Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

February 4– Morning

 by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“The love of the Lord.” 

—Hosea 3:1

 

If you belong to Christ, then look back through all of your experiences and think of how the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness.  Reflect on how he has fed and clothed you every day. Think of how he has tolerated your bad manners; how he has put up with all of your discontented murmuring and infatuation with the pleasures of this world; how he has supplied you with the life-giving water of the Spirit and the manna from heaven— even his very Son, Jesus Christ. Think of how his grace has been sufficient for you in all your troubles; how his blood has been a pardon to you in all your sins; how his rod and his staff have comforted you.

After you have looked back upon the love of the Lord, then, by faith, take a moment to survey his love for you in the future. Remember that Christ’s covenant and blood apply to more than the past. He who has loved you and pardoned you will never cease to love and pardon you. Just as sure as he has been your Alpha, he will be your Omega; he is first, and he will be last. Therefore, think ahead to the time when you will pass through the valley of the shadow of death, and be assured that you will have no need to fear any evil, for he will be with you. Nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

As we meditate on “the love of the Lord,” our hearts burn within us, and we long to love him more than we do now. [M&E]