February 20 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"…for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you" (Deut. 12:9).

Devotional

It is richly instructive and deeply sanctifying to ponder that the heavenly rest is still future. When told that we have not yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord our God gives us, we are gently reminded that we each have a niche in life to occupy, a sphere to fill, a mission to perform. The idea of personal responsibility, of individual influence, and of persevering action, instantly comes to mind.

"Not yet in heaven … then what am I here for? Surely it is for an end in harmony with my intellectual and spiritual being, and worthy of him who still detains me on earth. It must be that I have something to do for Christ, or something to endure for Christ—an active or a passive part to play. Lord, what will you have me to do or suffer for you?"

Oh, there is a incalculable depth of divine wisdom in the arrangement that keeps you out of heaven so long. The world needs you; and you need the world. It needs you to illumine and sanctify it; you need it as the field of your conflict and as the school of your sanctification. You need the world, not as a hermit's cell, but as a vast theater where before angels and men your faith is developed—in the achievements of prayer, in the triumphs of faith, in the labors of love, and in the endurance of suffering.

A few more years shall roll,
a few more seasons come,
and we shall be with those that rest
asleep within the tomb:
then, O my Lord, prepare
my soul for that great day;
O wash me in thy precious blood,
and take my sins away.

A few more storms shall beat
on this wild rocky shore,
and we shall be where tempests cease,
and surges swell no more:
then, O my Lord, prepare
my soul for that calm day;
O wash me in thy precious blood,
and take my sins away.

A few more sabbaths here
shall cheer us on our way,
and we shall reach the endless rest,
th'eternal sabbath day:
then, O my Lord, prepare
my soul for that sweet day;
O wash me in thy precious blood,
and take my sins away.

'Tis but a little while,
and he shall come again
who died that we might live, who lives
that we with him may reign:
then, O my Lord, prepare
my soul for that glad day;
O wash me in thy precious blood,
and take my sins away.

(Horatius Bonar, 1844)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.