Daily Devotionals

Spiritual Treasury For The Children of God

Devotional: June 18th

Because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.- 1 Kings 14:13.

Such was the testimony which the Lord gave by his prophet of young Abijah, the son of wicked Jeroboam. The father was branded, even to a proverb, for his abominable wickedness. Behold, the son is recorded by the Lord for his goodness: singled out from the whole house of his father, to be blessed of his God, and to come to his grave in peace.

Children of grace often spring from the loins of ungodly parents. The offspring of godly parents, often appear graceless. Grace is not hereditary. Grace is the sovereign gift of God. Parents may and ought to give good instructions, but God only makes them successful. Some good thing would not have been found in young Abijah, if the Lord had not put it there. It was of the will of the Lord, or because the Lord was his father, as his name Abijah signifies. God’s covenant children, though by nature children of wrath, and though in their "flesh dwells no good thing;" yet, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, "they are created anew in Christ Jesus, in righteousness and true holiness, unto good works:" and after the inward man, "they delight in the law of God." Some good thing is found in them, which manifests itself in love, fear and obedience to the Lord their God. The graces of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers, and the fruits of the Spirit in their lives, are evidences in time, of God’s covenant to them in Christ Jesus before time. God views the work of his new creation in the soul with delight; pronounces it GOOD, and to his own glory records the graces of his people. What comes from God leads to him.

Thus we see "some good thing" found in the heart of Abijah, manifesting itself in the wicked house of Jeroboam, to the glory of Jehovah the God of Israel. O how highly honored are some who are converted to God’s glory and service in the morning of youth! while the sun of righteousness doth not arise upon others, till the sun of nature is near setting. Hath distinguishing grace made us to differ, as well from our former selves, as from others? It is all from the love of the Father through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit. We have nothing whereof to glory in ourselves, nor over others; it is our duty to confess it with our lips, and manifest it in our lives. May it encourage us daily to walk in faith and love. "The just shall live by faith."- Hebrews 10:38.

And killed the Prince of life. Acts 3:15.

O dreadful effects of the fall of man! We are not only become enemies to God, and rebels against him, but are also, so ignorant of ourselves, and so blind to our own state, that we do not see this: we will not own it. An enemy to God! What, to that good and gracious Lord, in whom I live, move, and have my being? I cannot think, that any one upon earth can be so wicked, as to be an enemy to God. Such is the language of blind nature. Thou that utterest it, art the man. Yea, such is the enmity of thine, of every man’s nature against God, that were it possible and in our power we should kill God. Start not at the thought. Horrid as it is, here is proof of it. God was manifest in the flesh. How was he received? How was he treated by sinful man? Let the annals of his holy life, speak the base contempt and hellish treatment he met with from man. Let the history of his painful and agonizing death, proclaim the enmity of sinners’ hearts against him. They killed-who? Jesus of Nazareth, a mere man, mighty in word and deed? a great prophet only? Infinitely more, O unparalleled mystery of iniquity! O inscrutable mystery of godliness! They killed the Prince of Life. Such the abominable wickedness of human nature: such the total blindness of the human heart, a murderer is preferred to an innocent man: a vile miscreant is spared, the Holy God, the Author of Life, is put to death. Here, O soul, behold the true, but the horrid picture of human nature. Such, its enmity to God, as to take away the life of the Son of God. Dost thou think in thine heart, surely my nature is not so dreadfully wicked, I could not have done so vile a deed? Thou dost not yet know thyself. Thy thoughts proceed from blindness and ignorance, of the depth of thy totally wicked nature. As yet, thou seest not the amazing heights of the Lord’s love. The Prince of Life dies, by the wicked hands of men of wicked hearts. To what end? That by his death, his very murderers should live, and not die eternally. O matchless love! Learn, O my soul, this night, to fathom the depth of the wicked enmity of the human heart, by the heights of the love of a dying Saviour. Sin has done its worst, slain the incarnate Messiah, that I might live. Satan, thou hast wreaked thy hellish wrath. But thou art conquered, in my Saviour’s death. Law, thou hast sheathed thy strongest sting, and spent the poison of thy dart, in the body of my God. But glory to my Prince of Life, he lives to love, and loves to save. I am safe. O may the Spirit make this faith kill legal hopes and self-righteous confidence.

Amazing, wondrous mystery,

That men the Prince of Life should kill;

But God did suffer this to be,

To save our souls from death and hell.