Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

May 6

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. —I Timothy 1:2

Devotional:
Let this be well understood, that when God receives us into his love, there is nothing that moves him to this but our wretchedness and miserable state; yes, the mercy of God, in that he pities us and has compassion on us, shows that there is on our part a wretchedness and misery to be pitied, so that the one answers to the other.

Note well, then, do we want him to love us? Then we must begin at this end, namely with a feeling that we are wretched creatures, that we are castaways and damned.
Whoever they would be that would hope for salvation, and have no taste or feeling of their wretchedness, are like a man who would try to leap above the clouds.

Let us learn, let us learn the way to come to this grace of God, which is no other than this, that we shall stand aghast at our wretchedness and be ashamed and cast down within ourselves, because there is nothing in us but naughtiness and wickedness. And then let us flee to that infinite mercy and pity wherewith God is moved to love us. —Sermons

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John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.