Meditate

with a daily devotion

Today «
» Permalink

Daily Light's Morning Reading

A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.LUKE 12:15.

A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.—Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith.—Godliness with contentment is great gain. Having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.—Give us this day our daily bread.

Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?—When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.—Let your conversation be without covetousness: and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

Psa. 37:16. -Prov. 15:16. -I Tim. 6:6,8.Prov. 30:8,9. -Matt. 6:11.Matt. 6:25. -Luke 22:35. -Heb. 13:5.

Spurgeon's Morning Reading

“Will ye also go away?”

John 6:67

Many have forsaken Christ, and have walked no more with him; but what reason have you to make a change? Has there been any reason for it in the past? Has not Jesus proved himself all-sufficient? He appeals to you this morning—“Have I been a wilderness unto you?” When your soul has simply trusted Jesus, have you ever been confounded? Have you not up till now found your Lord to be a compassionate and generous friend to you, and has not simple faith in him given you all the peace your spirit could desire? Can you so much as dream of a better friend than he has been to you? Then change not the old and tried for new and false. As for the present, can that compel you to leave Christ? When we are hard beset with this world, or with the severer trials within the Church, we find it a most blessed thing to pillow our head upon the bosom of our Saviour. This is the joy we have today that we are saved in him; and if this joy be satisfying, wherefore should we think of changing? Who barters gold for dross? We will not forswear the sun till we find a better light, nor leave our Lord until a brighter lover shall appear; and, since this can never be, we will hold him with a grasp immortal, and bind his name as a seal upon our arm. As for the future, can you suggest anything which can arise that shall render it necessary for you to mutiny, or desert the old flag to serve under another captain? We think not. If life be long—he changes not. If we are poor, what better than to have Christ who can make us rich? When we are sick, what more do we want than Jesus to make our bed in our sickness? When we die, is it not written that “neither death, nor life, nor things present, nor things to come, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” We say with Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”

Old Testament Chapter a Day - 1 Samuel 25

1 Samuel 25

25. David, Nabal and Abigail

Death of Samuel

25

Now Samuel died; and all Israel assembled and mourned for him. They buried him at his home in Ramah.

Then David got up and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

David and the Wife of Nabal

2 There was a man in Maon, whose property was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel.3Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was clever and beautiful, but the man was surly and mean; he was a Calebite.4David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.5So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name.6Thus you shall salute him: ‘Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.7I hear that you have shearers; now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing, all the time they were in Carmel.8Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your sight; for we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.’ ”

9 When David’s young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David; and then they waited.10But Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are breaking away from their masters.11Shall I take my bread and my water and the meat that I have butchered for my shearers, and give it to men who come from I do not know where?”12So David’s young men turned away, and came back and told him all this.13David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” And every one of them strapped on his sword; David also strapped on his sword; and about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.

14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he shouted insults at them.15Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we never missed anything when we were in the fields, as long as we were with them;16they were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.17Now therefore know this and consider what you should do; for evil has been decided against our master and against all his house; he is so ill-natured that no one can speak to him.”

18 Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five sheep ready dressed, five measures of parched grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs. She loaded them on donkeys19and said to her young men, “Go on ahead of me; I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.20As she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, David and his men came down toward her; and she met them.21Now David had said, “Surely it was in vain that I protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; but he has returned me evil for good.22God do so to David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”

23 When Abigail saw David, she hurried and alighted from the donkey, and fell before David on her face, bowing to the ground.24She fell at his feet and said, “Upon me alone, my lord, be the guilt; please let your servant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your servant.25My lord, do not take seriously this ill-natured fellow, Nabal; for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him; but I, your servant, did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent.

26 “Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, since the Lord has restrained you from bloodguilt and from taking vengeance with your own hand, now let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be like Nabal.27And now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.28Please forgive the trespass of your servant; for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord; and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live.29If anyone should rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living under the care of the Lord your God; but the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling.30When the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you prince over Israel,31my lord shall have no cause of grief, or pangs of conscience, for having shed blood without cause or for having saved himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.”

32 David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today!33Blessed be your good sense, and blessed be you, who have kept me today from bloodguilt and from avenging myself by my own hand!34For as surely as the Lord the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there would not have been left to Nabal so much as one male.”35Then David received from her hand what she had brought him; he said to her, “Go up to your house in peace; see, I have heeded your voice, and I have granted your petition.”

36 Abigail came to Nabal; he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk; so she told him nothing at all until the morning light.37In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him; he became like a stone.38About ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.

39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord who has judged the case of Nabal’s insult to me, and has kept back his servant from evil; the Lord has returned the evildoing of Nabal upon his own head.” Then David sent and wooed Abigail, to make her his wife.40When David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.”41She rose and bowed down, with her face to the ground, and said, “Your servant is a slave to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.”42Abigail got up hurriedly and rode away on a donkey; her five maids attended her. She went after the messengers of David and became his wife.

43 David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel; both of them became his wives.44Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

New Testament in Four Years - Philippians 1:12-14

Philippians 1:12-14

1. Thanksgiving and Prayer

Paul’s Present Circumstances

12 I want you to know, beloved, that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel,13so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ;14and most of the brothers and sisters, having been made confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, dare to speak the word with greater boldness and without fear.

Psalm a Day - Psalm 85

Psalm 85

85. Psalm 85

Psalm 85

Prayer for the Restoration of God’s Favor

To the leader. Of the Korahites. A Psalm.

1

Lord, you were favorable to your land;

you restored the fortunes of Jacob.

2

You forgave the iniquity of your people;

you pardoned all their sin.Selah

3

You withdrew all your wrath;

you turned from your hot anger.

 

4

Restore us again, O God of our salvation,

and put away your indignation toward us.

5

Will you be angry with us forever?

Will you prolong your anger to all generations?

6

Will you not revive us again,

so that your people may rejoice in you?

7

Show us your steadfast love, O Lord,

and grant us your salvation.

 

8

Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,

for he will speak peace to his people,

to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.

9

Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him,

that his glory may dwell in our land.

 

10

Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;

righteousness and peace will kiss each other.

11

Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,

and righteousness will look down from the sky.

12

The Lord will give what is good,

and our land will yield its increase.

13

Righteousness will go before him,

and will make a path for his steps.

VIEWNAME is Meditate