October 2 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him" (Ps. 62:5).

Devotional

This trust implies a ceasing from all confidence in the arm of flesh. It implies a ceasing from all reliance in unbelieving, carnal plans and schemes to obtain deliverance from the pressure of present trial, and supplies for present need. It involves a constant, prayerful, and believing leaning on the Lord. It involves a quiet, patient waiting for the Lord. It involves a peaceful, childlike, passive resting in the Lord. It involves a holy, filial walking with the Lord.

Remember to lean on Christ, to wait for Christ, to rest in Christ, and to walk with Christ. Only do this in all your trials and temptations, needs, and sorrows. Only trust him to lead you by a right way to bring you to heaven. Only trust him to appear in his own good time to deliver you from a present cross, to remove a present burden, to supply a present need, and to conduct you into the green pastures and beside the sweet flowing waters of his truth and love. This calm submissive trust will so delight him—this full implicit confidence will so honor his faithfulness, and so glorify his name—that he will honor and bless you by granting the desires of your heart. He will bestow from the abundance of his resources every blessing that you ask and need.

Above all other trusts, entrust to Jesus your priceless soul. Relax your grasp upon everything else but Jesus. Let go your religious duties and doings, your works and righteousness, let go all Babel-built hopes of heaven. Only trust—and trust only—in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.

He never rejected any poor penitent sinner. Nor was he ever known to cast any away (John 6:37). And if you come and trust in his righteousness alone to justify you—to give you acceptance with God and a title to eternal glory—and perish, then you will be the first that ever perished at his feet—as if you could perish there!

Hear your Father and your God say—"As your days, so shall your strength be" (Deut. 33:25). "As your days"—each new burden shall bring its support. Each new difficulty shall bring its guidance. Each new sorrow shall bring its soothing. And each new day shall bring its strength. Make it your only care to deny all ungodliness, and to walk worthy of your high vocation. Aim to separate yourself more widely and distinctly from the world, its practices and its spirit. Seek more closely to resemble Christ in his gentle, charitable, forgiving temper. And try—yielding yourself more entirely to the disposal of the Lord—to do as seems good to him. And when called to meet death, aim to hear the summons that bids you rise. Then, when all other things are receding from your view and all other voices are dying upon your ear, Jesus will approach. And amid the gloom and steadiness of the shadowy valley you will see his person, and hear him say, "Do not be afraid—only trust me!"

I need thee, precious Jesus,
for I am full of sin;
my soul is dark and guilty,
my heart is dead within.
I need the cleansing fountain
where I can always flee,
the blood of Christ most precious,
the sinner's perfect plea.

(Frederick Whitfield, 1855)

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.