May 23 Daily Devotional

A day's march nearer home!

Do I tell myself every day I live that this is but another milestone I am passing, never to go back, never to come again? I am pitching my moving tent "a day's march nearer home." ... I am a child of the Father placed here for His purpose, not for myself. I did not choose to come; I have not brought myself here; there is a purpose in it all.

God has given me this great privilege of living in this world; and if He has endued me with any gifts, I have to realize that although in one sense all these things are mine, ultimately, as Paul shows at the end of 1 Corinthians 3, they are God's.

Therefore, regarding myself as one who has this great privilege of being a caretaker for God, a custodian, and a steward, I do not cling to these things. They do not become the center of my life and existence; I do not live for them or dwell upon them constantly in my mind; they do not absorb my life.

On the contrary, I hold them loosely; I am in a state of blessed detachment from them. I am not governed by them; rather do I govern them; and as I do this I am steadily securing, and safely laying up for myself, "treasures in heaven."

... The Lord Jesus Christ tells us to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, and the saints have always done so. They believed in the reality of the glory that awaited them. They hoped to get there, and their one desire was to enjoy it in all its perfection and in all its fullness.

If we are anxious to "follow in their train" and to enjoy the same glory, we had better listen to our Lord's exhortation: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth ... but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, ii, p. 85

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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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