April 27 Daily Devotional

Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord (
Psalm 25:15)

Once we have taken a problem to God, we should cease to concern ourselves with it. We should turn our backs upon it and center our gaze upon God.

Is not this precisely where we go astray? We have a perplexity, and we have applied the prophetic method ... [see December 20]. But still we do not find satisfaction, and we do not quite know what to do.... Having failed to reach a solution, despite seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit, there is nothing more to do but to take it to God in prayer. But so frequently ... the moment we get up from our knees we begin to worry about the problem again.

Now if you do that, you might just as well not have prayed. If you take your problem to God, leave it with God. You have no right to brood over it any longer.... Leave it with God, and go on to the watch-tower [Habakkuk 2:1].... We have to extricate ourselves deliberately, to haul ourselves out of it, as it were ... and then take our stand looking to God—not at the problem.... Looking to God means not dealing with a problem yourself, not consulting other people, but depending entirely upon God and "waiting" only upon Him....

That is the true basis of spiritual peace. That is exactly what Paul meant in Philippians: "in nothing be anxious" (Philippians 4:6, 7).... You must never have that anxious care that is not only spiritually crippling but also physically debilitating. Never be anxious, but "in everything"—it is all-inclusive—"by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." ... Get up into your watch-tower, and just keep looking up to God. Look at nothing else, least of all your problem.

From Fear to Faith, pp. 37-9

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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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