July 29 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?" (Song 8:5).

Devotional

Was a poor pilgrim ever more honored? Was a lonely traveler ever in better company? How can you be solitary or sorrowful, be in peril or suffer need, while you are journeying homewards in company with and leaning upon Jesus?

But what are you to lean upon your Beloved for? You are to lean upon Jesus for your entire salvation. He "became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30).

And for each one of these inestimable blessings you are to depend daily upon Christ. Where can you lean for pardon, but upon the atoning blood of Jesus? Where can you lean for acceptance, but upon the justifying righteousness of Jesus? And where can you lean for sanctification, but upon the sin-subduing grace of Jesus?

This leaning upon the Beloved, then, is a daily coming up out of yourself in the great matter of your salvation, and resting in the finished work of Christ—no, even more, resting in Christ himself. You are to lean upon the fullness of your Beloved. He is full to a sufficiency for all the needs of his people. There cannot possibly occur a circumstance in your life, there cannot arise a necessity in your case, in which you may not go to the infinite fullness which the Father has laid up in Christ for his church in the wilderness.

Why, then, seek in your poverty what can only be found in Christ's riches? Why look to your emptiness when you may go to his fullness?

"My grace is sufficient for you" (2 Cor. 12:9) is the cheering declaration with which Jesus meets every turn in your path, every twist in your lot, every need in your journey. Distrust your own wisdom then. Look away from your own self, and lean your entire weight upon the infinite fullness that is in Christ.

The posture expresses conscious weakness and deep self-distrust. Who is more feeble than a child of God? Taught the lesson of his weakness in the region of his own heart, and still learning it in his many and painful stumblings, falls, and mistakes, in his self-inflicted wounds, he is at length brought to feel that all his strength is outside of himself. "We felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves..." (2 Cor. 1:9). "I am weak, yes, weakness itself," is his language; "I am like a reed shaken in the wind; I stumble at a feather; I tremble at an echo; I recoil at my own shadow; the smallest difficulty impedes me; the least temptation overcomes me. How will I ever fight my way through this mighty host, and reach in safety the world of bliss?"

By leaning daily, hourly, moment-by-moment, upon your Beloved for strength. Christ is the power of God! And he is the power of the children of God!

Who can strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees, but Jesus? In those who have no might he increases strength. When they are weak in themselves, then are they strong in him. His declaration is, "My power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9).

Lean upon Jesus, then, for strength. He has strength for all your weakness. He can strengthen your faith, he can strengthen your hope, he can strengthen your courage, he can strengthen your patience, and he can strengthen your heart for every burden, for every trial, and for every temptation. Lean upon Jesus. He loves to feel the pressure of your arm. He loves for you to link your feebleness to his almightiness. He loves to avail you of his grace.

Thus leaning away from yourself and onto Christ, "as your days, so shall your strength be" (Deut. 33:25). In all your tremblings and sinkings, you will feel the strengthening of his power. "The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deut. 33:27).

Dying with Jesus, by death reckoned mine;
living with Jesus, a new life divine;
looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,
moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine.

(Dan. W. Whittle, 1840-1901)

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 2011.