Morning “Renew a right spirit within me.” / Psalm 51:10

A backslider, if there be a spark of life left in him will groan after

restoration. In this renewal the same exercise of grace is required as at our

conversion. We needed repentance then; we certainly need it now. We wanted

faith that we might come to Christ at first; only the like grace can bring us

to Jesus now. We wanted a word from the Most High, a word from the lip of the

loving One, to end our fears then; we shall soon discover, when under a sense

of present sin, that we need it now. No man can be renewed without as real and

true a manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s energy as he felt at first, because

the work is as great, and flesh and blood are as much in the way now as ever

they were. Let thy personal weakness, O Christian, be an argument to make thee

pray earnestly to thy God for help. Remember, David when he felt himself to be

powerless, did not fold his arms or close his lips, but he hastened to the

mercy-seat with “renew a right spirit within me.” Let not the doctrine that

you, unaided, can do nothing, make you sleep; but let it be a goad in your

side to drive you with an awful earnestness to Israel’s strong Helper. O that

you may have grace to plead with God, as though you pleaded for your very

life–“Lord, renew a right spirit within me.” He who sincerely prays to God to

do this, will prove his honesty by using the means through which God works. Be

much in prayer; live much upon the Word of God; kill the lusts which have

driven your Lord from you; be careful to watch over the future uprisings of

sin. The Lord has his own appointed ways; sit by the wayside and you will be

ready when he passes by. Continue in all those blessed ordinances which will

foster and nourish your dying graces; and, knowing that all the power must

proceed from him, cease not to cry, “Renew a right spirit within me.”

 

Evening “I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.” / Hosea

13:5

Yes, Lord, thou didst indeed know me in my fallen state, and thou didst even

then choose me for thyself. When I was loathsome and self-abhorred, thou didst

receive me as thy child, and thou didst satisfy my craving wants. Blessed

forever be thy name for this free, rich, abounding mercy. Since then, my

inward experience has often been a wilderness; but thou hast owned me still as

thy beloved, and poured streams of love and grace into me to gladden me, and

make me fruitful. Yea, when my outward circumstances have been at the worst,

and I have wandered in a land of drought, thy sweet presence has solaced me.

Men have not known me when scorn has awaited me, but thou hast known my soul

in adversities, for no affliction dims the lustre of thy love. Most gracious

Lord, I magnify thee for all thy faithfulness to me in trying circumstances,

and I deplore that I should at any time have forgotten thee and been exalted

in heart, when I have owed all to thy gentleness and love. Have mercy upon thy

servant in this thing!

My soul, if Jesus thus acknowledged thee in thy low estate, be sure that thou

own both himself and his cause now that thou art in thy prosperity. Be not

lifted up by thy worldly successes so as to be ashamed of the truth or of the

poor church with which thou hast been associated. Follow Jesus into the

wilderness: bear the cross with him when the heat of persecution grows hot. He

owned thee, O my soul, in thy poverty and shame–never be so treacherous as to

be ashamed of him. O for more shame at the thought of being ashamed of my best

Beloved! Jesus, my soul cleaveth to thee.

“I’ll turn to thee in days of light,

As well as nights of care,

Thou brightest amid all that’s bright!

Thou fairest of the fair!”