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Octavius Winslow, 1856 (edited for
today's reader by Larry E. Wilson, 2010)
Bible Verse
"Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you" (John 21:17).
Devotional
Dear reader, this is his own solemn declaration of himself—"I, the Lord, search the heart" (Jer. 17:10).
Can you open all your heart to him? Can you admit him within its most secret places? Are you willing to conceal nothing? Are you willing that he should search and prove it?
Oh, be honest with God! Keep nothing back. Tell him all that you detect within you. He loves the full, honest disclosure. He delights in this confiding surrender of the whole heart.
Are you honest in your desires that he might sanctify your heart, and subdue all its iniquity? Then confess all to him. Tell him everything. You would not conceal from your physician a single symptom of your disease. You would not hide any part of the wound. But, if anxious for a complete cure, you would disclose to him all. Be as honest with the Great Physician—the Physician of your soul.
It is true, he knows your case. It is true, he anticipates every want. Yet he would have, and delights in having, his child approach him with a full and honest disclosure.
Let David's example encourage you: "I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,' and you forgave the iniquity of my sin" (Ps. 32:5).
And while your heart is thus pouring itself out in a full and minute confession, keep the eye of faith fixed on Christ. It is only in this posture that your soul shall be kept from despondency. Faith must rest itself upon the atoning blood.
And oh, in this posture, fully and freely, beloved reader, you may pour out your heart to God! Disclosures you dare not make to your closest friend, you may make to him. Sins you would not confess, corruption your would not acknowledge as existing within you, you are privileged thus, "looking unto Jesus" (Heb. 12:2), to pour into the ear of your Father and God. And oh, how your heart will become unburdened, and your conscience purified, and peace and joy flow into your soul, by this opening of your heart to God!
Try it, dear reader. Let no consciousness of guilt keep you back. Let no unbelieving suggestion of Satan that such confessions are inappropriate for the ear of God, restrain you. Come at once—come now—to your Father's feet and, bringing in your hands the precious blood of Christ, make a full and free disclosure.
No, not despairingly come I to thee;
no, not distrustingly bend I the knee:
sin hath gone over me,
yet is this still my plea,
Jesus hath died.
Lord, I confess to thee sadly my sin;
all I am tell I thee, all I have been:
purge thou my sin away,
wash thou my soul this day;
Lord, make me clean.
Faithful and just art thou, forgiving all;
loving and kind art thou when poor ones call:
Lord, let the cleansing blood,
blood of the Lamb of God,
pass o'er my soul.
Then all is peace and light this soul within;
thus shall I walk with thee, the loved Unseen;
leaning on thee, my God,
guided along the road,
nothing between.
(Horatius Bonar, 1866)
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.
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