April 6 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered" (Luke 12:7).

Devotional

Dear reader, you know so little of God because you live at such a distance from God. You have so little interaction with him—so little confession of sin, so little searching of your own conscience, so little probing of your own heart, so little dealings with him in the blood and righteousness of Christ, so little contact with him in the little things of life. You deal with God in great matters. You take great trials to God, great perplexities, great needs. But in the ins and outs of each day's history, in what are called the little things of life, you have no dealings with God whatsoever. And consequently you know so little of the love, so little of the wisdom, so little of the glory, of this glorious covenant God and reconciled Father.

I tell you, the man who lives with God in little matters, who walks with God in the finer points of his life, is the man who becomes the best acquainted with God—with his character, his faithfulness, his love.

To meet God in your daily trials—to take to him the trials of your calling, the trials of your church, the trials of your family, the trials of your own heart—to take to him everything that puts a frown upon your brow, that wrings a sigh from your heart—to remember that it is not too trivial to take to God. Above all, to take to him the least taint on your conscience, the slightest pressure of sin on your heart, the softest conviction of departure from God—to take it to him and to confess it at the foot of the cross with the hand of faith upon the bleeding sacrifice. Oh! these are the paths in which a man becomes intimately and closely acquainted with God!

O Jesus, I have promised
to serve thee to the end;
be thou for ever near me,
my Master and my Friend:
I shall not fear the battle
if thou art by my side,
nor wander from the pathway
if thou wilt be my Guide.

O let me feel thee near me,
the world is ever near;
I see the sights that dazzle,
the tempting sounds I hear:
my foes are ever near me,
around me and within;
but, Jesus, draw thou nearer,
and shield my soul from sin.

O Jesus, thou hast promised
to all who follow thee
that where thou art in glory
there shall thy servant be;
and, Jesus, I have promised
to serve thee to the end;
O give me grace to follow,
my Master and my Friend.

(John E. Bode, 1868)

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.