Daily Devotionals

Bowen's Daily Meditations

Devotional: October 5th

"Be content with such things as ye have; for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Hebrews 13:5.

This promise was addressed in the first instance to Joshua; not because he was Joshua, but because he was a believer; and it is valid for every believer.

The believer is to be content with such things as he has. "Behold Lazarus at the gate of the rich man, his body full of sores, without food, shelter, friends. Is he to be content with such things as he has? He has nothing."’ Yes, he has some thing. Let us try to take an inventory of it. He has a Father in heaven, upon the throne of thrones, possessing all wealth and exercising all power; forgetting him never and making all the vicissitudes and severities of life conduce to his ultimate unspeakable good. He has a Saviour in heaven; one that died for him and washed him from his sins in his own blood; his righteous Advocate ever interceding for him. He has a Holy Spirit who has taken up his abode in that polluted heart to make it angelic, spotless and perfect. The angels of heaven are his friends; they celebrated the day of his conversion with songs of transport; they hold his crippled limbs so that he does not fall; and they are waiting to convey him to paradise. All the saints in the light of heaven wait for him that they may know him and love him. He has promises more in number than it is possible to count, and each so precious that all the money in the world could not buy it. He has an inheritance ten thousand times more magnificent than the boasted patrimonies of earth. Everlasting life is his. His diseased body shall be fashioned like unto Christ’s glorious body. To all his other treasures, he may well add this treasure, contentment.

Why art thou cast down? Perhaps thine earthly wealth has taken to itself wings and flown. Perhaps some great man has looked disdainfully upon thee. Perhaps some cherished scheme has been frustrated. Thou hast met with ingratitude. Some dear friend has fallen from thee. Some loved one has died. Some disease has taken hold of thee. Well, these things dispirit the children of this world; for in losing these they lose their all. But why should the loss of such things affect thee? The wealth that is lost, is nothing to that which remains to thee. The great man who despises thee is a very insignificant being in the presence of certain friends of thine. If thou lose a friend of earth, thou hast thousands of glorious ones who will never fail thee. Thou hast a throne prepared for thee in a region where no sickness is, where death never comes. Thou hast Christ with all his unsearchable riches. Wilt thou yet mourn because of the crumbs that have fallen from thy table?

It is in vain we talk of the unsearchable riches of Christ, if we greatly bewail the disasters of time. How shall the world ever learn that Christ is to us precious, if we are not content with such things as we have in the world, be they no matter how few, how mean?

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