Daily Secrets of the Christian Life A One-Year Devotional

JANUARY 1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we shouldbe called children of God! And that is what we are!1 John 3:1The love that God gives to us is the love a father has for his son,a tender protecting love, that knows our weakness and ourneed, and cares for us accordingly. He treats us as sons, and allhe asks in return is that we treat him as a father, whom we cantrust without anxiety. We must take the son's place of dependenceand trust, and we must let him do the father's part. Too often wetake upon our own shoulders the father's part, and try to take careof and provide for ourselves. But no good earthly father wouldwant his children to take upon their young shoulders the burdenof his duties. Much less would our heavenly Father want to layupon us the burden of his.JANUARY 2Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army withyou, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands theking of Ai, his people, his city and his land.Joshua 8:1Nothing is more abundantly proven in the Bible than this, thatthe Lord will fight for us if we will only let him. He knows thatwe have no strength nor might against our spiritual enemies; and,like a tender mother, when her helpless children are attacked by anenemy, he fights for us. All he asks is that we be still and let him.This is the only sort of spiritual conflict that is ever successful.But, you may ask, are we not to do any fighting ourselves? Ofcourse we are to fight, but not in this fashion. We are to fight the"good fight of faith," as Paul exhorted Timothy; and the fight offaith is not a fight of effort nor of struggle, but it is a fight of trusting.It is the kind of fight that Hezekiah fought when he and his army marched out to meet their enemy, singing songs of victoryas they went, and finding their enemy all dead bodies. Our part inthis fight is to hand the battle over to the Lord and to trust him forthe victory.JANUARY 3Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist,with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feetfitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Inaddition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you canextinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.Ephesians 6:14-16We are to put on God's armor, not our own. The apostle tellsus what it is. It is the belt of truth, and the breastplate ofrighteousness, and the preparation of the gospel of peace on ourfeet, and the shield of faith to extinguish the flaming arrows of theevil one.There is nothing here about promises or resolutions; nothingabout hours and days of agonizing struggles and of bitterremorse. "In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith." Faithis the one essential thing, without which all else is useless. Wemust not only hand the battle over to the Lord, but we must leaveit with him, and must have absolute faith that he will conquer. Itis here where the fight comes in. It seems unsafe to sit still anddo nothing but trust the Lord. The temptation to take the battleback into our own hands is often tremendous. To keep hands offin spiritual matters is as hard for us as it is for the drowning manto keep his hands off the one who is trying to rescue him. We allknow how impossible it is to rescue a drowning man who tries tohelp his rescuer, and it is equally impossible for the Lord to fightour battles for us when we insist upon trying to fight them our-selves.It is not that he will not, but that he cannot. Our interferencehinders his working.Smith, Hannah Whitall is the author of 'Daily Secrets of the Christian Life A One-Year Devotional' with ISBN 9780310240334 and ISBN 0310240336.