Devotional - Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the plans I have for you

J. R. Miller, 1895  

Devotional  - April 21.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

It is better that we should not know our future. If we did, we would often spoil God's plan for our life. If we could see into tomorrow, and know the troubles it will bring, we might be tempted to seek some way of avoiding them, while really they are God's way to new honor and blessing. God's thoughts for us—are always thoughts of love, good, promotion; but sometimes the path to the hilltop lies through dark valleys or up rough paths. Yet to miss the hard bit of road is to fail of gaining the lofty height. It is better, therefore, to walk with God, not knowing the path ourselves, than it would be to see the way and choose for ourselves. God's way for us—is always better than our own.

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Devotional and Practical Meditations on the Book of Ecclesiastes

I like this devotion especially the last paragraph because the Holy Spirit taught me to meditate. That's when I realized, only Him can "still" our soul to truly meditate on the word of God. Because the Spirit stills the soul to prepare it for mediation, it makes it easier to interact with God for hours at the time and to also be led by the Spirit because you can easily take your cues for the day through your meditation. Not only that, as you meditate, you find that you worship in His presence, you enjoy intimacy with Him, you have joy in your heart and your mind is kept renewed at all time. The biggest part of meditation is that over time, you realize what you are doing is also gazing in His eyes while you take on His imprint. Or, you are soaking in Him as He infuses you with Himself, hence you are being changed from glory to glory. 

Another reason why it is so important we learn to meditate, It truly helps us to be honest with ourselves as we examine our walk with Him, without the mask, and without excuses.

"Guard your steps when you go to the house of God." Ecclesiastes 5:1

The Preacher says, "Guard your steps!" A prophet says the same, "Keep your feet from being unshod." (Jeremiah 2:25.) The advice is good. To walk unshod is a sure way to pierce yourself with many sorrows. For slip-shod grace will never advantage you — and never less so than in going to the house of prayer. Leave not your Gospel shoes at home; nor lose them along the way. If so, you will not find them when you come to worship.

What do you think of, and speak of, along the way to the house of God? If earthly things engage the mind — the doings of the past or coming week; the dress or manners of the passers by; the news you have heard; the letters you have had — if thoughts like these are in your mind up to the very threshold of the church door — this will hinder your devotions.

God's worship must begin before you leave your home; your thoughts, your speech, your eyes — must be focused on God. Fix them on Jesus — and then you will not have them to bestow on other things. Make Christ your company along the way — and He'll accompany you in the house of God; then all its acts shall savor of His presence.

In private worship, or in social prayer, we cannot be dwelling on worldly things — and then spring at once from earth to Heaven. Oh, there is a preparation of the heart; a setting of the countenance heavenwards; a girding the loins for fellowship with God; a deep conviction of His majesty; a pausing on the threshold of His presence — that the first word of prayer may have His blessing. If you would "guard your feet" in seasons of devotion, be sure you keep them well at other times. As is your daily walk — your prayers will be. A careless walk begets a wandering mind, unfit to gather in its thoughts, and settle them in prayer. Prayer and the daily walk act, and react, on one another. He who is much in prayer will guard his feet; and he who guard his feet properly, be much in prayer.

Nothing feeds the soul like meditation — the habit of reflecting on our ways, and Scripture truths. This leads alike to holiness, and converse with the Lord. Then, child of God, at all times "guard your feet;" not only when you go to the house of prayer.

Devotional and Practical Meditations on the Book of Ecclesiastes

"The eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing." Ecclesiastes 1:8

The senses are but servants to the soul. The soul desires to look — and sets the eye to see. The soul desires to hear — and sets the ear to hearken. The soul is never wearied. It listens to sweet music, and lingers, longing still for more. When had the soul enough of a sweet flower? When was it ever filled to overflowing with viewing the masterpieces of nature?

Nothing on earth can satisfy the soul!

It leaves its pleasures, with a craving for more.

It sighs to increase its satisfactions.

It grieves to think how limited are all its joys.

Oh, there is a longing in the soul; a restless appetite to see and hear, to grasp, to understand; a stretching forth of thought; a yearning principle — which spurns the restrictions of the senses. And yet (such is the tribute due to sinful human nature) sense, in its feebleness, keeps down the soul. The soul, with all its energy, cannot overpower sense!

How sad, how humbling the condition of fallen man!

Yet, child of God, you have no cause to mourn. Gifted by grace with higher faculties, you have that with which to fill your soul to the full. By faith you see, hear, and taste better things — you see Jesus on the throne of God. By faith you see the "sea of glass," and hear "the voice of harpers harping with their harps." You see Heavenly and eternal realities by faith!

