TUESDAY October 29th
I finished the previous devotion off with the 5th verse of the hymn, Jesus the very thought of thee. And I want to base this devotion on those words, ‘Jesus, our only joy be thou, as thou our prize wilt be; Jesus, be thou our glory now, and through eternity.’
Remember that we saw how those who were astonished and marvelled at Jesus in Luke 4:22 very quickly had a change of heart and by the time we get to verse 28 they became filled with wrath.
In John 6, we have the account that follows on from the feeding of the 5000 where Jesus has declared that he is the bread of life, and after some conversation it says in verse 66 ‘After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him’.
Sadly, many who have come to accept Jesus Christ and followed him for a while have chosen to do what these people did, either they have decided they no longer want him and have thrown him out of their lives or have turned back and no longer walk with him. I suggest that in the words of the hymn, they have taken their eyes off the prize, they have chosen to try and get their joy from another source. But I trust that each one reading this can say ‘Jesus be thou our glory now, and through eternity’.
I have mentioned before both in the devotions and when preaching that we need to do a regular spiritual health check-up, to ensure that we are still following Jesus as closely as we ought, is he still our hearts desire, is he still the source of our joy. We need to keep ensuring that we are not allowing other things to be the desire of our hearts and other things to give us joy, other things that take up or take away that which should be given to Jesus.
‘Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified’, 1 Corinthians 9:24–27,
‘I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus’, Philippians 3:14.