Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: March 1st

Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face. - 1 Thessalonians 3:10.

HERE we perceive the desirableness and advantage of personal intercourse and communion among Christians. How pleasing is it for Christians to realize these after long separation and absence!-especially to meet after such trying circumstances and perilous events as occurred in the experience of the apostle! And Christians are still exposed to imminent dangers. We stand in jeopardy every hour. Oh, how delightful it must have been for the apostle to have met again those whom he so dearly loved; after the perils among robbers, perils by sea and land; after his shipwrecks and manifold tribulations! What gushings of feeling, what eagerness of words, what tears, what joys, what acknowledgments! Thus Jacob and Joseph met after twenty years’ absence. How precious, too, is this intercourse among Christians in seasons of affliction and trouble! The face of a Christian friend, in such seasons, has appeared like the face of an angel. And how delightful it is when Christians meet in the sanctuary, there to mingle their songs and their supplications together in the exercises of devotion!

And how blessed will it be to meet in heaven at last! There will the fellowship of the saints be complete and permanent. Here, how short in duration, how liable to interruption, have been the sweetest and the most protracted seasons of communion we have enjoyed on earth! But there their joy will be full and undisturbed. Yes, the saints will rejoice to see each other’s faces in heaven; for we cannot doubt of there being a mutual recognition of each other there. “I am fully persuaded,” says Baxter, “that I shall love my friends in heaven, and therefore know them; and this principally binds me to them on earth. If I thought I should never know them more, nor, therefore, love them after death, I should love them comparatively little, as I do all other transient things; but now I delight in conversing with them, as believing I shall commune with them forever.” So did Paul; for, said he, “What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy.”

But how different will be the meeting of the saints on earth, to seeing each other face to face in glory! Here the most spiritually-minded Christian is the subject of great imperfection. They mistake each other, and offences will come. They have much to explain, much to forgive; but then they will be without fault before the throne of God and the Lamb. Here we meet in circumstances of trouble, affliction and grief; but there nothing is felt but joy and gladness, nothing heard but thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Here we meet to part again, but there parting will be known no more.

When I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? - Isaiah 5:4.

“WHAT,” says God, “could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it?” He has done much for us, and he has a right to expect much from us. Though we are not able fully to discharge the obligations under which he has placed us, yet we ought to be sensible of them and show that we are willing to make adequate returns, and to be always asking, “Lord what wilt thou have me to do?”

Therefore we may observe that God expects us to make suitable returns, and is disappointed if we do not. But can God ever be disappointed? Here we must make a distinction between what is a fact and what is a right. As to the question of fact, he is not disappointed, he cannot be disappointed. No event nor circumstance can occur to surprise, or even to inform him. But as to the question of right, he may, he has a right to be disappointed. What culture has he bestowed upon his vineyard! He therefore justly complains, “What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it?” “These three years I have gone seeking fruit and found none.” He does expect gratitude and a sense of obligation where he has conferred benefits.

Alas! what instances of ingratitude, unkindness, and unfruitfulness compel him to say, “When I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?”