May 22 Daily Devotional

One thing thou lackest

The so-called rich young ruler ... was right in many different respects; and yet, when he met our Lord, he became convinced that he had a real need and a lack at the very center of his life.

Was not this also the case with Martin Luther before his conversion? He had spent his time in fasting and prayer and sweating. He was trying to put his life in order; ... and yet, in spite of heroic efforts, he remained centrally miserable and unhappy.

But when the glorious doctrine about justification by faith suddenly dawned upon him, and was made plain to him, Luther was put right at the center and became the mighty reformer whose works we know.

John Wesley may serve as another example of the need of a Christ-center in one's life. There was never a more sincere and honest man. There was never a man who gave such time and energy to the improving of himself. He suffered persecution in Oxford in order that he might preach to the prisoners in the jails. He eventually gave up his college fellowship and prospects and crossed the Atlantic to preach to the slaves in Georgia, all in an effort to put himself right.

And yet he found that although he had dealt with many aspects and portions of his life, he still remained centrally unhappy and defeated. And then he tells how, quietly, in that meeting in the room in Aldersgate Street in London, he felt his heart suddenly strangely warmed.

John Wesley himself had at last been put right in the center. His soul had come to that direct knowledge of God which is to be found in Jesus Christ. The eye had been made single, and John Wesley was a new man.

Truth Unchanged, Unchanging, pp. 89-90

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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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