May 6 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?" (Galatians 5:7).

Devotional

The apostle Paul was skillful to detect and faithful to reprove any declension in the faith or laxity in the practice of the early churches. He discovered in that of Galatia a departure from the purity of the truth, and a consequent carelessness in their walk. Grieved at the discovery, he addressed to them an affectionate and faithful Epistle, expressing his astonishment and pain and proposing a solemn and searching inquiry.

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ. Now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. What then has become of the blessing you felt? I am perplexed about you. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?" (Gal. 1:6; 4:9; 4:11; 4:15; 4:20; 5:7).

To the reader conscious of secret deterioration in his soul, we propose the same searching and tender inquiry. You were running well; who hindered you? What stumbling block has fallen in your way? What has impeded your onward course? What has enfeebled your faith, chilled your love, drawn your heart away from Jesus, and lured you back to the weak and beggarly elements of a poor world? You started out well; for a time you ran well. Your zeal and love and humility gave promise of a useful life, of a glorious race, and of a successful competition for the prize. But something has hindered you.

What is it? Is it the world? Is it love of some created thing? Is it covetousness? Is it ambition? Is it presumptuous sin? Is it unmortified corruption, the old leaven unpurged?

Search it out. Do not rest until you discover it. Your spiritual deterioration is secret. Perhaps the cause is secret—some spiritual duty secretly neglected, or some known sin secretly indulged.

Search it out, and bring it to light. It must be a serious cause to produce such serious effects. You are not as you once were. Your soul has lost ground. The divine life has declined. The fruit of the Spirit has withered. The heart has lost its softness, the conscience its tenderness, the mind its lowliness, the throne of grace its sweetness, the cross of Jesus its attraction.

Oh, how sad and melancholy is the change that has passed over you! Are you not aware of it in your soul? Where is the blessedness you spoke of? Where is the sunshine of a reconciled Father's face? Where are the rich moments spent before the cross? Where are the hallowed seasons of communion in the closet, shut in with God? Where is the voice of the turtledove, the singing of birds, the green pastures where you once fed, the still waters on whose banks you once rested? Is it all gone? Is it winter with your soul?

Ah yes! Your soul is made to feel that it is an evil and a bitter thing to depart from the living God.

Come, let us to the Lord our God
with contrite hearts return;
our God is gracious, nor will leave
the desolate to mourn.
His voice commands the tempest forth,
and stills the stormy wave;
and, though his arm be strong to smite,
'tis also strong to save.

Long hath the night of sorrow reigned;
the dawn shall bring us light:
God shall appear, and we shall rise
with gladness in his sight.
Our hearts, if God we seek to know,
shall know him, and rejoice;
his coming like the morn shall be,
like morning songs his voice.

As dew upon the tender herb,
diffusing fragrance round,
as show'rs that usher in the spring
and cheer the thirsty ground,
so shall his presence bless our souls,
and shed a joyful light.
That hallowed morn shall chase away
the sorrows of the night.

(John Morison, 1781)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.