Morning, April 26
<< Morning, April 26 >>
Fearing people is a dangerous trap,
        but trusting the LORD means safety.
Insight
Fear of people can hamper everything you try to do. In extreme forms, it can make you afraid to leave your home. By contrast, fear of God--respect, reverence, and trust--is liberating.
Challenge
Why fear people who can do no eternal harm? Instead, fear God who can turn the harm intended by others into good for those who trust him.
1 Corinthians 11:24  This do in remembrance of me.

It seems then, that Christians may forget Christ! There could be no need for this loving exhortation, if there were not a fearful supposition that our memories might prove treacherous. Nor is this a bare supposition: it is, alas! too well confirmed in our experience, not as a possibility, but as a lamentable fact. It appears almost impossible that those who have been redeemed by the blood of the dying Lamb, and loved with an everlasting love by the eternal Son of God, should forget that gracious Saviour; but, if startling to the ear, it is, alas! too apparent to the eye to allow us to deny the crime. Forget him who never forgot us! Forget him who poured his blood forth for our sins! Forget him who loved us even to the death! Can it be possible? Yes, it is not only possible, but conscience confesses that it is too sadly a fault with all of us, that we suffer him to be as a wayfaring man tarrying but for a night. He whom we should make the abiding tenant of our memories is but a visitor therein. The cross where one would think that memory would linger, and unmindfulness would be an unknown intruder, is desecrated by the feet of forgetfulness. Does not your conscience say that this is true? Do you not find yourselves forgetful of Jesus? Some creature steals away your heart, and you are unmindful of him upon whom your affection ought to be set. Some earthly business engrosses your attention when you should fix your eye steadily upon the cross. It is the incessant turmoil of the world, the constant attraction of earthly things which takes away the soul from Christ. While memory too well preserves a poisonous weed, it suffereth the rose of Sharon to wither. Let us charge ourselves to bind a heavenly forget-me-not about our hearts for Jesus our Beloved, and, whatever else we let slip, let us hold fast to him.


Songs 2:6  "Let his left hand be under my head And his right hand embrace me."

Deuteronomy 33:27  "The eternal God is a dwelling place, And underneath are the everlasting arms; And He drove out the enemy from before you, And said, 'Destroy!'

Matthew 14:30,31  But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!" • Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"

Psalm 37:23,24  The steps of a man are established by the LORD, And He delights in his way. • When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, Because the LORD is the One who holds his hand.

Deuteronomy 33:12  Of Benjamin he said, "May the beloved of the LORD dwell in security by Him, Who shields him all the day, And he dwells between His shoulders."

1 Peter 5:7  casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

Zechariah 2:8  For thus says the LORD of hosts, "After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.

John 10:28,29  and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. • "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

New American Standard Bible Copyright ? 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org.

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