April 3 Daily Devotional

"If God Be For Us...."

the Rev. David Freeman

"If God be for us, who can be against us?"
"Romans 8:31.

Devotional

There are treasures in these words. They sound sweet, but only to a believer's ears. It is not every man who can say that God is on his side. God is not for everybody. Because men are friends of sin, God's justice demands that He be against them for their destruction. God is angry with the sinner. His wrath abides upon the children of disobedience.

Many say, "Lord, Lord," but God is the more against them. They draw nigh to God with their lips but their hearts are far from Him. They make pretenses of piety, but make common cause with God's enemies. The TRUTH is not in their hearts. They number themselves with the people of God but have not God's Holy Spirit. Without the Third Person of the Godhead, they are none of His. God is against them who play with holy things. If the open sinner merits God's wrath who can picture the wrath of God upon the pretender and hypocrite.

And when God is against all such, who can be for them? Even if prosperity come to them in this world, they are in adversity. Their pleasures and victories are only preludes to their pains and defeat.

Consider well if God be for you. Only upon repentance and perceiving through faith the Lord God in the person of Jesus Christ can hope and joy begin. Only when Christ is seen as bearing the Divine wrath on the cross comes the sweet assurance that God is on our side. Through the sprinkled blood there is reconciliation.

(to be continued)

"Lift Up Your Heart" is a series of devotionals by the late Rev. David Freeman, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church for most of his life. These devotionals, in fact, are part of the early history of our denomination. The first of them was published in The Presbyterian Guardian in 1935; the denomination now known as the Orthodox Presbyterian Church was officially formed in 1936. We believe that "the Word of our God stands forever" (Isaiah 40:8; see 1 Peter 1:25). Thus it is no surprise that meditations based on that Word have continued relevance today. Dr. Freeman's devotionals are proof of that fact.

David Freeman was a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary (Th.B., 1928; Th.M. , 1930) and of Dropsie Univiersity (Ph.D., 1951). He served as pastor at Grace (later New Covenant) Presbyterian Church (OPC), Philadelphia, PA (1936-1946), Knox Presbyterian Church (OPC), Philadelphia, PA (1949-1962), and Grace Presbyterian Church (OPC), Fall River, MA (1962-1967). He authored many articles and (along with his son, David H. Freeman) is the author of the book A Philosophical Study of Religion, which appeared in 1964. He went to be with the Lord in 1984.

There is one change from the way the daily devotional was handled in the past with John Skilton's Think On These Things: New devotionals for the new series appear on weekdays only (Monday through Saturday. It is suggested that you use your pastor's sermon text(s) as the basis for your mediations on the Lord's Day.

We trust that you will find these devotionals, once again made available seventy years after they first appeared, to be a personal help in your own Christian walk today!