You will find it a holy exercise to read a psalm of David, and as you meditate upon it to ask yourself, “Can I say this? Have I felt as David felt? Has my heart ever been broken on account of sin like his? Have I known true confidence in the hour of difficulty as he did when he sang of God’s mercies in the caves of affliction?”

Then turn to the life of Christ, and, as you read, ask yourself how much you are conformed to his likeness. Determine whether you have the meekness, the humility, the lovely spirit that he constantly taught and displayed.

And then take the letters of the Apostles and see whether you share in their experiences. Have you ever cried out as Paul did, “O what a wretched person I am! Who will deliver me from this body of sin and death”? Have you ever felt his self-abasement? Do you see yourself as the chief of sinners– the least of all the saints? Have you known anything of his devotion? Can you join him in saying, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain”?

If we read God’s Word this way as a test of our spiritual condition, we will have good reason to stop and wonder, “Lord, have I ever known you like this? O, take me there! Give me true penitence, real faith, warmer zeal; inflame me with more fervent love; grant me the grace of meekness; make me more like Jesus; let me no longer be “found lacking” in the balance. [M&E]