Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

March 16– Morning

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

“[Lord], I realize that I am a traveling stranger with you— a guest like all my ancestors.” 

—Psalm 39:12

 

Yes, O Lord, I am a stranger with you, but not to you! All of my natural estrangement from you has been removed by your grace, and now, in fellowship with you, I walk through this sinful world as a pilgrim— a traveler in a foreign country.

How can it be that you, O Lord, are a stranger in your own world? Man forgets you, dishonors you, and sets up his own laws apart from you. When your dear Son came to live among the very people he had created, they refused to receive him. Never was a foreigner so speckled a bird among the inhabitants of any land as was your beloved Son.

It should not surprise me, then, that, as I follow Jesus, I, too, will be a stranger to this world. How can I be a citizen where Jesus was an alien? His pierced hands have loosened the ropes that once bound my soul to earth, and now I find myself a stranger here.

But here is the sweetness of my situation: I am a stranger with you, O Lord. You are my fellow-sufferer, my fellow-pilgrim. How joyful I should be to wander in such blessed company! My heart burns within me along the way as you speak to me. Even though I am a traveler, I am far more blest than those who sit on thrones and far more at home than those who live in impressive houses. I do not live here or there. My country is wherever you are. [M&E]