Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

November 23– Evening

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

“Go up into the high mountain, O Zion, and proclaim the good news.”

—Isaiah 40:9

Each believer should be thirsting for God, for the living God. We should long to climb the hill of the Lord and see him face to face. We must not be content to stay in the mists of the valley when the mountain’s summit awaits us. My soul thirsts to drink deep of the cup reserved for those who reach the mountain’s peak and bathe their thoughts in the heavens.

How pure are the dews of the hills; how fresh is the mountain air; how rich the food of those who live on the mountain, whose windows look out into the New Jerusalem! Many saints are content to live like men in coal mines, never seeing the light of day or feeling the warmth of sunshine. They eat dust like the serpent when they might taste the fine cuisine of angels. They are content to wear the miner’s sooty clothing when they could wear the elegant robes of kings. Tears mar their faces when they could be anointed with heavenly oils. Many a believer wails in the dungeon when he might walk on the palace roof and view the beautiful landscape of Lebanon.

Get up, O believer, from your low condition! Cast away your laziness and lethargy, your coldness, and whatever else interferes with your pure love to Christ, your soul’s Husband. Make him the source, the center, and the circumference of all your soul’s delight. What enchants you into such folly as to remain in a pit when you could sit on a throne? Don’t live in the lowlands of bondage when the mountain of liberty is awarded to you. Don’t be satisfied with your small ambitions and attainments, but press forward to things more splendid and heavenly. Aspire to a higher, nobler, and fuller life— upward to heaven! Nearer to God!

“When will you come unto me, Lord? Oh come, my Lord most dear!
Come near, then come nearer still; I’m blest when you are near.” [M&E]