Please pray for me I’m a mess
Sent from my iPhone
On Dec 31, 2020, at 8:25 PM, mike mcinnis <ratmotor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Greetings dear sister, et al;
Thank you for your faithfulness in posting these devotionals.
Blessings,mike
On 12/31/2020 3:44 PM, Soraya Reis wrote:
Dear Brothers, Sisters, and Friends;
By the LORD’s grace and mercy we have reached the end of the 2020. There is so
much to be thankful for! I wish you all a blessed 2021. May our LORD be
magnified and glorified through the devotionals we receive and share with those
who are near and far. Praise the LORD Jesus Christ! Amen.
In hope,
Sis Soraya
"Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not." Psalm 17:5
Without scrupulously or superstitiously observing "days, and months, and
times, and years," few of us altogether pass by so marked an epoch as the
dawning of another year upon our path without some acknowledgment of it both to
God and man. When we open our eyes on the first morning of the year, we almost
instinctively say, "This is New-year’s day." Nor is this, at least this should
not be, all the notice we take, all the acknowledgment we make of that opening
year of which we may not see the close.
When we bend our knees before the throne of grace, we mingle with thankful
acknowledgment for the mercies of the past year, both in providence and in
grace, earnest petitions for similar mercies to be experienced and enjoyed
through the present. Last evening witnessed our confessions of the many, many
grievous sins, wanderings, backslidings, and departings from the living God
during the year now gone; this morning witnesses our supplications for grace to
hold up our goings in his paths, that our footsteps slip not through the year
just come. Tears are most suitable at the burial of the dead; hopes and desires
at the birth of the living.
The past year was the departed sire, worn out with age and infirmity; the
present year the new-born babe in the arms of the smiling nurse. It is still,
however, mid-winter. To-day, the first of the present year, differs little in
outward appearance from yesterday, the last of the past. But the thoughtful,
prayerful mind takes little notice of wintry skies. It feels that the old,
worn-out year has sunk into its grave, with all its trials and afflictions, and
that a new year has come in its place, with its new hopes and new mercies; and
if it bring new trials, yet that the promise still stands, that new strength
will be given to meet and overcome them.
Refreshed and strengthened at the throne by such or similar communings with the
God of all our mercies, we go down to meet our families, and are at once
greeted on all sides with, "I wish you a happy new year," a greeting which we
as warmly and affectionately return. Almost every friend, well-nigh every
acquaintance that we meet with in the course of the day, greets us with the
same kind wish. Now in all this there may be a great deal of formality,
lip-service, and traditional usage; but there may be also a good deal of
sincerity, kindness, and affection.
We are not, surely, so shut up in miserable self as to have no desire for the
health and happiness, the temporal and spiritual welfare, of our families, our
friends, or even our acquaintances. And if we desire their good, we need not be
backward or unwilling to express it in a few words of friendly greeting. "Be ye
kind one to another, tender-hearted;" "Be pitiful, be courteous;" "If it be
possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men," are precepts
imbued with all the spirit of the gospel, and may be, indeed, should be,
attended to without the least sacrifice of that faithfulness which becomes
those who would daily walk in the fear of the Lord.
There may be a form of kind words as well as "a form of sound words;" and as we
may use the latter in perfect harmony with the doctrines of the gospel, so we
may use the former in perfect harmony with the spirit of the gospel.
J.C. Philpot (1802-1869)
