Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

October 1– Morning

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

“Pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.” 

—Song of Solomon 7:13

The spouse desires to give to Jesus all that she produces. Our heart has all kinds of pleasant fruits– both “old and new”– and they are reserved for Jesus, the One we love. This Autumn, at this rich season of harvest, let’s take inventory of the fruit we can offer to our Lord.

First of all, we have new fruits. We desire to feel new life, new joy, new gratitude. We wish to make new resolves and carry them out by new labors. Our heart blossoms with new prayers, and our soul is pledging herself to new efforts.

But we also have some old fruits too. There is our first love; what a choice fruit that is, and Jesus delights in it. There is our first faith– that simple faith by which, having nothing, we became possessors of all things. There is our joy when we first knew the Lord: let’s increase our knowledge of him.

We have our old remembrances of the promises. How faithful God has been! In sickness, how softly he made our bed! In deep waters, how calmly he caused us to float! In the flaming furnace, how graciously he delivered us. Old fruits, indeed! We have many of them, for his mercies have been more than the hairs of our head. We must regret old sins, but we should remember the times of repentance that he has graciously given to us by which we have wept our way to the cross and learned the merit of his blood.

We have fruits, this morning, both new and old, but here is the point: they are all laid up for Jesus. Truly, our best and most acceptable services are those in which Jesus is the solitary aim of the soul, and his glory is the end of all our efforts. May our many fruits be laid up only for the One we love; let’s put them on display for him and not for the praise of men.

Jesus, we will turn the key in our garden door, and no one will enter to rob you of one good fruit from the soil that you have watered with your blood and sweat. All that we have is yours, and yours only; O Jesus, you are the One we love. [M&E]