My soul, why linger after the things of time — when better sights, and better sounds invite you? Or why lament your straitened means — with heavenly powers so unlimited?

Then let your eye repose on Jesus!

The more you look at Him — the longer will you look.

The more you look — the more will be your power to gaze upon Him.

The more you commune with Him — the sweeter shall you find His company.

Speak much to Jesus — you shall not speak in vain. The name of Jesus shall be to you "as beds of spices, and sweet flowers." (Canticles 5:13.) The whispers of the Spirit, telling of grace and peace, shall ever and always refresh your ear!

My soul, these pleasures shall never fail you!

Not like the music, that was, and is not — with no hand to sweep the chords!

Not like a feast of yesterday — which is now gone forever!

Not like the flowers that once were fragrant — and now are fragrant no longer!

Not like the beautiful landscape — which you have left behind!

Your Savior, Friend, and Comforter, is ever with you — now and to all eternity the same!

A Prayer for Imputed Righteousness!

John MacDuff, 1856 

"Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all those who believe." Romans 3:22

Almighty God, Father of all mercies, I desire to draw near into Your sacred presence on this the evening of another day, under a deep sense of my own great unworthiness. What am I, guilty, sinful, polluted - that I should be permitted to take Your name into my lips, or so much as lift up my eyes to the place where You in glory dwell!

I desire to renounce all dependence on myself. I come with all the great burden of my great guilt - to my great Savior. I seek to bring the unrighteousness of an unworthy creature - to the infinite righteousness and everlasting faithfulness of my loving Redeemer. 

Where would I have been, Blessed Jesus - but for You! All that I am, and all I have - I owe to Your free, sovereign, unmerited grace!

All my temporal mercies are sweetened to me as flowing from Your cross, and bearing on them the image and superscription of Your love. And for every spiritual blessing I enjoy, and every spiritual hope I entertain - I desire doubly to adore you, O Great Author and Finisher of my faith!

Whom have I in Heaven but You, and there is none in all the earth I desire besides You. You alone can fill up the aching voids of my heart. In vain can I look to a transient world, or to the perishable creature - for solid peace and permanent enjoyment. All my well-springs are in Yourself; with You for my portion I am independent of every other.

I desire this night to obtain a lively and humbling view of my own spiritual poverty and deep creature destitution - that I may rejoice in the fullness and all-sufficiency of that righteousness which is unto all, and upon all those who believe. In that righteousness I would seek to live - and in that righteousness I would seek to die. There is nothing else but Your righteousness, between me and everlasting ruin. 

But for You, O great Covenant-Angel standing in the breach - the fire of God would break forth and mingle my blood with this my evening sacrifice! But I "will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with a robe of righteousness." I take You, O adorable Savior, as mine alone, mine wholly; mine for all my needs and all exigencies. I rejoice in the inexhaustible riches treasured up in You - that Your fullness is adequate to supply all my present necessities; and out of that fullness I may still continue receiving, and that forever and ever!

O my Father, look in great kindness, on all whom I love. Pity a perishing world. Arrest the careless; reclaim the wandering; strengthen the feeble. Hasten Your Son's coming and kingdom. How long shall the wicked - how long shall the wicked triumph? Save Your people; bless Your inheritance; feed them also, and lift them up forever.

Let the curtain of Your protecting providence be drawn around me this night. Let me fall asleep at peace with You - ready, if need be, to awake up in glory. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.

"Let my prayer be set forth before You as incense - and the lifting up of my hands, as the evening sacrifice."

This Prayer is an excerpt of John MacDuff prayer written in 1856  It is now available on Kindle for only $0.99 

 

A Prayer for a Child-Like Spirit

John MacDuff, 1856 

"My soul is even as a weaned child." Psalm 131:2

O my Father, I rejoice that I am permitted with filial confidence to approach Your blessed presence. What a privilege it is to have such liberty of access to the Mercy-seat - to look upwards to You, the Infinite One, whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain - and call You my Father and my God! Earthly love may grow cold or changeable, or perish; but "You are the same." The mercy of God is from everlasting to everlasting. Like as a father pities his children, so does the Lord pity those who fear Him.

Alas! I have to mourn too often an unthankful spirit amid all Your manifold mercies. I have been rebellious and wayward, ungrateful and selfish! You might righteously have surrendered me to my own perverse will; left me to the fruit of my own ways, and to be filled with my own devices. It is of the Lord's mercies, that I am not consumed! Infinite is my need - but infinite too is my help.

 I would seek to stand before You, O my God, in the nothingness of the creature, and to know the boundless resources treasured up for me in the great Redeemer. Unite me to Him by a living faith, as Your own child by adoption; may it be my great desire to glorify You, my Father in Heaven; cherishing towards You a spirit of filial love and devotedness, seeking to do only what will please You, and having a beneficial fear of offending so kind and forbearing a Parent.

