Daily Devotional

August 14

A First Book of Daily Readings

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

Doest thou well to be angry?

... that blessed condition which is described in Philippians 4:11–13 ... ‘For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content’

In other words, he has arrived at a condition in which he is no longer hyper-sensitive. He is in a condition in which it does not matter very much what happens to him; it is not going to disturb him. ‘I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.’ That is the position in which all of us who are Christians should be.

The man who is not a Christian is not there, and cannot possibly be there. He is like a barrel of gunpowder; you never know when there is going to be an explosion.
The slightest pin-prick causes great trouble; he is hyper-sensitive because of self. But the Apostle Paul had remembered what our Lord puts first to His disciples, namely, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself’. Self must be put out first. Then let him ‘take up his cross, and follow me’. Because self is dethroned and put into the background, the disciple is not hyper-sensitive, and these things do not cause troubles and alarms and explosions. He is balanced because self is put out and he is living for Christ.

Let us examine ourselves in the light of this. Let us think of all our grievances; think of all our hardships, all the slights and insults and all the rest of the things we think have been heaped upon us, and all the misunderstandings.... There is nothing there really; we have just been making a mountain out of a molehill. If we could but make a list of the things that have upset us, how ashamed we should be. How small, how petty we can be!

Faith on Trial, p. 79