Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

November 6– Morning

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

“I will pour water on him who is thirsty.” 

—Isaiah 44:3

When a believer has fallen into a low, sad state of feeling, he often tries to lift himself out of it by punishing himself with fearful thoughts. But this isn’t the way to rise from the dust; indeed, it’s the way to continue in it. You might as well chain the eagle’s wing to make it mount the wind as to wallow in fear in order to increase God’s grace.

It is not the law but the gospel that saves the seeking soul at first; and it’s not a legalistic bondage but gospel liberty that can restore the fainting believer afterwards. Slavish fear doesn’t return the backslider to God, but the sweet care of love allures him back to Jesus’ side.

Today are you thirsting for the living God, and unhappy because you can’t seem to find delight in him? Is the prayer of your heart, “(Lord), Restore to me the joy of your salvation”? Are you conscious of your own desert-like condition and that you’re not bearing the kind of fruit that God has a right to expect of you? Do you sense that you’re not being very useful in the Church, or in the world, as your heart desires to be?

Then here is exactly the promise you need to hear from God: “I will pour water on him that is thirsty.” You will receive the grace you so desperately need and as much as your needs require. Water refreshes the thirsty, and you will be refreshed; water makes vegetables come to life, and your life will return; water swells the buds and makes the fruits ripen, and you will be made fruitful again in the ways of God. [M&E]