July 31 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me" (Ps. 131:2).

Devotional

The first object from which our heavenly Father weans his child is self. Of all idols, self is the hardest to abandon.

When man in Paradise aspired to be as God, God was dethroned from his soul and the creature became as a deity to itself. From that moment, the idolatry of self has been the great and universal crime of our race, and will continue to be until Christ comes to restore all things.

In the soul of the regenerate, God's grace has done much to dethrone this idol and to reinstate God. The work, however, is but partially accomplished. The dishonored and rejected rival is not eager to relinquish his throne and yield to the supreme control and sway of another. There is much yet to be achieved before this still indwelling and unconquered foe lays down his weapons in entire subjection to the will and the authority of that Savior, whose throne and rights he has usurped.

Thus, even in the heart which the Spirit has renewed and inhabits much still lingers of self-love, self-confidence, self-seeking, and self-exalting. From all this our Father seeks to wean us. He would wean us from our own wisdom, which is but folly. He would detach from our own strength, which is but weakness. He would disengage us from our own wills, which are often as a wild steed. He would remove us from our own ways, which are crooked. He would uncouple us from our own hearts, which are deceitful. He would draw us away from our own judgments, which are dark. He would cut us off from our own ends, which are narrow and selfish. He would wean us from all these so that our souls may get more and more back to their original center of repose—God himself.

In view of this mournful display of fallen and corrupt self, how necessary the discipline of our heavenly Father that wrests from us the Psalmist's language, "But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me"! Self was like our mother, the fruitful parent of so much in our plans and aims and spirit that was dishonoring to our God. From this he would gently and tenderly—but effectually—wean us, that we may learn to rely upon his wisdom, to repose in his strength, to consult his honor, and to seek his glory and his smile, supremely and solely.

And oh! how effectually is this blessed state attained when God, by setting us aside in the season of solitude and sorrow, teaches us that he can do without us. Perhaps we thought that our rank, or our talents, or our influence, or our very presence were essential to the advancement of his cause, and that some parts of it could not proceed without us! The Lord knew otherwise. And so he laid his hand upon us, and withdrew us from the scene of our labors and duties, engagements and ambition, that he might hide pride from our hearts—the pride of self-importance.

And oh, is it no mighty attainment in the Christian life to be thus weaned from ourselves! Beloved, it forms the root of all other blessing. The moment we learn to cease from ourselves—from our own wisdom, and power, and importance—the Lord appears and takes us up. Then his wisdom is displayed, his power is put forth, his glory is developed, and his great name gets to itself all the praise. It was not until God had placed Moses in the cleft of the rock, that his glory passed by. Moses must be hid, that God might be all.

My Jesus, as thou wilt!
O may thy will be mine;
into thy hand of love
I would my all resign.
Through sorrow, or through joy,
conduct me as thine own;
and help me still to say,
"My Lord, thy will be done."

Benjamin Schmolck, c. 1704

(tr. by Jane Borthwick, 1854)

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.