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Octavius Winslow, 1856 (edited for
today's reader by Larry E. Wilson, 2010)
Bible Verse
"Have faith in God" (Mark 11:22).
Devotional
Have faith in God as God. His character justifies it. His Word invites it. His promises encourage it. His blessing crowns it.
How frequently in his Word God condescends to invite faith in himself by declaring who he is. Thus to Abraham: "When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless'" (Gen. 17:1). And again to his church: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it" (Ps. 81:10).
How kind and condescending God is in this mode of asking and encouraging the confidence of his people! How clearly he stoops down to our weakness! What a foundation he reveals for faith to build upon! What a field he opens for faith to work in! How deep! How wide! How rich!
"I am God Almighty ... I am the LORD your God ... I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?" (Gen. 17:1; Ps. 81:10; Jer. 32:27). Faith needs no more. Faith asks no more. Less than this cannot meet its need. More than this it cannot have.
When faith feels that it has God's own Word for its warrant in believing, God's own command for its rule in obeying, God's own promise for its encouragement in suffering, and God himself as the foundation of its confidence and the essence of its rest, then it becomes invulnerable; faith becomes almost omnipotent.
The measure of our faith is the extent of our experiential knowledge of God. Acquaintance with God inspires the mind with confidence in him. The more truly we know God, the more implicitly we trust him.
It is in this way, among others, that he answers the prayer of his people, "Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared" (Ps. 119:38). God confirms the truth of his Word by enlarging the believer's knowledge of himself. He enlarges this knowledge mainly through the truth. The Word reveals the knowledge of God and an experiential knowledge of God confirms the truth of the Word. Thus, the one establishes the other.
If it is genuine, then, our faith must regard God as God. "Have faith in God."
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in his excellent Word!
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
you who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?
"Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed;
I, I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
"When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
the rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
for I will be with thee thy troubles to bless,
and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
"E'en down to old age all my people shall prove
my sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
and when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.
"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to his foes;
that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake."
("K" in Rippon's Selection, 1787)
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.
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