May 3 Daily Devotional

Can the beauty of Jesus be seen in you?

In a sense a depressed Christian is a contradiction in terms, and he is a very poor recommendation for the Gospel. We are living in a pragmatic age. People today are not primarily interested in Truth, but they are interested in results. The one question they ask is: Does it work ?They are frantically seeking and searching for something that can help them.

Now we believe that God extends His Kingdom partly through His people, and we know that He has oftentimes done some of the most notable things in the history of the Church through the simple Christian living of some quite ordinary people. Nothing is more important, therefore, than that we should be delivered from a condition which gives other people, looking at us, the impression that to be a Christian means to be unhappy, to be sad, to be morbid and that the Christian is one who "scorns delights and lives laborious days."

There are many indeed who give this as a reason for not being Christian.... They say: Look at Christian people.... And they are very fond of contrasting us with people out in the world, people who seem to be so thrilled by the things they believe in.... They shout at their football matches; they talk about the films they have seen; they are full of excitement and want everybody to know it; but Christian people too often seem to be perpetually in the doldrums and too often give this appearance of unhappiness and of lack of freedom and of absence of joy....

It behooves us therefore ... for the sake of the kingdom of God and the glory of the Christ in whom we believe to represent Him and His cause, His message, and His power in such a way that men and women, far from being antagonized, will be drawn and attracted as they observe us, whatever our circumstances or condition. We must so live that they will be compelled to say: Would to God I could be like that ... and go through this world as that person does.

Spiritual Depression, pp. 11-12

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“Text reproduced from ‘A First Book of Daily Readings’ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Epworth Press 1970 & 1977 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.”

Comments on D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, A First Book of Daily Readings

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