May 26 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

1 John 2:1-11:

¹My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
²And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
³And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
⁴He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
⁵But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
⁶He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
⁷Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.
⁸Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.
⁹He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
¹⁰He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
¹¹But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

Devotional

Jesus Christ is gone into heaven, and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. But He is there on our behalf. He is our Advocate. When Satan resists us, as he did Joshua, Christ points to the eternal counsel of salvation, and rebukes Satan, and no accusation can stand against us. "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." And just as sure as Christ, our Head, is at the right hand of the Fa­ther, He will take us, his members, up to himself. And further­more, he sent his Holy Spirit, that other Comforter, to us, "by whose power we seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, and not things on the earth." The heart of Lot's wife was in Sodom. The children of Israel in the wilderness lusted after the flesh pots of Egypt. And we often set our affection on things on the earth instead of on things above. But the Holy Spirit enables us to seek the things Christ has prepared for us. And He has prepared a place in heaven for us. And He will come again to take us unto himself, that where He is, there we may be also.

Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus, Thou art in heaven and we are on earth. We confess before Thee that we are so prone to cleave to the earth and things earthly. Be pleased by Thy Holy Spirit to direct our hearts and minds to the things above, and help us to live unto Thee, until Thou shalt come to receive us up to Thy­self in glory. Amen.

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Scripture in Devotional: Zech. 3:1; Rom. 8:33, 34; Col. 3:2; John 14:3.

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