Daily Devotional

January 30

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Let...no man put a stumbling-block in
his brother's way (Romans 14:13)

[The Psalmist] tells us [Psalm 73:15] that he was still not clear about, and still could not understand, the difficulty that had shaken him and tempted him so severely.... So he stopped trying to solve it, saying to himself, "Well, I must leave this main problem for the time being. I will say nothing about it because I can see that if I express my thoughts it will cause me to offend against the generation of God's people. And I cannot do that. Very well; I will take my stand on what I am certain of and be content not to understand the other matter for the present."


How simple his method is, and yet how vital is every single step...; our speech must always be essentially positive. I mean that we should never be too ready to express our doubts and to proclaim our uncertainties....
I remember a young man coming to me years ago. He was a student who had gone to his college grounded in the Christian faith and believing it. A Professor in that college who prided himself on being an unbeliever, and who had nothing positive to give that young man, would ridicule him and his position, not only in his lectures but in private, laughing at all his beliefs and pouring scorn upon his faith. It had landed this young man in a very grievous and unhappy condition.

There are not many things worse than the action of such a Professor who, having nothing himself by which to live, tries to take away and to destroy the faith of a young man, speaking against it and trying to under­mine it. This, of course, was a malicious and intentional attack.... But we, too, can be guilty of the same thing, although we may not be aware of it. Though we may be assailed by doubts and uncertainties, we ought not to proclaim our doubts or voice our uncertainties.... If we can say nothing helpful, we should say nothing at all. That was what this man did.

Faith on Trial, pp. 27-8

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“Text reproduced from ‘A First Book of Daily Readings’ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Epworth Press 1970 & 1977 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.”