Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

October 9– Morning

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

“…able to keep you from falling.” 

—Jude 24

In some sense the path to heaven is very safe, but in other respects there is no road so dangerous. That path is full of difficulties. One false step and down we go, and taking false steps is quite easily done without grace. What a slippery path is that which some of us have to walk! How many times have we exclaimed with the psalmist, “My feet were almost gone, my steps had almost slipped.” If we were strong, sure-footed mountaineers, this wouldn’t matter so much; but in ourselves, how weak we are! Even on the best roads we soon break down; in the smoothest paths we quickly stumble. These feeble knees of ours can hardly support our weight. A straw may throw us to the ground, and a pebble can wound us; we are mere children trembling to take our first steps in the walk of faith, and our heavenly Father holds us by the arms, or we would soon fall down.

Oh, if we are kept from falling, how much we ought to bless the patient power that watches over us day by day! Think of how prone we are to sin; how apt to choose danger; how strong our tendency to cast ourselves down. Recalling our own frailty ought to make us sing more sweetly, “Glory be to him who is able to keep us from falling.”

And while the road is rough and we are weak, there are also enemies that want to push us down. They lurk in ambush, rushing out when we least expect them, trying hard to trip us up or hurl us down the nearest precipice. Only an Almighty arm can preserve us from these unseen foes who seek our destruction. Such a powerful arm is on guard for our defense. He is faithful to keep his promises, and he is able to keep us from falling so that, with a deep sense of our utter weakness, we may cherish a firm belief in our perfect safety, and say, with joyful confidence,

“Against me earth and hell combine,
But on my side is power divine;
Jesus is all, and he is mine!” [M&E]