Morning, February 4
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Hosea 3:1
"The love of the Lord."
Hosea 3:1
Believer, look back through all thine experience, and think of the way
whereby the Lord thy God has led thee in the wilderness, and how he
hath fed and clothed thee every day--how he hath borne with thine ill
manners--how he hath put up with all thy murmurings, and all thy
longings after the flesh-pots of Egypt--how he has opened the rock to
supply thee, and fed thee with manna that came down from heaven. Think
of how his grace has been sufficient for thee in all thy troubles--how
his blood has been a pardon to thee in all thy sins--how his rod and
his staff have comforted thee. When thou hast thus looked back upon the
love of the Lord, then let faith survey his love in the future, for
remember that Christ's covenant and blood have something more in them
than the past. He who has loved thee and pardoned thee, shall never
cease to love and pardon. He is Alpha, and he shall be Omega also: he
is first, and he shall be last. Therefore, bethink thee, when thou
shalt pass through the valley of the shadow of death, thou needest fear
no evil, for he is with thee. When thou shalt stand in the cold floods
of Jordan, thou needest not fear, for death cannot separate thee from
his love; and when thou shalt come into the mysteries of eternity thou
needest not tremble, "For I am persuaded, that neither death; nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be
able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord." Now, soul, is not thy love refreshed? Does not this make thee
love Jesus? Doth not a flight through illimitable plains of the ether
of love inflame thy heart and compel thee to delight thyself in the
Lord thy God? Surely as we meditate on "the love of the Lord," our
hearts burn within us, and we long to love him more.