Evening – June 29 | Spurgeon Devotional

Evening

Scripture

> And so in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land, God left him to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart.
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> — 2 Chronicles 32:31 (ESV)

Devotional

Hezekiah was growing so inwardly great, and priding himself so much upon the favour of God, that self-righteousness crept in, and through his carnal security, the grace of God was for a time, in its more active operations, withdrawn. Here is quite enough to account with the Babylonians; for if the grace of God should leave the best Christian, there is enough of sin in his heart to make him the worst of transgressors. If left to yourselves, you who are warmest for Christ would cool down like Laodicea into sickening lukewarmness: you who are sound in the faith would be white with the leprosy of false doctrine; you who now walk before the Lord in excellency and integrity would reel to and fro, and stagger with a drunkenness of evil passion. Like the moon, we borrow our light; bright as we are when grace shines on us, we are darkness itself when the Sun of Righteousness withdraws himself. Therefore let us cry to God never to leave us. “Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit from us! Withdraw not from us thine indwelling grace! Hast thou not said, ‘I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day’? Lord, keep us everywhere. Keep us when in the valley, that we murmur not against thy humbling hand; keep us when on the mountain, that we wax not giddy through being lifted up; keep us in youth, when our passions are strong; keep us in old age, when becoming conceited of our wisdom, we may therefore prove greater fools than the young and giddy; keep us when we come to die, lest, at the very last, we should deny thee! Keep us living, keep us dying, keep us labouring, keep us suffering, keep us fighting, keep us resting, keep us everywhere, for everywhere we need thee, O our God!”

Reflection

Spurgeon shows how even a man as godly as Hezekiah can be tested when God temporarily withdraws the more active operations of grace. If left to ourselves, the best of us would fall into great sin. Pride can creep in even after great deliverances. The lesson is to cry continually to God to keep us, because we borrow all our light and strength from Him.

What we might miss is that this kind of testing reveals what is truly in the heart. We must not presume upon past experiences but depend moment by moment on God’s keeping power.

Goad

Are you daily praying that God would keep you from falling, or are you relying on your own past faithfulness or current spiritual warmth? What would it look like to live with the humble awareness that without His constant keeping, you would cool, stray, or even deny Him?