June 17 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways" (Isa. 64:5).

Devotional

Let us not fail to learn the secret of receiving much from Christ. What is it? Even the free distributing abroad of what we have already received.

Be assured of this, that he will receive the most from God who does the most for God: "One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered" (Prov. 11:24–25). "Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you" (Luke 6:38). This is God's law, and he will never repeal it. It is his promise, and he will ever and in all cases make it good.

O believer in Christ, go and let your light shine. Let your streams of grace flow abroad. Live for God, suffer for Christ, witness for the truth, and labor for man. Be such a storehouse of this living and life-giving treasure that others who have been less blessed than you may be instructed, guided, and strengthened by your wisdom, experience, and grace, and may thus proceed on their way, glorifying God for the grace he gave to you.

Oh, to have the Word of God dwelling in us so richly! Oh, to have our hearts so intensely glowing with the love of Christ as to be ever ready to open our lips for God—an artesian well always full and running over!

This, then, is the secret of increasing your stores, even by scattering them! This is the secret of replenishing your resources, even by exhausting them!

Who has ever become impoverished by giving and working for God? Where is the Christian steward whose commitment to his Master's interest has compromised the welfare of his own? Where is the Christian man who, with cheerful generosity, has consecrated his intellectual or his temporal wealth to advance the truth and kingdom of Jesus, whom Christ has not reimbursed a thousand-fold? Where is the believer in Jesus who has patiently and silently endured reproach and suffering for conscience' sake, for truth's sake, for Christ's sake, who has not infinitely gained in the rest that he has found in God? Where is the active Christian, who, zealously laboring to dispense the life-giving waters, has not felt, when pouring out his sorrow to his Savior, or in holding close and holy communion with his God, the springing up into his soul of a hidden well of peace and joy and love that has more than restored the energies he has exhausted, and repaid him for the sacrifice he has made?

God meets his people in all their works of faith and labors of love. They are never alone. He meets them in the path of duty and of trial—both in doing and in suffering his will. He meets them, when embarrassed, with counsel. He meets them, when assailed, with protection. He meets them, when exhausted, with strength. He meets them, when faint, with fresh strength.

If you take up Christ's cross upon your shoulder, Christ will take both you and your cross up in his arms. If you bow down your neck to his yoke, and bend low your back to his burden, you will find your rest in both.

Jesus, I my cross have taken,
all to leave, and follow thee;
destitute, despised, forsaken,
thou from hence my all shalt be:
perish ev'ry fond ambition,
all I've sought, or hoped, or known;
yet how rich is my condition,
God and heav'n are still my own.

Man may trouble and distress me,
'twill but drive me to thy breast;
life with trials hard may press me,
heav'n will bring me sweeter rest:
O 'tis not in grief to harm me
while thy love is left to me;
O 'twere not in joy to charm me,
were that joy unmixed with thee.

Take, my soul, thy full salvation,
rise o'er sin and fear and care;
joy to find in ev'ry station
something still to do or bear;
think what spirit dwells within thee,
what a Father's smile is thine,
what a Savior died to win thee:
child of heav'n, shouldst thou repine?

Haste then on from grace to glory,
armed by faith, and winged by prayer;
heav'n's eternal day's before thee,
God's own hand shall guide thee there.
Soon shall close thy earthly mission;
swift shall pass thy pilgrim days;
hope soon change to glad fruition,
faith to sight, and prayer to praise.

(Henry F. Lyte, 1824; text of 1833)

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.