Oh keep me from any sullen fretfulness, or unbelieving misgivings, under the strokes of Your chastening hand. Let me place no harsh constructions on Your dealings. May I see all Your chastisements tempered with gracious love - all to be needful discipline. Give me an unwavering trust and confidence in Your faithfulness. Nothing befalls me - but by Your direction; nothing is appointed - but what is for my good.

Let Your varied dealings conform me to the image of my adorable Lord. Let me be willing to suffer patiently for Him, who so willingly and so patiently suffered for me. Let me not so much seek to have my afflictions removed - as to have grace given me to glorify You in them, and in the spirit of a weaned child to say, "Even so, Father - for so it seems good in Your sight!" O may my heart become a living temple, my life a living sacrifice, breathing the incense of gratitude and love. Let me give myself no rest until in this soul of mine, I find a place for the Lord, a habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.

Sanctify trial to all Your sons and daughters of sorrow. Draw near to those bereaved of beloved relatives. Compensate for every earthly loss. May they know that You are faithful who have promised, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

Have mercy on Your whole Church. Heal divisions. Bless Your preached word. Strengthen Your ministering servants, that they may be enabled to proclaim the whole counsel of God.

Take the charge of me, and of all near and dear to me, this night. Give Your angels charge over us. May no unquiet dreams disturb our rest, and when we awake - may we be still with You. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.

"Let my prayer be set forth before You as incense - and the lifting up of my hands, as the evening sacrifice."

This Prayer is an excerpt of John MacDuff prayer written in 1856  The ebook is  now available on Kindle for only $0.99 

 

Prayer for Support in Death!

John MacDuff, 1856 

"Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff they comfort me." Psalm 23:4

O my Father, I come to You this night through Jesus Christ, the Son of Your love - beseeching You to have mercy upon me, and to impart unto me that Peace of Yours which passes all understanding. Blessed be Your great and glorious name, for those hopes full of immortality which have been opened up to me in the Gospel.

I rejoice in Christ as the great Abolisher of death. I rejoice that the rainbow of covenant faithfulness spans the entrance to the dark valley; that all that is terrible in the last enemy is in Him taken away, and that I can regard these closing hours of existence - as the introduction and doorway into everlasting bliss!

Give me grace, O my Father, to be living in constant preparation for death. Let me not unprofitably squander my present golden moments. Let me live while I live - let me live a dying life. Let me feel that life is a trust given me by You. O You Great Proprietor of my being, may this all important talent of time be more consecrated to Your glory. Let it not be mine, when the hour of death arrives - to bewail lost and forfeited opportunities, when it is too late. 

Let me not leave until then, what best can be done and what only may be done now. May it be my earnest endeavor while it is called today to secure a saving interest in the everlasting covenant, and then I need not fear how soon the silver cord may be loosed, and the golden bowl broken. Through Jesus the darkness has been taken from death; and to His own true people - its shadows will melt and merge into the brightness of eternal day.

You are ever giving me impressive remembrances that "at such an hour as I think not," the summons may come, "Prepare to meet Your God!" The race is not to the swift - nor the battle to the strong. Truly every moment there may be but a step between me and death. Let me be so living a life of habitual faith in the Son of God - that this step may be changed into a step between me and glory.

O my Father, prepare all who may now be laid on dying couches for their great change. May their eyes be directed to Jesus. Pillowing their heads on his exceeding great and precious promises - may they fall asleep in the glorious hope of a joyful resurrection.

This Prayer is an excerpt of John MacDuff prayer written in 1856  It is now available on Kindle for only $0.99 

 

Prayer for the Life of Faith!

John MacDuff, 1856 

"The life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20

O my Father, I desire to draw near unto Your blessed presence, on this evening of another day, adoring You for all the loving-kindness which You are continually making to pass before me. May I ever be enabled to look up to You as the Author and Bestower of all my mercies. May no created good ever be allowed to dispossess You of my affections. May all that I enjoy, alike temporal and spiritual - be traced to You, the Fountain of all happiness. 

May prosperity be hallowed, by receiving it as a pledge of Your favor; and may trial lose its bitterness, by the consciousness that every thorn in my path is permitted by You, and every bitter drop in the cup appointed by You.

May I thus seek, O my Father, from day to day, to live a life of simple faith and dependence on Your grace. With confiding love, may I commit my every care and need and perplexity to Your better direction, feeling sweetly assured that You will guide me by a right way to the city of habitation.

