April 23 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21).

Devotional

An idolatrous and unsanctified attachment to the creature has again and again crucified love to Christ in the heart. Just as no one can love God and the world with a like supreme affection, so also no one can give to Christ and the creature the same intensity of regard.

And yet, how often has the creature stolen the heart from its lawful Sovereign! That heart that was once so simply and so supremely the Lord's, those affections that had clung to him with such purity and power of grasp, have now been transferred to another object, an inferior object (Jer. 2:12–13). The piece of clay that God generously gave in order to deepen the obligation and heighten the soul's love to himself has been taken and molded into an idol before which the heart pours its daily incense. The flower that God kindly caused to spring forth in order to endear his own beauty and make his own Name more fragrant has supplanted the "Rose of Sharon" in the heart.

Oh, is this how we abuse our mercies? Is this how we convert our blessings into poisons? God mercifully sends gifts to endear our hearts to himself and to make the cross through which they came all the more precious to us. But we take them and allow them to allure our affections away from their holy and blessed Sender. Fools that we are, to love the creature more than the Creator!

Dear reader, why has God been disciplining you as perhaps he has? Why has he torn down your idols, crumbled into dust your piece of clay, and blown witheringly upon your beautiful flower? Why? Because he hates idolatry! And idolatry is essentially the same, no matter whether it is offered to a lifeless, shapeless block or to an intelligent and beautiful being.

And what does God's voice say in every stream that he dries, in every plant that he withers, in every disappointment that he writes upon the creature? "My child, give me your heart. I want your love. I want your pure and supreme affection. I want to be the one and only object of your delight. I gave my only begotten Son for you—his life for yours. I sent my Spirit to make you alive, to renew you, to seal you, and to possess you for myself. I did all this that I might have your heart. And so, to have your heart, I will wither your plant (Jonah 4). To have your heart, I will destroy your idols. To have your heart, I will break your earthly dependencies. I am seeking to detach your affections from the creature so that they may rise up, undivided and unfettered, and entwine around the One who loves you with an undying love."

I asked the Lord that I might grow
in faith, and love, and every grace;
might more of his salvation know,
and seek, more earnestly, his face.

'Twas he who taught me thus to pray,
And he, I trust, has answered prayer!
But it has been in such a way
as almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favored hour,
at once he'd answer my request
and by his love's constraining pow'r,
subdue my sins and give me rest.

Instead of this, he made me feel
the hidden evils of my heart;
he let the angry pow'rs of hell
assault my soul in every part.

What's more, with his own hand he seemed
intent to aggravate my woe;
crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
withered my plant, and laid me low.

Lord, why is this, I trembling cried,
will you pursue your worm to death?
"'Tis in this way," the Lord replied,
"I answer prayer for grace and faith.

"These inward trials I employ
from self, and pride, to set you free;
I break your schemes of earthly joy
that you may find your all in me."

(John Newton, 1779; sl. alt., LEW, 2009)

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.