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Daily Light's Evening Reading

Fight the good fight of faith.I TIM. 6:12.

We were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.—Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.—Strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.—God is my strength and power: . . . he teacheth my hands to war; so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.—Our sufficiency is of God.

The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.—Behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

The time would fail me to tell of [those] who through faith subdued kingdoms, . . . out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

II Cor. 7:5. -II Kgs. 6:16. -Eph. 6:10.I Sam. 17:45. -II Sam. 22:33,35. -II Cor. 3:5.Psa. 34:7. -II Kgs. 6:17.Heb. 11:32-34.

Spurgeon's Evening Reading

“Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.”

Psalm 35:3

What does this sweet prayer teach me? It shall be my evening’s petition; but first let it yield me an instructive meditation. The text informs me first of all that David had his doubts; for why should he pray, “Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation,” if he were not sometimes exercised with doubts and fears? Let me, then, be of good cheer, for I am not the only saint who has to complain of weakness of faith. If David doubted, I need not conclude that I am no Christian because I have doubts. The text reminds me that David was not content while he had doubts and fears, but he repaired at once to the mercy-seat to pray for assurance; for he valued it as much fine gold. I too must labour after an abiding sense of my acceptance in the Beloved, and must have no joy when his love is not shed abroad in my soul. When my Bridegroom is gone from me, my soul must and will fast. I learn also that David knew where to obtain full assurance. He went to his God in prayer, crying, “Say unto my soul I am thy salvation.” I must be much alone with God if I would have a clear sense of Jesus’ love. Let my prayers cease, and my eye of faith will grow dim. Much in prayer, much in heaven; slow in prayer, slow in progress. I notice that David would not be satisfied unless his assurance had a divine source. “Say unto my soul.” Lord, do thou say it! Nothing short of a divine testimony in the soul will ever content the true Christian. Moreover, David could not rest unless his assurance had a vivid personality about it. “Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” Lord, if thou shouldst say this to all the saints, it were nothing, unless thou shouldst say it to me. Lord, I have sinned; I deserve not thy smile; I scarcely dare to ask it; but oh! say to my soul, even to my soul, “I am thy salvation.” Let me have a present, personal, infallible, indisputable sense that I am thine, and that thou art mine.

Old Testament Chapter a Day - Genesis 30

Genesis 30

30. Rachel and Bilhah

30

When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!”2Jacob became very angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”3Then she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees and that I too may have children through her.”4So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife; and Jacob went in to her.5And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.6Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son”; therefore she named him Dan.7Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.8Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed”; so she named him Naphtali.

9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.10Then Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son.11And Leah said, “Good fortune!” so she named him Gad.12Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.13And Leah said, “Happy am I! For the women will call me happy”; so she named him Asher.

14 In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”15But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”16When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him, and said, “You must come in to me; for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night.17And God heeded Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.18Leah said, “God has given me my hire because I gave my maid to my husband”; so she named him Issachar.19And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son.20Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good dowry; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons”; so she named him Zebulun.21Afterwards she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.

22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God heeded her and opened her womb.23She conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach”;24and she named him Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add to me another son!”

Jacob Prospers at Laban’s Expense

25 When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country.26Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know very well the service I have given you.”27But Laban said to him, “If you will allow me to say so, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you;28name your wages, and I will give it.”29Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your cattle have fared with me.30For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly; and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?”31He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything; if you will do this for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it:32let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages.33So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.”34Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.”35But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in charge of his sons;36and he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was pasturing the rest of Laban’s flock.

37 Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the rods.38He set the rods that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink,39the flocks bred in front of the rods, and so the flocks produced young that were striped, speckled, and spotted.40Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and the completely black animals in the flock of Laban; and he put his own droves apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock.41Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob laid the rods in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the rods,42but for the feebler of the flock he did not lay them there; so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.43Thus the man grew exceedingly rich, and had large flocks, and male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys.

New Testament in Four Years - Romans 8:9-11

Romans 8:9-11

8. Life Through the Spirit

9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.10But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.11If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

Psalm a Day - Psalm 42

Psalm 42

42. Psalm 42

BOOK II

(Psalms 42–72)

Psalm 42

Longing for God and His Help in Distress

To the leader. A Maskil of the Korahites.

1

As a deer longs for flowing streams,

so my soul longs for you, O God.

2

My soul thirsts for God,

for the living God.

When shall I come and behold

the face of God?

3

My tears have been my food

day and night,

while people say to me continually,

“Where is your God?”

 

4

These things I remember,

as I pour out my soul:

how I went with the throng,

and led them in procession to the house of God,

with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,

a multitude keeping festival.

5

Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my help6and my God.

 

My soul is cast down within me;

therefore I remember you

from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,

from Mount Mizar.

7

Deep calls to deep

at the thunder of your cataracts;

all your waves and your billows

have gone over me.

8

By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,

and at night his song is with me,

a prayer to the God of my life.

 

9

I say to God, my rock,

“Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I walk about mournfully

because the enemy oppresses me?”

10

As with a deadly wound in my body,

my adversaries taunt me,

while they say to me continually,

“Where is your God?”

 

11

Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my help and my God.

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