‘All things come from You’ (1 Chronicles 29:14)

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above; creatures apart from God are empty cisterns, dry wells, deceitful brooks. All good dwells in your God, and flows from Him to you. Every crumb is from Christ. What He gives freely cost Him groans, sweat, and blood to procure for you. View Him as the source of all good, and His atonement as the medium through which all flows to you.

He gives you your temporal mercies as well as your spiritual blessings; He also gives you the ability to enjoy them and to employ them for His glory. He directs all events, whether pleasing or painful. “Do not be angry with yourselves”, Joseph said to his brothers, “It was not you, but God who sent me before you to preserve life” [Genesis 45:5].

To Him, therefore, your mind should be directed, in prayer, dependence, and praise. Look above creatures and see the Lord’s hand, just like Job, Eli, David and Paul. Rest with unshaken confidence and devoted resignation on His word, power, providence, and love; always remembering that all things come from Him. The Lord will give us that which is good, and a blessing with it, if we are looking to and walking with Him. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above – from Jesus.

He sank beneath our heavy woes,
To raise us to His throne,
There’s ne’er a gift His hand bestows,
But cost His heart a groan.

THE DAILY REMEMBRANCER by James Smith (1802-1862)

Journal Jottings

‘One very important petition that I have been presenting to the throne of grace of late is, “That I may enjoy peace through Christ, peace in Christ, and peace with Christ.” Then I shall have peace with God, peace in the church, and peace in my own soul. O how important does this appear to me at this moment! “Lord, all my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee”.’