May 14 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only" (Mark 9:8).

Devotional

It is possible, dear reader, that you may be reading this page at a period of painful and entire separation from all public engagements, ordinances, and privileges. The way which it has pleased God thus to set you aside may be painful and humbling. You may be the resident of the sick room. You may be curtained within the house of mourning. You may be removed far remote from the sanctuary of God and the fellowship of the saints. Perhaps you are led to ask, "Lord, why this?" He replies, "Come away by yourself to a desolate place and rest a while" (Mark 6:31).

Oh the thoughtfulness, the wisdom, the tenderness of Jesus towards his people! He has set you apart from public duties for private ones. He has set you apart from communion with others for communion with himself. Ministers, friends, privileges are withdrawn, and—oh enviable state!—you are alone with Jesus. And now expect the richest and holiest blessing of your life!

Is it sickness? Jesus will make all your bed in your sickness. And your experience shall be, "His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me" (Song 2:6).

Is it bereavement? Jesus will soothe your sorrow and sweeten your loneliness, for he loves to visit the house of mourning and to accompany us to the grave, to weep with us there.

Is it exile from the house of God, from the ordinances of the church, from a pastor's care, from Christian fellowship? Still it is Jesus who speaks, "I will be a sanctuary to you during your time in exile" (Ezek. 11:16, NLT).

The very circumstances in which you are placed, new and peculiar as they are, God can convert into new and peculiar mercies—even into the richest means of grace with which your soul was ever fed! The very void you feel, the very need you deplore, may be God's way of satisfying you with his goodness.

Ah! Does God not see your grace in your very desire for grace? Does he not note your sanctification in your very thirsting for holiness? And can he not turn that desire and convert that thirst into the very blessing itself? Truly he can! And truly he often does! God knows how to give the comfort of an ordinance in the desire for an ordinance. And he can more than supply the absence of others by the presence of himself.

Oh, who can calculate the blessings that may now flow into your soul from this season of exile and of solitude? Solitude! No, it is not solitude. Never were you less alone than now. You are alone with God, and he is infinitely better than health, wealth, friends, ministers, or sanctuary, for he is the substance and the sweetness of all.

Perhaps you have been laboring and watching for the souls of others. The Lord is now showing his tender care for your soul. And oh, if while thus alone with Jesus you are led more deeply to search out the plague of your own heart, and to search out his love, and to cultivate a closer fellowship with your Father, then however much you may mourn the necessity and the cause, yet you will not regret that the Lord has set you apart from others so that you might rest awhile in his blest embrace—alone with Jesus!

Jesus, priceless treasure,
fount of purest pleasure,
truest friend to me:
ah, how long in anguish
shall my spirit languish,
yearning, Lord, for thee?
Thine I am, O spotless Lamb!
I will suffer naught to hide thee,
naught I ask beside thee.

In thine arms I rest me;
foes who would molest me
cannot reach me here.
Though the earth be shaking,
ev'ry heart be quaking,
Jesus calms my fear.
Lightnings flash and thunders crash;
yet, though sin and hell assail me,
Jesus will not fail me.

Satan, I defy thee;
death, I now decry thee;
fear, I bid thee cease.
World, thou shalt not harm me
nor thy threats alarm me
while I sing of peace.
God's great pow'r guards ev'ry hour;
earth and all its depths adore him,
silent bow before him.

Hence with earthly treasure!
Thou art all my pleasure,
Jesus, all my choice.
Hence, thou empty glory!
Naught to me thy story,
told with tempting voice.
Pain or loss or shame or cross
shall not from my Savior move me,
since he deigns to love me.

Hence, all fear and sadness!
For the Lord of gladness,
Jesus, enters in.
Those who love the Father,
though the storms may gather,
still have peace within.
Yea, whate'er I here must bear,
thou art still my purest pleasure,
Jesus, priceless treasure.

(Johann Franck, 1655; tr. by Catherine Winkworth, 1863)

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.