October 3 – Your Words Give Light

Hope for Today: A Daily Devotion from Reasons for Hope*Jesus

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“The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple…. Direct my steps by Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.” Psalm 119:130,133

We may have a clear sight and a real taste of the gospel, and yet be soon deprived of the comfort of it again, if we do not walk in godly simplicity and poverty of spirit; for Christ will have none but humble and childlike disciples. But if we abide in Christ by a close and humble walk with Him, we shall come to great and lasting assurance. For neither a sweet sense of the love of Christ nor even faith itself in Christ, is the ground of our salvation; but Christ alone received into the heart as the Savior.

Faith does not save — but enables us to receive the Savior, and with Him salvation. Nor does the most delightful sense of the love of Christ save us; it only shows that the Savior is present with us. Now the weakest true believer receives Christ as well as the strongest, though he reaps no present comfort from his faith.

We must first believe before we can hope for present feelings, and when we are favored with such feelings we must not make them the ground of our confidence. Christ, and Christ alone, must be the ground of confidence.

Order my footsteps by Your word,
And make my heart sincere;
Let sin have no dominion, Lord,
But keep my conscience clear.

Make me to walk in Your commands,
‘Tis a delightful road;
Nor let my head or heart or hands
Offend against my God.

Devotion by Karl Heinrich von Bogatzky (1690—1774)