April 12 Daily Devotional

Take this first step

Look at nothing and nobody but look entirely to Christ and say:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness,
I dare not trust my sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus' Name;
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

You must so believe that as to be able to go further and say with holy boldness:

The terrors of law and of God
With me can have nothing to do.
My Savior's obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view.

Would you like to be rid of this spiritual depression? The first thing you have to do is to say farewell now once and for ever to your past. Realize that it has been covered and blotted out in Christ. Never look back at your sins again. Say, "It is finished, it is covered by the Blood of Christ." This is your first step. Take that and finish with yourself and all this talk about goodness, and look to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only then that true happiness and joy are possible for you. What you need is not to make resolutions to live a better life, to start fasting and sweating and praying. No! you just begin to say:

I rest my faith on Him alone
Who died for my transgressions to atone.

Take that first step and you will find that immediately you will begin to experience a joy and a release that you have never known in your life before. "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law." Blessed be the Name of God for such a wondrous salvation for desperate sinners.

<1>Spiritual Depression, p. 35

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“Text reproduced from ‘A First Book of Daily Readings’ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Epworth Press 1970 & 1977 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.”

Comments on D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, A First Book of Daily Readings

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