Gem for Monday
April 25
"Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord." (Psalm 27:14)
Let us apply to ourselves the practical question: While on the way to the rest of God, what do we enjoy as our present portion; and how do our hearts answer to it? It is easy to get discouraged through dwelling upon failure, ruin, confusion, decline, and increasing indifference - all sadly true. Every kind of evil is rampant and increasing, and there is much to fill us with shame and sorrow. But, owning this, what is our resource? Is it not the same as it was for Israel? We too have God with us, not because there is any good in us, but because of what He is. (Deuteronomy 7:7-9; 9:5,6) He is ever near for faith. How often the people of Israel "forgot" Him we are continually reminded as we read their history, even though they had the constant witness of His presence with them, showing that He, at all events, was faithful. And are we not in the same danger of losing the sense of the nearness and all-sufficiency of God for us in our pathway here at the present moment? (W.J.L.)
N.J. Hiebert # 2227
