Daily Devotional

March 31

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC website

Here the fair tree of knowledge grows,
And yields a free repast

In the days of the Psalmist they did not have God's Word as you and I have it today. It is not only in the sanctuary; it is available everywhere. Turn to it in the home or in the church; it does not matter where, and it will immediately make you think spiritually.... One of the reasons why God has given us this Word is in order to help us to deal with this problem that we are considering....

Take a Psalm like this one [73] and its story. Merely to read what this man went through puts me right, and all the histories do the same.... Begin to read your Bible and its great teaching and doctrines, and you are again reminded of God's gracious purposes for man....

Then it has explicit teaching on the question of the suffering of the godly.
Paul writes to Timothy, who was ready to whimper and complain when things went wrong, and he says to him, "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12).... Again, Paul speaking to the early Christian churches told them that it is "through much tribulation" that we must enter into the kingdom of God.

If we grasp Paul's teaching to the early Christian churches, we shall not be surprised at the things that happen to us. Indeed, instead of being surprised at them, we almost get to the stage in which we expect them, in which we feel like saying, "If I am not having troubles, what is wrong with me? Why are things going so well with me?"

In other words, the whole atmosphere of the Bible is spiritual, and the more we read it, the more we shall be delivered from the rational level and raised to that higher level where we see things on the spiritual plane.
Faith on Trial, pp. 40-1

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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.”