March 21 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"It is I; do not be afraid" (John 6:20).

Devotional

Imagine yourself threading your way along a most difficult and perilous path, every step of which is attended with pain and jeopardy, each step of which is taken with hesitancy and doubt. Unknown to you and unseen by you, there is one hovering around you each moment, restraining each false step and guiding each doubtful one, soothing each sorrow, and supplying each need. All is calm and silent. Not a sound is heard. Not a movement is seen. And yet, to your amazement, at just the critical moment the needed support comes—you do not know from where, you do not know from whom. This is no flight of fancy.

Are you a child of God, tracing your steps to Paradise by an elaborate and perilous way? Jesus is near you at each moment, unseen and often unknown. At times you have stood speechless with awe at the strange intervention of providence and of grace on your behalf. No visible sign indicated the source of your help. There was no echo of footfall at your side, no flitting of shadow across your path. No law of nature was altered or suspended. The sun did not stand still. Nor did the heavens open. And yet deliverance, strange and effectual deliverance, came at a moment most unexpected, yet most needed.

It was Jesus—your Redeemer, your Brother, your Shepherd, and your Guide! It was he who, hovering around you, unknown and unobserved, kept you as the apple of his eye. It was he who sheltered you in the hollow of his hand. It was he who armed you with courage for the fight. It was he who poured strength into your spirit and grace into your heart when the full weight of calamity pressed upon them.

He has always been thus to his saints. The incident of the disciples in the storm offers a striking example. Behold him standing on the shore, eyeing with riveted gaze the little boat as it struggled amidst the sea. His disciples were often invisible to human eyes, but they were never for a moment lost to his. Even when he was on the mount alone in prayer, they were never forgotten or unobserved. He beheld their peril, he knew their fears, and he hastened to their aid. Stepping from the shore, he approached them. Oh how majestic he now appeared—walking like a man; and yet, upon the water, like a God! They did not realize that it was Jesus, and were afraid. But their knowledge of him was not necessary to their safety. It was enough that he knew them. And just as the storm was at its height, and their fears rose with their peril, he drew near and said to them, in his own gentle, soothing tone, "It is I; do not be afraid."

A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing;
our helper he amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
doth seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great;
and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing;
were not the right Man on our side,
the Man of God's own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he,
the Lord of Hosts his name,
from age to age the same,
and he must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God hath willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo! his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.

That Word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them, abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours
through him who with us sideth;
let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill:
God's truth abideth still;
his kingdom is for ever.

(Martin Luther, 1529; tr. by Frederick H. Hedge, 1853)

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.