February 10 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"He always lives to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25).

Devotional

How sweet and comforting to the believer is this view of our exalted Immanuel in the hour of grief, or when confined in loneliness, or when languishing in sickness! You may be too deeply absorbed in sorrow for your anguished spirit to speak in prayer. Your body may be so weakened by disease and racked by pain that it renders your mind incapable of close and coherent spiritual thought. Oh, how sweet then is the intercession of Jesus! To know that, in the hour of your soul's extremity, when human sympathy and power are exhausted, Jesus "has entered ... into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf" (Heb. 9:24), pleading for you, his suffering child!

And, when all utterance has failed on earth, and your heart is broken, and your lips are sealed, then to look up and see your elder Brother—the Brother born for your adversity—the exalted High Priest, waving the golden censer before the throne while the cloud of his atoning merit goes up before the mercy-seat, bearing your person, your name, your circumstances, and your needs—you, the sufferer below. Precious gospel, that opens to the eye of faith so sweet a scene as this!

Even when you cannot think of him, afflicted soul, he is always thinking of you. Even when you cannot pray to him, he is always praying for you, for "he always lives to make intercession."

What a Friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
ev'rything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry
ev'rything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations?
is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged:
take it to the Lord in prayer!
Can we find a friend so faithful,
who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our ev'ry weakness—
take it to the Lord in prayer!

Are we weak and heavy laden,
cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our Refuge—
take it to the Lord in prayer!
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he'll take and shield thee,
thou wilt find a solace there.

(Joseph Scriven, 1855)

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.