Daily Devotional 9.29.11

Faith by Obedience

“I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness.” (John 12:46)

The light of Christ is always distinguishable because it means the deepest impression of what is right, the clearest conviction of the will of God. Everywhere men are asking how they may come to know Christ, and there is but one answer: believe that He loves you, that He died on the Cross to save you, that He is prompting you by His Spirit to follow every perception and longing for a better and holier life.

How different is this teaching from that of the world around! There we are bidden to know before we dare entrust our lives to any leader, whatever be his fair speeches and promises; but Christ bids us obey the first glimmer of light breaking on us, and He undertakes that if we do, we shall not walk in darkness. Disobedience, like scales, veils Christ from us; whilst obedience leads us into His very presence. The judgment always becomes just, and the vision clear, when we deny ourselves to follow whatsoever things are lovely, true, pure, just, and of good report.

It may be that as you read these lines there is some duty you shirk, some cross you refuse to lift, some act from which you flinch. Though you may not have directly associated it with Christ, yet you cannot doubt that it is His will for you, and that in the doing He will be pleased. It is useless to try to know Him until that nearest act of obedience is wrought. Men can never know what the mighty forces of Nature will do for them until they set themselves to obey, in the minutest detail, its laws. And it is so in relation to Christ and the laws of the spiritual realm. That was a true word which the Mother of our Lord spoke to the servants at Cana, when she said: “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it!'” She had probably learned that lesson in those long, quiet, blessed years at Nazareth. She knew that there was no such way of understanding Him, as by rendering Him literal obedience, and she passed on the results of her experience to us all.

“Walk while ye have the light,” so you will know the Light, and become light in the Lord.

Devotional Prayer

Dear Lord, Father in heaven hear my prayer.

Father, I forsake myself of worldly temptations, so that I may walk with You, my Lord, through each day. I forsake myself in small things and in great, as they cannot measure to the love and compassion which flows from You, and fills my life, in living by Your word.

I pray this to you in Jesus name, Amen.