Above all, would I seek a renewed interest in those covenant blessings which Christ died to purchase - and which He is exalted to bestow. All my hope is in Him! Weak, helpless, perishing - I flee to Him, as the help and hope and portion of all who seek Him. Hide me, O blessed Jesus, in Your wounded side. I would overcome alone, through the blood of the Lamb. "Wash me thoroughly in Your precious blood. May I hear Your own voice of pardoning love saying, "Your sins which are many, are all forgiven."

After all You have done for me - let me harbor no guilty and unworthy suspicions of Your faithfulness. Let me feel assured that Your tender love regulates all Your allotments. You are pledged to use the dealing and discipline best suited for Your people's case, and what will best effect Your own will concerning them, even their sanctification. Carry on within me Your own work - in Your own way. 

Fortify me against temptation; let me not surrender myself to the base compliances of a world lying in wickedness. But, strong in the Lord and in the power of His might - may I know that He who is with me is far greater, than all who can be against me. Oh enkindle afresh my expiring, languishing love; let me live more under the influence of "eternal realities," having the eye of faith more upwards and homewards, looking for that blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of my great God my Savior.

Let Your kingdom come! Arise, O my Father, and plead Your own cause. May all the ends of the earth soon be gladdened with the Gospel's joyful sound!

Bless all Your people in sorrow, all bereaved of near and dear friends; may they see no hand in their trials, but Yours. You give us our blessings; and when You see fit - You revoke the grant. Let us see love in every threatening wave, all rolling at Your bidding.

O my Father, take the charge of me this night. Abide with me, blessed Savior, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent. Oh, may it be mine to feel that each successive evening as it brings me nearer to eternity - is ripening me for its never-ending joys. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.

"Let my prayer be set forth before You as incense - and the lifting up of my hands, as the evening sacrifice."

This Prayer is an excerpt of John MacDuff prayer written in 1856  The ebook  is now available on Kindle for only $0.99 

 

A Prayer for Gratitude of the Past!

John MacDuff, 1856 

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all His benefits!" Psalm 103:2

O God Almighty, draw near to me at this time in Your great mercy - and accept my evening sacrifice! I bless You for all that gladdens my earthly lot - for food and clothing, for friends and home, for health of body and soundness of mind. Lord, I delight to trace the wondrous way by which You have hitherto led me! You have compassed my path, and my lying down. You have supplied my ever-recurring necessities. My needs have been infinite - but infinite too has been Your gracious supply. With a grateful heart I would set up my Ebenezer, saying, "Hitherto has the Lord helped me!" And remembering Your faithfulness in the past - I would confidently trust You for the future.

May I thankfully employ the manifold gifts of Your bounty. Impress upon me the feeling that I am but a steward, responsible to You for all that I possess. Let me not selfishly appropriate the varied means of usefulness which you have put within my power - but willingly employ these in Your service for the good of others. When You come to demand a reckoning - may I be able to give a faithful account of my stewardship, paying You Your own, with interest.

O my Father, while I bless You for the other proofs and tokens of Your love - far above all would I bless You for Jesus! Where would I have been this night but for Him? How dreary would have been the past! How dismal and hopeless the future! Thanks, eternal thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift! Let me feel, more than I have done, the exceeding riches of Your grace - in Your kindness toward me through Christ Jesus. Let all Your dealings only serve to confirm my love to Him, and to lead me to cleave to Him with fuller purpose of heart. May he have my undivided homage. Let no earthly gift or blessing - supplant the Giver. May every rill of temporal bliss be doubly precious to me - as flowing from Christ's atoning sacrifice!

I rejoice in the midst of trial and perplexity - to think of You, the tried and suffering One. I rejoice that amid my sorrows - I can remember Yours, that amid my very tears - I can remember Jesus wept. You can enter into all the peculiarities of Your people's case, for You were in "all points tempted."

Let me feel, even amid the troublous changes of life, that what I am apt to call painful vicissitudes - are the sovereign decrees and allotments of Your infinite wisdom! What I cannot now comprehend - be it mine to wait the disclosures of that blessed morning when, standing at the luminous portals of Heaven, I shall joyfully acknowledge that, "You have done all things well!"

Bless my beloved friends; may they be growing in your fear and favor; may they all at last, as sheaves in your heavenly garner - be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

I commend myself, gracious God, to Your care; let me retire to rest this night in the blessed consciousness of Your favor; and if spared to see the light of a new day, fit me for whatever You have in store for me. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.

"Let my prayer be set forth before You as incense - and the lifting up of my hands, as the evening sacrifice."

This Prayer is an excerpt of John MacDuff prayer written in 1856  It is now available on Kindle for only $0.99