the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
John Gossner's Treasury
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Psalms 46:11. If God be for us, who can be against us? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Romans 8:31-33.
He who abides in God stands fast and secure, firm as the rock in the sea: the billows shall not shake or remove it. The "elect" whom the Lord has chosen out of the world and upon whom He has put the seal of the Holy Spirit, so that they are His own, who because of the testimony of God’s Spirit know that they are His children because they are led by His Spirit and because His Spirit bears witness with their spirit of their sonship, these elect, who have surrendered themselves unconditionally to the Lord to live and die for Him, are invincible. God preserves them as the apple of His eye. Neither the world nor the devil can lay anything to their charge; for God takes care of them, God defends them and shields them. Who shall appear against God? They fear no one. Who shall be able to touch those whom God covers and protects? That it lies in the heart of God to be their confidence, their rock, their refuge and fortress, we know for a certainty from the fact that He spared not His own Son, but sacrificed Him for them. He who knows this, to whom, in the light of God, it has become clear and in whose heart it is written, "God has for your sake not spared His own Son, but has given Him for you," can no longer waver in his trust in God. He thinks, What more do I want? I have already received so much from my God that I cannot receive more. How am I to receive and enjoy all that I already possess? The Son of God is mine! Expand thyself, O mine heart! How canst thou make room for this gift? Now, he who rightly understands how to hold fast this gift, entertains no fear of not receiving everything else of which he is in need; yea, he finds and possesses in this gift everything else. Only he must see to it that he actually possesses Christ and that he not only imagines having part in Him. He that has the Son has also the Father for himself and in himself. He can say with St. Paul, I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).
A mighty fortress is our God,
A trusty shield and weapon;
He helps us free from every need
That hath us now overtaken.
The old, bitter foe
Means us deadly woe:
Deep guile and, great might
Are his dread arms in fight.
On earth is not his equal.
