Over the past several days I have been under a great deal of time pressure in the morning so that my usual time I spend with the Lord in my daily devotions has been very hurried sometimes, while at others I have been so rushed I have had to neglect it altogether. The worst part of that, of course, is the time I spend in prayer. This morning was different though. I was able to quietly get into my usual place with no one else around and get into my devotionals, my Bible, and my prayer journal. And, what happened? I opened my Morning by Morning devotional from Spurgeon to January 8th and it was like God was speaking directly to me about my resentments and anger about my daily quiet time being treated as if it meant nothing….
Had I made my quiet time into an idol? Was I doing it for the wrong reasons? Go ahead and read Spurgeon’s words below. However, I must say that it was a joy to be able to get back into the swing of things this morning. After reading Spurgeon’s devotional below, it only made me focus more on our Lord, His grace and mercy and my complete unworthiness outside of them. I really enjoyed my time in the Word today and I prayed with a deep joy in my heart knowing that our God wants us to pray and He hears us and uses our prayers in ways we never imagined.
Soli Deo Gloria!
C. H. Spurgeon from his Morning by Morning devotional for January 8th
“The iniquity of the holy things.”—Exodus 28:38. WHAT a veil is lifted up by these words, and what a disclosure is made! It will be humbling and profitable for us to pause awhile and see this sad sight. The iniquities of our public worship, its hypocrisy, formality, lukewarmness, irreverence, wandering of heart and forgetfulness of God, what a full measure have we there! Our work for the Lord, its emulation, selfishness, carelessness, slackness, unbelief, what a mass of defilement is there! Our private devotions, their laxity, coldness, neglect, sleepiness, and vanity, what a mountain of dead earth is there! If we looked more carefully we should find this iniquity to be far greater than appears at first sight. Dr. Payson, writing to his brother, says, “My parish, as well as my heart, very much resembles the garden of the sluggard; and what is worse, I find that very many of my desires for the melioration of both, proceed either from pride or vanity or indolence. I look at the weeds which overspread my garden, and breathe out an earnest wish that they were eradicated. But why? What prompts the wish? It may be that I may walk out and say to myself, ‘In what fine order is my garden kept!’ This is pride. Or, it may be that my neighbours may look over the wall and say, ‘How finely your garden flourishes!’ This is vanity. Or I may wish for the destruction of the weeds, because I am weary of pulling them up. This is indolence.” So that even our desires after holiness may be polluted by ill motives. Under the greenest sods worms hide themselves; we need not look long to discover them. How cheering is the thought, that when the High Priest bore the iniquity of the holy things he wore upon his brow the words, “HOLINESS TO THE LORD:” and even so while Jesus bears our sin, He presents before His Father’s face not our unholiness, but his own holiness. O for grace to view our great High Priest by the eye of faith!