Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. (Matthew 6:31-32)

LET US trust God to care for us! This was the life that Jesus lived.

He would not even make stones into bread; nor eat until His Father bade Him and sent the angels to minister to Him. He speaks out of His heart when He bids us trust our Father’s care.

Trust in God gives clearness of vision. When we are thinking partly of doing God’s work in the world, and partly of lining our own nest, we are in the condition of the man whose eyes do not look in the same direction. We are endeavouring to serve two masters, and our judgment is therefore distorted.

Who has not often experienced this? You have tried to ascertain God’s will, or to form a right judgment about your life, but constantly your perception of duty has been obscured by the thought that, if you decided in a certain direction, you would interfere with your interests in another. When, however, you feel so absorbed in God’s interests that you are indifferent to your own, all becomes clear, and you leave Him to care for all results.

Let us not think that God is grudging or sparing in His gifts. He gives fish as well as bread when He feeds the crowds; colors as well as leaves when He clothes the flowers. You have been adopted into His Family, and may call Him “Abba, Father.” Surely this act of grace shows a special love on His part.

Would He have taken such care of the spiritual, and have none for the physical? The ungodly may worry about their maintenance; but a child of God may be sure that His needs will be supplied.

PRAYER

Thou art our portion, our God, our Father. Thou art more than father and mother to those who trust Thee. Thou lovest us with a tender pity that never fails or wearies. Encompass us with Thy guardian care, and realise in us Thy highest purposes. AMEN.

Devotional material taken from “Our Daily Walk” by F. B. Meyer. Minor revisions made by Sandra Bivens Smith.

Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:19)

OUR LORD Jesus does not destroy, but fulfils, as the summer fulfils the promise of spring. Do not be afraid of Him, as though He takes pleasure in dashing the cup from thirsty tips, and disappointing innocent and natural desires. He will certainly show Himself hostile to every wrong means of gratification, but He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him in the best way, so that they will be satisfied for ever.

This is true religion. Christ constructs. He is more positive than negative; more Yea and Amen than Nay! He sends the pulse of the new sap into the trees, and as it passes to the tip of every branch, the old dead leaves flutter silently to the ground.

Give yourself to Him, and ask Him to fulfil in you the principles of righteousness.

Christ fulfils the Law and the Prophets, which evidently stand for the authority and principles of the Old Testament (Mat 5:17-18). The jot was the smallest Hebrew letter; the tittle was a small part of a letter.

What a contrast there is between the teaching of Christ and the attitude of some modem critics. They appear to take pleasure in destruction, in pulling down and overthrowing the foundations of faith, giving nothing in their place.

The righteousness which our Lord teaches is altogether different from that of the Pharisees, which was outward and formal, and essentially selfish, since by it they desired to earn admittance to God’s favour. Christ, on the other hand, demands a righteousness which is inward, vital, and spiritual.

We stand before God in the imputed righteousness of His finished work, and then He imparts to us an inner righteousness through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

PRAYER

O Captain and Leader of the Holy War, may I have truth as the girdle of my loins, righteousness as my breastplate, salvation as my helmet, peace for my feet, and faith for my shield. May I have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but reprove them by my consistent life and faithful words. AMEN.

Devotional material taken from “Our Daily Walk” by F. B. Meyer. Minor revisions made by Sandra Bivens Smith.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2)

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In Matthew 5:1-12 our Lord reveals to all men the eight gates by which that City may be entered.

For myself, I cannot go in by the Gate of Poverty of spirit, for I am not humble enough; nor by the Gate of the Mourners, for I am not grieved enough for my own sins or the sins of others; nor by the Gate of the Meek, for I often resent injury; nor by the Gates of Mercy, or Purity, or Peace. But I may claim to enter by the fourth Gate, for I Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness. And as I go in, I find myself inside the City, and in the company of all holy souls that have entered by the other gates. For in the Heavenly City, to enter by any gate is equivalent to having entered by all; and one grace which is inwrought by the Holy Spirit will ultimately lead on to all the rest.

What is Blessedness? According to our Lord’s teaching, it is a condition or state of heart. Outward circumstances are not mentioned, unless it be reproach and persecution, as though they were matters of indifference. Blessedness is altogether independent of our outward lot, whether prosperous or perplexed, rich or poor. Blessedness begins and ends with a contented recognition of the Royalty of Christ’s Kingdom; in the power of seeing the good in everything, and so inheriting the earth; in being satisfied, in obtaining mercy, in seeing God and being called His sons and daughters. Is it not worth while to strive to enter in at these wide-open doors? And if you can say that you really do yearn after better things, hungering and thirsting for more likeness to Christ, and more fitness for His Kingdom; if that desire really represents the purpose of your life, you may account yourself as being already admitted within the Gates of the Blessed Life.

We must not suppose that Our Lord allocated the award of Blessedness to the possessors of certain attributes with an arbitrary and royal prerogative. He simply declared what was true in the very nature of things. To be true, pure, merciful, and meek, is to have in your possession the seed-germs of the harvest of Blessedness. If you turn from this wonderful enumeration of Christian qualities to Galatians 5:22, you will find all of them set forth in the list of the fruit of the Spirit. May He work in us and through us a well-balanced and full-orbed Christian character.

PRAYER

Lord, take my lips, and speak through them; take my mind, and think through it; take my heart, and set it on fire. AMEN.

Devotional material taken from “Our Daily Walk” devotional by F. B. Meyer. Minor revisions made by Sandra Bivens Smith.

This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” John 3:2

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THERE WAS NO doubt that Christ was a Teacher come from God!

Jesus taught with authority (Matthew 7:29). This was the verdict of the people. He needed not to quote Gamaliel or Hillel, because the conscience of His hearers said, He speaks the truth.

He taught with tenderness and sweetness (Luke 4:22). To those who resisted His words, as the Pharisees did, His tongue was a sharp two-edged sword; but for the sinful, weary, and heavy-laden, grace was poured on His lips.

How picturesque and beautiful His talk was! The apples of gold were in pictures of silver. His speech was full of windows through which the light poured. What wonder that the people thronged around Him, and hung with absorbing interest on His words.

But we must come to Him as Savior. Before we can understand His teaching, we must be converted, and become as little children. To us, He says, as to Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again.” To reverence Him as “Teacher” will not avail, until the soul has cast itself in the dust before Him, crying, “Have mercy upon me”; for “I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

There is a marked gradation in the Teaching of Jesus. He began by speaking about earthly things, and led His disciples on to understand heavenly things. He gave milk to babes, but to those of understanding, hard and deep things, as strong meat. How differently He taught the woman at Sychar’s well, and the disciples in the upper room.

PRAYER

Give us grace to perceive Thee, blessed Lord, to hear Thy voice, and to receive the gracious teaching which comes from Thine heart. AMEN.

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Adapted from “Our Daily Walk” devotional by F. B. Meyer