TDR: 28 March (Isaiah 44:5)

‘I belong to the LORD’ (Isaiah 44:5)

Not only because He has chosen me, in Jesus His beloved Son; nor merely because I am redeemed from among all people, by the precious blood of Immanuel; but also because I have surrendered myself up into the Lord’s hands, with all I have and am, to be taught by His Spirit, ruled by His word, supplied by His providence, and devoted to His praise.

The Lord claimed me, and I was enabled to acknowledge the claim; He has a right to me, and that right should never be forgotten by me. Am I tempted to sin? to murmur? to be despondent? Let this be my preservative, “I AM THE LORD’S”. How ungrateful and wicked for ME to yield to sin, for me to complain of any of His dispensations, or for me to doubt His goodness or His grace.

I AM THE LORD’S for life; I shall be the Lord’s in death; and then (O delightful thought!) I shall be the Lord’s for evermore. He will guide me by His counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory. I have only to aim at His glory, walk by His word, and live at His throne, until He takes me to Himself. My only business on earth is to please God, and my heaven will be to enjoy Him forever.

Jesus, thy boundless love to me,
No thought can reach, no tongue declare,
Oh, knit my thankful heart to Thee,
And reign without a rival there!

THE DAILY REMEMBRANCER by James Smith (1802-1862)

Journal Jottings

‘How sweet the thought, that all that ascends from me to God passes through his precious nail-pierced hands. That he separates between the duty and its sinfulness, and that both my services and myself, are accepted through his infinite merit. O to view Jesus thus, under all my backwardness to pray, when I feel heart cold, dead, and straitened in prayer, and where I cannot look at my prayers without being thoroughly ashamed of them! Surely such views of Jesus must endear him sevenfold more to my soul, and make him unspeakably precious!’