Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–
October 12– Morning
by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff
“I will meditate on your precepts.”
—Psalm 119:15
There are times when solitude is better than society and silence is wiser than speech. We would be better Christians if we were alone more often– waiting upon God and gathering spiritual strength to serve him by meditating on his Word.
We ought to think deeply on the things of God because this is the way we receive our spiritual nutrients. Truth can be compared to a cluster of grapes on a vine. If we ever want to have wine from it, the grape must be crushed. We must press and squeeze it many times. The bruiser’s feet must come down joyfully upon the bunches or else the juice will not flow; they must continue their work for some time or else much of the precious liquid will be wasted. In the same way, we must by meditation walk on the clusters of truth if we would get the wine of consolation from them. Our bodies are not supported by eating food with the mouth, but the process of digestion is what really supplies the muscle, nerves, joints and bones. It is by digestion that the outward food becomes assimilated with the inner life. Our souls are not nourished merely by listening for a while to this, that, and the other part of divine truth. Hearing, reading, marking, and learning all require inward digestion to complete their usefulness, and the inward digesting of the truth is largely accomplished by meditating upon it.
Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, only make slow progress in the Christian life? It is because they neglect the closet of prayer and do not thoughtfully meditate on God’s Word. They love the wheat, but they don’t like to grind it; they’d like to have the corn, but they won’t go into the fields to gather it; the fruit hangs on the tree, but they won’t pluck it; the water flows at their feet, but they won’t stoop to drink it.
O Lord, deliver us from such foolishness! Let us resolve this morning to “meditate on your precepts.” [M&E]
