Daily Devotionals

Bowen's Daily Meditations

Devotional: October 14th

" I will hear what God the Lord will speak." - Psalms 85:8.

Wilt thou indeed? Art thou really purposed to ascertain what revelation there is of thy Creator’s will concerning thee? After many a long year of fatal independence and destructive self-government, has it at length dawned upon thy perception that the Being who made thee, and who made all worlds, is, after all, the Being most competent to decide what life thou shouldst lead, most worthy to he trusted with the determination of thy lot and the accomplishment of thy happiness? After having hearkened to every other speaker and followed the suggestions of every benighted sinner, wilt thou at last hear what God the Lord has to say? Then let us rejoice over the auspicious hour that has at length come to thee. There is no greater moment in the whole of existence than that in which a wayward sinner pauses in his career to hear what God the Lord will say.

But note, that all this magnanimous determination of thine will amount to nothing, just nothing, if there be not in thee a willingness to hear all that the Lord will speak. If out of a hundred words of God, thou fix upon one and resolve to honor it, while the rest lie all dishonored, that word which thou hearest will turn against thee, and in the last day bring on thee additional condemnation. How many fancy that they are hearkening to God’s word, while all the time they are only hearkening to their own hearts lusts. Half a dozen pages would contain all their Bible - theirs truly, not God’s.

It is impossible to hear what God the Lord will speak, while a thousand vain voices are allowed to have thy attention. There is too much noise in thine own heart for thee to hear. Thou art too much busied about thine own will, to become acquainted with the will of God. the Lord will not lead thee by the right hand, while another leads thee by the left.

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