February 10 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

James 4:7-17:

⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
⁸Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
⁹Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
¹⁰Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
¹¹Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
¹²There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
¹³Go to now, ye that say, Today or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
¹⁴Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
¹⁵For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
¹⁶But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
¹⁷Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Devotional

"To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, and bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth." "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world."

"What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?" "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof faileth away." Even the rich shall pass away as the flower of the grass. "For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof faileth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways." "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not." "As for man, his days are as grass: as the flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more."

But! Thank the Lord, there is a "but." But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him. The eternal God bestows his mercy and everlasting life upon them that fear him, through Jesus Christ, who brought life and immortality to light.

Prayer

O Lord, may our eye of faith constantly be directed toward Jesus Christ, who has conquered death. May we realize that in him there is life, abundant life, for all who put their trust in him. May we realize the vanity of all earthly things, and find our chief joy in things eternal. Help us to rejoice in our Saviour. Amen.

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Scripture in Devotional: Isa. 40:25f.; Acts 15:18; 1 Pet. 1:24; Heb. 2:6; James 1:10f.; Job 14:1f.; Ps. 103:15:17.

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