Meditate
with a daily devotion
Daily Light's Morning Reading
What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.—ROM. 8:3.
The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered?—By him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Forasmuch . . . as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren.
Spurgeon's Morning Reading
“My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.”
Psalm 22:14
Our blessed Lord experienced a terrible sinking and melting of soul. “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?” Deep depression of spirit is the most grievous of all trials; all besides is as nothing. Well might the suffering Saviour cry to his God, “Be not far from me,” for above all other seasons a man needs his God when his heart is melted within him because of heaviness. Believer, come near the cross this morning, and humbly adore the King of glory as having once been brought far lower, in mental distress and inward anguish, than any one among us; and mark his fitness to become a faithful High Priest, who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Especially let those of us whose sadness springs directly from the withdrawal of a present sense of our Father’s love, enter into near and intimate communion with Jesus. Let us not give way to despair, since through this dark room the Master has passed before us. Our souls may sometimes long and faint, and thirst even to anguish, to behold the light of the Lord’s countenance: at such times let us stay ourselves with the sweet fact of the sympathy of our great High Priest. Our drops of sorrow may well be forgotten in the ocean of his griefs; but how high ought our love to rise! Come in, O strong and deep love of Jesus, like the sea at the flood in spring tides, cover all my powers, drown all my sins, wash out all my cares, lift up my earth-bound soul, and float it right up to my Lord’s feet, and there let me lie, a poor broken shell, washed up by his love, having no virtue or value; and only venturing to whisper to him that if he will put his ear to me, he will hear within my heart faint echoes of the vast waves of his own love which have brought me where it is my delight to lie, even at his feet forever.
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Esther 5
5. Esther's Request to the King
Esther’s Banquet
5
On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, opposite the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne inside the palace opposite the entrance to the palace.2As soon as the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won his favor and he held out to her the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the top of the scepter.3The king said to her, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom.”4Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to a banquet that I have prepared for the king.”5Then the king said, “Bring Haman quickly, so that we may do as Esther desires.” So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.6While they were drinking wine, the king said to Esther, “What is your petition? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.”7Then Esther said, “This is my petition and request:8If I have won the king’s favor, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet that I will prepare for them, and then I will do as the king has said.”
Haman Plans to Have Mordecai Hanged
9 Haman went out that day happy and in good spirits. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, and observed that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was infuriated with Mordecai;10nevertheless Haman restrained himself and went home. Then he sent and called for his friends and his wife Zeresh,11and Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and the ministers of the king.12Haman added, “Even Queen Esther let no one but myself come with the king to the banquet that she prepared. Tomorrow also I am invited by her, together with the king.13Yet all this does me no good so long as I see the Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.”14Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Let a gallows fifty cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hanged on it; then go with the king to the banquet in good spirits.” This advice pleased Haman, and he had the gallows made.
New Testament in Four Years - James 1:26-27
1. Trials and Temptations
26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.27Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Psalm a Day - Psalm 76
76. Psalm 76
Psalm 76
Israel’s God—Judge of All the Earth
To the leader: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song.
1
In Judah God is known,
his name is great in Israel.
2
His abode has been established in Salem,
his dwelling place in Zion.
3
There he broke the flashing arrows,
the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war.Selah
4
Glorious are you, more majestic
than the everlasting mountains.
5
The stouthearted were stripped of their spoil;
they sank into sleep;
none of the troops
was able to lift a hand.
6
At your rebuke, O God of Jacob,
both rider and horse lay stunned.
7
But you indeed are awesome!
Who can stand before you
when once your anger is roused?
8
From the heavens you uttered judgment;
the earth feared and was still
9
when God rose up to establish judgment,
to save all the oppressed of the earth.Selah
10
Human wrath serves only to praise you,
when you bind the last bit of your wrath around you.
11
Make vows to the Lord your God, and perform them;
let all who are around him bring gifts
to the one who is awesome,
12
who cuts off the spirit of princes,
who inspires fear in the kings of the earth.