DAILY READINGS IN LIFE OF CHRIST - J.R. Miller (1890)

May 5. Doing the Will of God

"Thy will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven." Matthew 6:10

Many people always quote this petition as if it meant only submission to some painful providence. They suppose it refers only to losing friends or money, or being sick or in trouble — but this is only a little part of its meaning. It is for the doing of God's will — not the suffering of it, that we here pray.

It is a good deal easier to make prayers like this for others, than for ourselves. We all think other people ought to do God's will, and we do not find it a difficult prayer to make that they may do so. But what about ourselves? There is no other person in the world for whose life we are really and finally responsible, but ourselves. This prayer, then, if we offer it sincerely, is that we may do God's will as it is done in Heaven. We can pray it, therefore, only when we are ready for implicit, unquestioning obedience to the divine will — the moment we know what that will is.

Then some times it is a passive doing which is required. God asks of us something that costs pain or sacrifice or earthly loss; when this is true, our prayer may cut deeply into our own hearts. It may mean . . .
a giving up of some sweet joy, 
a losing of some precious friend, 
the sacrifice of some dear possession, 
the going in some way of thorns and tears. 

We should learn always to say the prayer, and then to hold our lives close to the line of the divine will, never rebelling nor murmuring — but sweetly doing whatever God gives us to do.

 

 DAILY BREAD

Jesus Is the Promised Messiah.

"God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power." Acts 10:38.

We believe that God in His infinite mercy resolved to save mankind and that the divine Redeemer appeared in Jesus of Naza­ reth, the Son of Mary and Son of God. Immediately after the Pall, God promised this Savior, who, by suffering and dying in man’s stead, was to deliver him from all sin and its punishment.

When, at length, the fulness of time had come, God sent His angel Gabriel to Mary, a virgin of David’s royal lineage, to tell her: “Thou shalt bring forth a Son and shalt call His name Jesus.” Jesus means Savior. Therefore the angel added to Joseph: “For He shall save His people from their sins.” Hence, by giving the name Jesus to the Child of Mary, God declared this Child to be the promised Messiah.

In the Old Testament, God has given a full description of the Messiah’s person, and so perfectly does that description cor­ respond with Jesus’ person that no one who sincerely accepts and believes the clear word of Scripture will look for another Savior. In the Old Testament, God stated the time when the Messiah should come, the place where He should be born, and the family and people from whom He was to descend. And who is it that, in every detail, exactly answers to this description? Only Jesus Christ. The promised Messiah was also to perform the greatest of miracles, He was to proclaim the Gospel, the glad tidings of the forgiveness of sins, and He was to be preceded by a forerunner, who was to go before Him to prepare His way. And has not all this been fulfilled in Jesus?

Let us, therefore, lift up our heads in triumph and rejoice in our faith, which is so well founded that even the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Blessed is he who accepts Christ as his Savior and King, in whom all promises of God are yea and Amen.

Prayer.

O merciful, eternal God, heavenly Father, we, Thy children, thank Thee from our inmost hearts that Thou hast so faithfully kept Thy promise and didst turn to us Thy heart in fatherly love by sending to us the highest Good, Thine only-begotten Son, to be our Savior, and by making us acceptable in Thy Beloved. We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, that Thou hast appeared in the ful­ ness of time to become our Brother. We pray Thee, O God the Holy Ghost, to bring about this wonderful change, that this our Savior be spiritually born in us and that He may grow in us every day of our lives. Help us to find comfort in Him amidst all temptations. Amen.

                                                                                                        Come, Thou long-expected Jesus,                                                   Born to set Thy people free.

From our fears and sins release us;                                                   Let us find our rest in Thee.

 Presidential Quote - President Millard Fillmore (1850-53)

 THE FAMILY ALTAR

May 4.

"The Lord is my Shepherd ; I shall not want." PSALMS 23:1.

"The twenty-third Psalm is the nightingale of Psalms. It is

small, of homely feather, singing shyly out of obscurity ; but, oh !

it has filled the air of the whole world with melodious joy, greater

than the heart can conceive. Blessed be the day on which that

Psalm was born ! It has charmed more griefs to rest than all

the philosophy of the world. It has remanded to their dark

dungeon more felon-thoughts, more black doubts, more thieving

sorrow than then? are sands on the seashore. It has comforted

the noble host of the poor. It has sung courage to the army of

the disappointed. It has poured balm and consolation into the

hearts of the sick, of captives in their dungeons, of widows in

their pinching griefs, of orphans in their loneliness. Dying soldiers

have died easier as it was read to them; ghastly hospitals have

been illumined. It has visited the prisoner, and broken his chains,

and, like Peter's angel, led him forth in imagination, and sung

him back home again. . . . Nor is its work done. It will go on

singing to your children and my children, and to their children,

through all generations of time; nor will it fold its wings till

the last pilgrim is safe and time ended: and then it shall fly

back to the bosom of God, whence it issued, and sound on, mingled

with all those sounds of celestial joy which make heaven musical

forever." Can we say of the Lord Jesus, who calls Himself the

Good Shepherd, that He is my Shepherd? Whoever has been

called by Him into His fold and is fed and led by Him can

truthfully say: Jesus is my Shepherd, and I am His sheep, His

lamb. He can then also truthfully declare: "I shall not want";

for the Lord, my Shepherd, is the almighty God, merciful and

gracious, with whom nothing is impossible, who will never, never

let His blood-bought sheep die of want, but will deliver it from

all trouble, and show unto it His glorious salvation.