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Octavius Winslow, 1856 (edited for
today's reader by Larry E. Wilson, 2010)
Bible Verse
"My times are in your hand" (Psalm 31:15).
Devotional
Let this precious truth rid your mind of all unnecessary anxiety both for the present or for the future.
Exercising simple faith in God, "do not be anxious about anything" (Phil. 4:6) Learn to be content with your present lot, with God's dealings with and arrangements for you. You are precisely where God in his providence has—in his unfathomable but infinitely wise and righteous choice—put you. It may be painful, irksome, and trying, but it is right. Oh, yes! it is right.
Only, aim to glorify him in it. Wherever he puts you, God has a work for you to do, a purpose to accomplish through you. In this he blends your happiness with his glory. And when you have learned the lessons of his love, he will transfer you to another wider sphere, for whose nobler duties and higher responsibilities the present is, perhaps, simply disciplining and preparing you.
Earnestly desire, then, to live a life of daily dependence upon God. Oh, it is a sweet and holy life! It rescues from many a desponding feeling, from many a corroding care, from many an anxious thought, from many a sleepless night, from many a tearful eye, and from many an unwise and sinful scheme. Going to the "everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure" (2 Sam. 23:5), you may commit children, friends, calling, yourself, to the Lord's care in the fullest assurance that all their "times" and yours are in his hand.
Whate'er my God ordains is right:
holy his will abideth;
I will be still whate'er he doth;
and follow where he guideth:
he is my God: though dark my road,
he holds me that I shall not fall:
wherefore to him I leave it all.
Whate'er my God ordains is right:
he never will deceive me;
he leads me by the proper path;
I know he will not leave me:
I take, content, what he hath sent;
his hand can turn my griefs away,
and patiently I wait his day.
Whate'er my God ordains is right:
though now this cup, in drinking,
may bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it, all unshrinking:
my God is true; each morn anew
sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,
and pain and sorrow shall depart.
Whate'er my God ordains is right:
here shall my stand be taken;
though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
yet am I not forsaken;
my Father's care is round me there;
he holds me that I shall not fall:
and so to him I leave it all.
(Samuel Rodigast, 1675; tr. Catherine Winkworth, 1829-1878)
Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.
Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.
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