January 20 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Ephesians 3:14-21:

¹⁴For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
¹⁵Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
¹⁶That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
¹⁷That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
¹⁸May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
¹⁹And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
²⁰Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
²¹Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

Devotional

It may be that we are fearful of the problems and trials that we may have to face today. Perhaps we think that we lack the wisdom and the strength to meet them. We may be tempted to feel and act as if we are all alone, forced to struggle against dark and cheerless circumstances. Possibly we dread not only immediate testings and pain but also the heartache and loss to which we fear they may lead.

But the children of God are never alone. They do not have to face a cold and forbidding providence, which is blind, cruel, and uncontrolled. We have a covenant God, who made all things and rules all things and who never leaves nor forsakes His own. We do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but One who was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. We should be encouraged, then, to come boldly in all our need to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help (Hebrews 4:16). Instead of being fearful and dismayed we should be confident and joyful, for our God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.

Welcome to "Think on These Things," a twelve-week daily devotional prepared by the late Dr. John H. Skilton, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and for many years Chairman of the New Testament Department at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

We are indebted to P & R Publishing and Skilton House Ministries for permission to use this copyrighted material on the OPC Web site. (P & R held the copyright from 1975 to 2005, at which time they reassigned the copyright to Skilton House.)