Our Lord Remembers Us

“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:
“This is what the Lord says:
“‘I remember the devotion of your youth,
how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the wilderness,
through a land not sown.'"
- Jeremiah 2:2 -

Christ delights to think upon His Church.

He loves to look upon her beauty.

From all eternity His delights were with His people.

Many a time before His incarnation, He descended to this lower earth in the similitude of a man.

On the plains of Mamre (Gen. 18), by the brook of Jabbok (Gen. 32:24-30), beneath the walls of Jericho (Jos. 5:13), and in the fiery furnace of Babylon (Dan. 3:19, 25), the Son of Man visited His people.

His soul delighted in them.

His heart longed after them.

Never were they absent from His heart.

He had written their names upon His hands.

We may often forget to meditate upon the perfections of our Lord.

But He never ceases to remember us.

Let us chide ourselves for past forgetfulness.

Let us pray for grace to bear Him in the fondest remembrance.

God's Ways

He stood and measured the earth;
He looked and startled the nations.
And the everlasting mountains were scattered,
The perpetual hills bowed.
His ways are everlasting.
- Habakkuk 3:6 -

What God has done at one time, He will do yet again.

Man's ways are variable, but God's ways are everlasting.

There are many reasons for this comforting truth.

(1) God's ways are the result of wise deliberation.

God orders all things.

Nothing happens that He doesn't know.

(2) God's ways are the outgrowth of His immutable character.

God's attributes are fixed and settle.

Unless God Himself can undergo change, His way must remain forever the same.

Is God eternally just, gracious, wise, tender?

Then His ways must ever be the same.

(3) There is nothing from without which could reverse the divine ways.

Nothing can stop God from marching forth for the salvation of His people.

(4) God's ways are the manifestation of the eternal principles of right, and therefore can never pass away.

The true and the good have about them a vitality which ages cannot diminish.

Let us go to our heavenly Father with confidence.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in Him the Lord is ever gracious to His people.

God Delays Answering Prayer

Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
Blessed are all those who wait for Him.
- Isaiah 30:18 -

God sometimes delays in answering our prayers.

God has His reasons for keeping us waiting.

Sometimes it is to show His power and His sovereignty.

We are made to know that it is His right to give or to withhold.

But more often, the delay is for our own good.

Sometimes we are kept waiting to quicken and to increase our desire.

We are made to see our necessity more clearly, and to seek more earnestly.

Sometimes we are kept waiting because there is something wrong in us that needs to be removed.

Our views of the gospel plan may be confused.

We may be placing some reliance on ourselves, instead of trusting simply and entirely to the Lord Jesus.

Sometimes we are kept waiting so that God may fully display the riches of His grace to us.

Let not despair make us silent.

Let us continue in earnest supplication.

God knows our needs.

And He knows when to give us.

God Knows, And He Provides

Your congregation dwelt in it;
You, O God, provided from Your goodness for the poor.
- Psalm 68:10 -

God anticipates our needs.
 

And out of His fullness, He provides from His goodness for us.
 

We may trust God for all our necessities.
 

God knows all we need.
 

God knows all the requirements of His poor wandering children.
 

And when those needs occur, His supplies are ready.
 

It is goodness He has prepared for the poor in heart.
 

It is goodness, and goodness only.
 

We are poor and needy.
 

And God has thought of us.
 

And He has the exact blessing which we require in store for us.
 

Let us believe our good Lord.
 

Let us plead with Him and obtain His fulfillment.

Thr Right Men

Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. (Zechariah 1:20)

In a vision, the prophet Zechariah saw four terrible horns.

The prophet asked the angel, "What are these?"

The angel answered, "These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem."

The prophet saw before him the powers that had oppressed the church of God.

There were four horns; the church is attacked from all quarters.

The prophet felt dismayed.

Suddenly there appeared before him four craftsmen.

The prophet asked, "What are these coming to do?"

These are the men God sent to break those horns in pieces.

(1) Our God will always find men for His work, and He will find them at the right time.

The prophet did not see the craftsmen first. The horns came first, then the craftsmen.

(2) Our God always finds enough men.

There were four horns, and so there must be four craftsmen.

(3) Our God always finds the right men.

There were not ordinary men. They were the right men for the right work!

Let us rest assured in God that when the horns grow troublesome, the craftsmen will be found.

The Church may be weak. But God will raise up the right people to shake the nations from the darkness of sins.

Let us abide in Christ and be faithful to Him.

God, in His right time, will raise up for us people who will defend and bring victory to His Church.

Praise The Lord, All My Soul

Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
(Psalm 107:8)

If we complain less and praise more, we would be happier, and God would be more glorified.

Let us daily praise God for His common mercies.

Let us thank God for our eyes to see, for health and the strength to walk, for the food we eat, for the clothes we wear.

Let us thank God that we are not cast out among the hopeless, or confined among the guilty.

Let us thank God for liberty, for friends, for family associations and comforts.

Let us thank God for everything we receive from His hand.

We deserve little, but are plenteously endowed.

Let us daily praise God for His redeeming love.

We have been redeemed from the power of our corruptions.

We have been uplifted from the depth of sin.

We have been led to the cross of Christ.

Our shackles of guilt have been broken off.

We are no longer slaves.

We are children of the living God.

Oh! Let us not be silent.

Let us praise God for Who He is.

Let us praise Him for what He has done for us.

Praise the Lord, all my soul.

Serve the Lord Daily

For Mordecai the Jew was second to King Ahasuerus, and was great among the Jews and well received by the multitude of his brethren, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his countrymen. (Esther 10:3)

Mordecai was a true patriot. Exalted to the highest position under King Ahasuerus, he used his eminence to promote the prosperity of Israel.

He was a type of Jesus, who, upon His throne of glory, seeks not His own, but spends His power for His people.

Every Christian should learn to be a Mordecai to the church, striving according to his ability for its prosperity.

Those who are placed in stations of affluence and influence, should honor the Lord in high places, and testify for Jesus before great men.

Those who have close fellowship with the Lord, should plead daily for the weak of the Lord's people, the doubting, the tempted, and the comfortless.

Those who are well instructed by the Lord, should teach others the things of God.

Let us seek the welfare of God's people and cease from living to ourselves.

Let us serve the Lord and minister to His people.

God's Sovereign Will

For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.
(Romans 9:15)

The Lord has the right to give or to withhold His mercy according to His own sovereign will.

The Judge of all the earth has a right to spare or condemn the guilty.

Men by their sins have forfeited all claim upon God. They deserve to perish for their sins.They have no ground for complaint.

It is foolish to talk about the right of men to be saved or to talk about discriminating grace.

The Lord is not bound to save us.

If He chooses to save us, it is His own free act of undeserved goodness.

There is no more humbling doctrine in Scripture than that of election.

Let us adoringly rejoice in it.