December 4 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Deuteronomy 5:22–27

Devotional

God’s great design in all his works is to manifest his own glory. Any lesser aim would be unworthy of him.

But how will he manifest his glory to fallen creatures such as we are? The human eye is not single-minded. He ever has a side glance towards his own honour. He ever has too high an estimate of his own powers. And so he is not capable of beholding the glory of the Lord.

It is clear, then, that self must stand out of the way so that there may be room for God to be exalted. This is why God often brings his people into straits and difficulties, so that—being made conscious of their own folly and weakness—they may be equipped to behold God’s majesty when he comes forth to work their deliverance.

He whose life is one even and smooth path will see but little of the Lord’s glory. Why? Because he has few occasions of self-emptying; hence, he has but little fitness for being filled with the revelation of God. Those who navigate small streams and shallow creeks know but little of the God of tempests. But those who “do business on the mighty waters” see his “wonderful deeds in the deep” (Ps. 107:23–24). We learn the power of Jehovah among the huge ocean waves of bereavement, poverty, temptation, and reproach because we feel our own littleness.

Thank God, then, if you have been led by a rough road. It is this which has given you your experience of God’s greatness and lovingkindness. Your troubles have enriched you with a wealth of knowledge to be gained by no other means. Your trials have been the cleft of the rock in which Jehovah has set you, as he did his servant Moses, so that you might behold his glory as it passed by (Ex. 33:18–23). Praise God that you have not been left to the darkness and ignorance which continued prosperity might have involved, but that in the great fight of affliction, God has fitted you for the surpassing displays of his glory in his wonderful dealings with you.

[July 19]

Extracted from C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (public domain), language modernized by Larry E. Wilson.